SPECIAL REPORT: Scotland's always had a problem with knives - but why is it getting worse? By High Times writer John Rooney

As a good friend of mine - let's call him Craig - was making his way home from a New Year's party, he was confronted by four tracksuited meatheads wielding machetes with blades as long as an orangutan's arm. When one of the four recognised him as the nephew of a local hard man with a particularly fearsome reputation, what might have been an immediate death sentence - a no-brainer, if you like - became a matter requiring careful consideration.

For what must have felt like a lifetime to Craig they argued among themselves over whether to kill him or let him go. Fortunately, if somewhat depressingly, their fear of his infamous uncle far outweighed their fear of our criminal justice system and so he lived to see in another New Year.

In my distant past I, too, was confronted by a neanderthal with a blade - a butcher's knife that was far sharper than the moron carrying it. He was accompanied by a nervous boy several years younger than himself whom he threatened to stab if he didn't punch me in the face. The boy - who was clearly being put through some rite of passage - was of a much slighter build than myself and clearly not in love with the idea, despite the reassurances of his would-be mentor that I wouldn't hit him back. He needn't have worried - I had no intention of retaliating. Not with 10 inches of the finest Sheffield steel winking at me. In the end, it all came to nothing and, like Craig, I walked away unscathed. Shaken but not scarred.

Some might say it's only to be expected from a country whose national dress features a concealed dagger, but knife crime is nothing new in Scotland. The two incidents I've described took place more than 30 years apart. I was 16 when I had my close encounter. I'm 48 tomorrow. Is knife crime really a bigger problem now than it was in the 1970s? If, as it seems, it is, then what's the reason for it?

Alcohol is clearly a factor. Something like six out of 10 knife attacks are alcohol-related. Despite what the manufacturers might say, our younger drinkers are being cynically targeted with alcohol products made more palatable by the addition of fruit juices. You only have to look at the empty bottles littering our street corners to see how popular these products are with under-age drinkers whose palates aren't yet ready for the harshness of the real deal. I predict/hope that, one day, our future generation of alcoholics will do to the drinks industry what smokers did to the tobacco industry in the United States. Assuming, of course, they can remain sober long enough to do so.

Another factor could be the high level of cannabis use among offenders. It's generally accepted that many of the new strains of cannabis - the so-called super skunks' - are far more potent than anything available 10 to 15 years ago. It's easy to understand why someone susceptible to its side effects - paranoia and mild psychosis - might feel as though they have to carry a weapon for their own safety. That said, anyone with half a brain - even someone out of their face on weed - should realise by now that a knife will get you into more trouble than it'll ever get you out of.

Yet another possible factor - my personal favourite - is political correctness. When the abolition of corporal punishment in schools came into effect in August 1987 it effectively neutered the teaching profession and gave those pupils who weren't interested in learning carte blanche to behave as they liked. As a result, we are now seeing incidents like the one a year or so ago where a teacher was punched in the mouth by a pupil when he attempted to confiscate his mobile phone. The most dispiriting aspect of that particular incident is that the boy in question will almost certainly have gone on to achieve hero status among a section of his fellow pupils. Not to worry - a spell in prison will straighten him and his type out.

Or, then again, maybe not.

At one time not so very long ago a stretch in prison was something to be feared. Hard labour' they used to call it. Imprisonment nowadays is a mere inconvenience as opposed to a genuine punishment: the adult equivalent of being grounded', albeit for an extended period. Thanks again to political correctness, our prisons have become a home-from-home for their inmates who, in compliance with human rights laws, must now be addressed as Mister so-and-so' rather than the prisoner' to spare their feelings. It's beyond depressing.

As my good friend Craig so eloquently summed it up, "The world's going to hell in a souped-up Tesco trolley."

John Rooney is the writer/creator of the STV series High Times.