FOR those working to reduce the damaging consequences of Scotland’s drug problem, this week’s "revelations" about drugs entering Edinburgh Prison are nothing new. As we have seen over the last 20 years, whatever we do, drugs will continue to get to users in prison.

That is not being fatalistic but realistic. As the governor of Saughton, David Croft, has explained, a balance between maintenance of security and humane treatment of prisoners has to be struck.

Inevitably, the main theme of the BBC’s Frontline Scotland programme was the issue of drug availability in prison, although it did quite rightly try to look at the wider picture of drugs in our society within the constraints of its 30-minute broadcast time.

By concentrating on the narrow issue of how to stop drugs getting into prison (which we quite obviously can’t) we miss what should be the real focus - how to reduce the demand for harmful drugs (which could be done with a big effort) and how to reduce the harm which drugs cause (which we can most certainly do if the right amount and range of resources are available).

In Scotland, there is an average prison population of more than 6000 and 30,000 offenders going through the prison system per year. Well over half of those going in and out prison each year have some kind of drug problem. And that means that of the 56,000 people in Scotland with a drug problem, perhaps 10,000 to 15,000 are incarcerated at some point in a year.

As HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Dr Andrew McLellan noted earlier this year, drug use and prisons have become synonymous - at one point 100 per cent of admissions to Cornton Vale women’s prison had addiction problems. However, challengingly, he asked: "What will the prison do for them? A prison is not a psychiatric hospital and it is not an addiction treatment centre."

The overwhelming majority of drug takers ending up in jail will be among the most chaotic and vulnerable of all drug users. They become caught up in the "revolving door" - the endless cycle of drug use, arrest and prison, drug use in prison, release, drug use and re-arrest, etc.

What can we do to break this cycle? Firstly, we must continue to try to stop more problem drugs users from ending up in prison by ensuring easy access to voluntary treatment services as early as possible - the ultimate goal would be to do this before people start committing crime.

SECONDLY, the evidence is that alternatives-to-custody programmes are working and it is clear that this kind of approach - where people get help to tackle the drug problem at the root of their offending behaviour - will be far more successful than slamming people into jail. Drug Treatment and Testing Orders, for instance, are costly but are working well to divert those drug users with significant offending records away from custody and cutting the level of re-offending.

Thirdly, we need to provide better treatment and care in prison. Significant progress has been made here but further investment is required, which is difficult when the Scottish Prison Service has to enforce budgetary cuts affecting addiction - and other - services year on year.

This is extremely unfortunate because the Scottish Prison Service is to be congratulated for taking a more realistic and pragmatic approach to the issue. Increasingly, methadone is being prescribed in prison so that there is greater continuity of treatment when people come in to prison from the community.

However, newly released prisoners must get better and quicker access to treatment on return to the community.

Major gaps also exist between prison and community-based res-ponses - a much more integrated approach is essential so harm reduction and responsiveness to individual need become key focus areas.

Too many people are leaving prison without an achievable care plan, which places them at serious risk of overdose and death. One-quarter of drug-related deaths in Glasgow in 2002 occurred within two weeks of release from prison.

Above all, perhaps, we need to explore the social factors which have enabled Scotland’s drugs problem to grow and fester in the way it has.

It is no coincidence that Scotland has one of the highest rates of problem drug use in Europe. Poverty and deprivation in all forms - financially, culturally, socially and emotionally - are at the root of the overwhelming majority of cases of problem drug use in Scotland. Unsurprisingly, these factors are also at the root of most offending in Scotland.

WE can do far more to assist our existing problem drug users - and offenders - towards social inclusion and employment, through improved access to education and training programmes.

It is estimated that there are 20,000 drug users on methadone, many of whom would benefit greatly from access to programmes that could move them towards employment. The New Futures Fund run by Scottish Enterprise has proved very successful in this regard, providing 1000 places for problem drug users. However, this programme comes to an end in March 2005.

Scotland’s drug problem is long-term and, sadly, is here to stay. We therefore have to look at long-term sustainable solutions rather than instant remedies which will not work. The size of the drug problem in prison is symptomatic of the problem within the community at large.

Fundamentally, the challenge is to recognise that the problems and solutions are interlinked and that we will not tackle the drugs problem in prison - or anywhere else - without addressing the big picture.

• David Liddell is director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, a national voluntary sector drugs policy and information agency working to reduce drugs harm in Scotland

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