Neil McKeganey: We have to make Scotland a hostile place for dealers

We should be in no doubt that the quantity of illegal drugs seized represents a significant reduction in the availability of illegal drugs on the streets of Scotland.

A key part of the fight against the drugs problem, however, has to be the production of clear and reliable statistics on the quantity of drugs seized. In this regard it is a shame that the SCDEA has produced figures on the amount of Class A drugs seized rather than tell us precisely how much heroin, cocaine and ecstasy has been seized. Breaking seizures down by drug is important because we recently showed that Scottish police forces were seizing only around 1 per cent of the total amount of heroin consumed in a single year in Scotland.

The latest SCDEA seizure report may amount to a welcome substantial increase on that 1 per cent figure.

The report from the SCDEA has combined drug seizures in Scotland with drug seizures from abroad. Again, we need to know what proportion of the captured drugs were seized in Scotland if we are to assess our success in tackling the domestic drug market.

If we are to tackle Scotland's drug problem then we need to make Scotland as hostile an environment as possible for those who are dealing drugs.

We need to ensure that, along with continuing record seizures, we are also succeeding in seizing the assets of the drugs traders.

So far we have not been anywhere near as successful in this regard as we need to be.

Neil McKeganey is Professor of Drug Misuse Research at the University of Glasgow