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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Drugs Policy Condemned
ccguide Thursday 17 Feb 2000 Pubdate: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 Source: Herald, The (UK) Contact: Website: http://www.theherald.co.uk/ Author: ANDY DROUGHT DRUGS POLICY CONDEMNED A top drugs adviser in Scotland yesterday launched a stinging attack on the Government's drugs policy, branding it "illogical and reactionary". Dr Rowdy Yates, director of the Scottish Drugs Training Project, which receives funding of more than UKP200,000 a year from the Scottish Executive, accused successive governments of developing drugs policy in reaction to high-profile events like the death of teenage ecstasy victim Leah Betts. Dr Yates, 49, provoked an angry response from the teenager's parents when he claimed the huge response to her death came about because she was photogenic and came from a middle-class background. "If Leah had been fat and pimply, nobody would have heard of her," he said yesterday. Addressing a seminar at Stirling University, Dr Yates claimed progress would not be made in the war against drug abuse until long-term funding was made available for what he called "the right causes". He told the conference: "Policies are made as a reaction to events. (The Government) do not create policies for infection control, crime prevention, or to get people off drugs. "When Leah Betts died after an ecstasy overdose, she was highlighted because of the efforts of her parents. She was a pretty young teenager and there were good photographs of her. "There was the added irony that her mother was peripherally involved in drugs education and her father was an ex-policeman. If Leah had been fat and pimply nobody would have heard of her. "In that year many, many more young people would have died from sniffing volatile solvents. We don't hear about them because it happens in socially-deprived council schemes where the parents are very often inarticulate, and they don't have pretty pictures of their kids. "These deaths are tragic too, yet they are never addressed or responded to." Leah Betts died in 1995 after taking an ecstasy tablet on her 18th birthday at home in Essex. Yesterday her father Paul Betts, 53, who now lives with his wife Jan in Banffshire, described Mr Yates as "an idiot". He denied his daughter's death had only risen to prominence because she was good-looking: "It wasn't because Leah was photogenic, it was because her parents had the ability to speak out and not be sat upon by idiots like Mr Yates. "Following Leah's death, ecstasy was researched fully and more is now known about its long-term effects. When Leah died, 75% of young people said they were minded to use ecstasy, but now more than 75% say they would not go anywhere near it. "It takes high-profile cases to get people's heads out of their backsides." But he added: "In relation to alcohol, tobacco, and solvents, I agree with Mr Yates that the Government is reactionary. As a nation, we are not pro-active and always wait until the horse has bolted before shutting the door." In his speech, Dr Yates called for funding for drug counselling projects to be committed for periods of at least 10 years, as opposed to the maximum of three years at present. Scottish Tory home affairs spokesman Phil Gallie, in whose Ayr constituency the notorious nightclub Hanger 13 was closed down after the deaths of three young people from ecstasy in 1994, said: "The amount of money that is spent on drugs abuse and means of trying to solve it is already phenomenal, and still there is a demand for more. "The Government is limited in what it can do. The level of funding is already excessive, considering that people are dying of cancer and heart attacks. I have a lot more sympathy for money-chasing people whose problems are not self-induced illegally." - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck
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