Arrests for cannabis possession have fallen by one third in the first year since re-classification. This has led to an estimated saving in police time of 199,000 police hours, the Home Office announced today.

Source press release - Home Office

See also DrugScope comment on the Home Office statement

The government says it will review all academic and clinical studies linking cannabis use to mental health problems.

Source article - BBC News

See also article by mental health charity Rethink calling for cannabis investigation - BBC News

A major redesign of the methadone prescribing and support element of NHS Tayside Drug Problem Service is underway. A partner is sought in the provision of support, counselling and therapeutic interventions for people in Tayside who are in receipt of medical treatments for their substance misuse problems and who require support to rehabilitate their lives.

For further information and contact details (Source - NHS Tayside)

"Mike Gallant moved to the Shetland Islands to join the Community Drugs Team. He gives DDN a taster of what it’s like to work in a place that often appears to have fallen off the edge of the UK map".

Source article - Drink and Drug News (PDF)

Headteachers Association of Scotland spokesperson Alex Easton, rector of Falkirk High School, said: "The decision to reclassify cannabis was wrong because the message they seem to be sending to children is that the drug is safe"

Source articles Online Evening Times and BBC News

A survey into drug use at the institution has revealed widespread use of cocaine and cannabis.

Source news artice on Edinburghnews.com (Edinburgh Evening News)

The use and cultivation of cannabis in Scotland has increased in the year since the drug's legal status was reclassified to a class C drug.

Source articles - The Herald and Evening Times

Drug addicts are being warned that contaminated heroin may be circulating in parts of Scotland. It appears more yellow in colour than normal and smells like diesel or acid.

Source articles - BBC News and The Courier

Estimating the National and Local Prevalence of Problem Drug Use in Scotland, 2003 found that the estimated number of people misusing opiates and/or benzodiazepines had fallen from 55,800 in 2000 - the first year for which a reliable estimate was established - to 51,582 in 2003, a fall of 7.6 per cent.

Source news release - Scottish Executive

See media comment on BBC News,The Herald, The Scotsman and The Courier

Dr Clare Gerada, head of the Royal College of General Practitioners - Drug Misuse Unit has commented that cannabis was "more popular among young people than cigarettes and higher potencies more widely available than ever before"

Source articles - BBC News and Telegraph

The study by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse found a protein in the brain plays a part in triggering cravings.

Source article - BBC News

Prisoners are to be given free needles by police after it emerged that two-thirds of drug addicts taken into custody in Edinburgh are infected with hepatitis C or HIV. The new scheme is intended to decrease the risk of police officers being jabbed by hidden syringes while searching suspected criminals.

Source news article - Evening News

Police in Lothian and Borders have hailed the success of operation foil which has more than doubled the amount of drugs seized. Drugs with a value of £1,535,101 were seized since April last year. That compared with £626,257 in roughly the same period in 2003.

Source news article - BBC News

Two London drug dealers were jailed yesterday after detectives foiled an ingenious plot to smuggle crack cocaine inside hundreds of drinking straws stuffed into the corrugated folds of a cardboard box.

Source article - Guardian Unlimited

Police from 32 forces across England and Wales have launched a new crackdown on cocaine and heroin dealers.

The three-month campaign will focus on closing crack houses and associated gun crime. The campaign will make use of powers laid out in the Anti-Social Behaviour Act to bring dealers to justice.

Source article Scotsman and BBC News

Fife police have issued a warning to drug users about a batch of contaminated heroin. Users in Dunfermline and Glenrothes have reported swollen and infected limbs after using the batch, which appears more yellow than normal and has an unusual smell.

Source article - edinburghnews.com

The price of ecstasy, heroin, crack, cocaine and cannabis has tumbled to a record low in the last year, as dealers pumped ever greater quantities onto the market.

Source article - The Observer (Guardian Unlimited)

Out of nearly 550 people looking for treatment in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, 122 - less than a quarter - were examined by local drug-action teams within three weeks of being referred.

Source article - this is north scotland See also Parliamentary Question mentioned in this is north scotland article

Despite a national decrease in the number of individuals receiving treatment for heroin use, the number of individuals in Tayside receiving treatment for the drug has risen significantly since 2003/04.

Source article - icPerthshire (Article no longer available)

See also - Drug Misuse Statistics Scotland 2004

Details of a Newsnight drugs special to be broadcast on 12th January and also details of two other drug related series to be broadcast in January.

See details on Transform

More than half of prisoners in Scotland have taken drugs while behind bars, according to the annual Scottish Prison Service survey of prisoners views - Scottish Prison Service.

See also media comment on BBC News