Breaking drug and crime link 'a costly failure'

Published on Tuesday 12 May 2009 22:06

PILOT schemes designed to break the link between crime and drug abuse are to be wound up after they were found to be an expensive failure.

About 15,000 people were expected to be targeted under 3 million "mandatory drug testing of arrestees" schemes in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

The pilot schemes were designed to test all people arrested for drugs, with those testing positive then being encouraged to engage with available treatment services.

But an evaluation has found that only 3,300 people were tested during the two-year pilot, and of those, only 223 went into treatment.

Justice secretary Kenny MacAskill yesterday announced that the pilots, due to end next month, had "failed to meet expectations". He added: "We have decided to provide further central funding of the pilots for an additional three-month period only to assist with transitional arrangements.

"By not extending central funding to the pilots any further, we will ensure these resources remain in programmes focused on community sentences. Arrest referral schemes, which have similar objectives but entail voluntary engagement on the part of the arrestee, were found to be more cost-effective."