The drugs epidemic

Few could argue with the conclusion of yesterday's report from the Royal Society for the Arts on illegal drugs: current policy is broke and needs to be fixed. There could be hardly a more startling illustration than the figures obtained by The Herald on the number of children in Scotland being referred to the children's panel for the possession of drugs: 1000 a year. A further 1500 are referred because they have a problem with drugs or alcohol. We can be sure that the true number of under-18s using illegal drugs is many times higher. A recent report indicated that children as young as 10 have been charged with supplying hard drugs.