Drugs leaflet offers advice to family members

Published on Tuesday 3 June 2008 10:23

PARENTS and grandparents in the Capital are to be advised on drugs in a bid to stop youngsters becoming hooked.

Leaflets called Know the Score: Drugs – What Every Parent Should Know, will be sent out to every relative who plays an important role in a young person's life as part of a Scottish Government scheme.

The initiative will cost 478,000, and will see the booklets delivered to 750,000 homes across the country.

It follows the launch of the Scottish Government's drugs strategy last week, which placed greater emphasis on getting people off drugs rather than just managing their addiction.

Ministers want to try and cut the estimated annual 2.6 billion cost of problem drug use to the Scottish economy and society.

Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing said: "Tackling problem drug use is not something we can ignore. As a society, together, we need to face up to what is perhaps the greatest social challenge of our time."

"Drugs are a difficult issue which everyone, including young people, finds difficult to raise in conversation.

"The booklet provides factual information about drugs and the consequences for their use."

Surveys of young people suggest drug use has fallen in recent years.

In 2006, 23 per cent of 15-year-olds and seven per cent of 13-year-olds admitted using drugs in the last year, compared with 31 per cent of 15-year-olds and 12 per cent of 13-year-olds in 2004.