TEMAZEPAM, formerly the most widely abused prescription drug in Scotland, is making a comeback despite Government moves to ban it, drug experts were warned yesterday.
GPs were ordered to stop prescribing the yellow capsules, known as ''jellies'', in the mid-nineties.
Now supplies are flooding back on to the market from illegal drug factories in Eastern Europe, the annual Scottish Drug Trends conference was told.
The prescription ban came amid concerns that Temazepam was behind a spate of violent crime, and that injecting the gel form of the drug, heated in a spoon, was giving users gangrene and thrombosis.
The return of Temazepam is one of the main findings of a pilot survey of 58 drug agencies in Scotland which was presented to the conference in Stirling yesterday.
Mr Alex Meikle, West of Scotland manager for the Scottish Drugs Forum, described the resurgence of ''jellies'' as the most significant and worrying trend to emerge.
Also causing major concern is what he called ''a tide'' of new heroin users contacting Scottish drug agencies.
He warned: ''Temazepam is a disinhibitory depressant. Someone that's taken it can feel extremely calm and confident, but also extremely aggressive.
''It gives them volatile mood swings. They want to take on the world.''
The conference heard that in Central Scotland, youngsters as young as 12 were using Temazepam.
Ms Sarah Welsh, representing the Stirling-based Wisecrack drug project, said: ''We are working with 12 to 16-year-old drug users who have experimented with depressant drugs similar to Temazepam.
''Now Temazepam itself is back, it is the drug of choice for many young people.
''The danger is death by overdose in people who have no or low tolerance to it, or don't quite know what they are taking.''
Mr Meikle said that the survey also showed that even in the last three months there was far more heroin getting into Scotland than previously.
He said: ''It also showed there is far more injecting of heroin, a significant increase in the number of young people smoking heroin, and it revealed the re-appearance of Temazepam in significant quantities where last year there was none.''
''You can't get Temazepam on prescription anywhere in Britain, except in the rarest of circumstances, and the only Temazepam that is still manufactured in Britain is all in tablet form.
He called for a major, co-ordinated effort to counter the developments.
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