THE accuracy of police drug detection figures has come under question after it emerged that so-called "legal highs" are included in the total.
Stop and searches that find legal substances are being recorded along with cocaine, heroin and ecstasy hauls.
The practice has been branded "hugely concerning" by an opposition MSP, and as "pulling the wool over the public's eyes" by a police insider.
Stop and search is a policy associated with Police Scotland Chief Constable Stephen House and is intended to catch people carrying guns, knives, guns and other illegal items.
Under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, officers can search an individual if they suspect the person is carrying illegal drugs.
According to Police Scotland figures, positive drug frisks rose in 2012-13 from 26,294 to 32,028 - a 21.8% hike.
However, a police insider told the Sunday Herald that the single force was counting legal highs as detections.
Also known as club drugs or new psychoactive substances (NPS), legal highs are not covered by the misuse of drugs legislation. It is lawful - as the name suggests - to possesses and use legal highs.
The source said: "We are confiscating these and sending them off for analysis.
"Even if there are no controlled drugs within them, this is classed as a positive stop search for drugs. The wool is well and truly being pulled over the public's eyes.
"There are large teams of officers that are tasked specifically with going out and stop searching people, who are recording high numbers of alcohol and NPS 'searches' as positive."
Police Scotland confirmed these substances have been recorded as positive searches since the middle of last year.
The revelation comes amid increasing scrutiny of the stop and search policy.
Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes said: "Increasingly it seems that when it comes to crime statistics, people at the top of Police Scotland and within the SNP Government are happy to make it up as they go along.
"Changes to the way that crime figures are reported must be explained clearly if we are to ensure that Scots are not left in the dark.
"These revelations are hugely concerning and can only damage confidence in our justice system. Increasingly it seems that when it comes to crime statistics, people at the top of Police Scotland and within the SNP government are happy to make it up as they go along."
Patrick Harvie MSP said: "If Police Scotland is now including these substances in their positive drug detection rates they should have been upfront about that.
"If the finding of these products is leading to a crackdown on organised crime, we need to know that; what this change of practice cannot be used for is artificially inflating the force's performance on paper."
Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson said: "Stop and search is one of a number of operational policing tactics that supports our purpose of keeping people safe. Since mid 2013, if officers discover New Psychoactive Substances on an individual who has been stopped and searched it is recorded.
"The term 'legal highs' is misleading and gives the connotation of safety, particularly to young people, and tragically there have been a number of deaths and hospital admissions linked to the use of NPS.
"Moreover, criminals and organised crime groups involved in the production and distribution of NPS are not interested in the wellbeing of the people who might be prepared to take them. Profit is their bottom line; they just want to make money.
"Police Scotland has established partnerships with other national organisations in the drug prevention and harm reduction fields to ensure that there is an accurate and measured message being delivered to young people across Scotland around substance abuse, including that of NPS."
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