A Scottish Government report has said that cannabis users should receive £40 on-the-spot fines for possession of small amounts of cannabis.

Source article on HeraldScotland

Doctors in Dundee have issued a warning about the legal high drug 'bubbles' after five people suffered non-fatal overdoses last weekend in the city.

Source article on BBC News

The mother of a 30-year-old woman who died from a suspected drugs overdose has appealed to the public for information to help the police catch drug dealers.

Source article on BBC News

News articles released earlier this month relating to studies on the possible link between the drug cannabis and schizophrenia.

Source articles on Addiction, BBC News

A number of drug deaths treated as accidental drug overdoses could in fact be suicides among a ‘forgotten’ generation of older drug users, according to the Scottish Drugs Forum.

Source article on Scottish Drugs Forum, BBC News

A proposal to prescribe heroin to drug users under supervision has been referred to a council committee in Aberdeen.

Source article on BBC News

Dundee councillor, Tom Ferguson has expressed concerns over discarded drug paraphernalia in the Lochee district after seeing an increase in the number of complaints from tenants in the area.

Source article on Evening Telegraph

The new Edinburgh Alcohol and Drug Partnership (EADP) which replaces the previous Alcohol and Drug Action Team was officially launched last week at a conference in Edinburgh.

Source article on Evening News

The first large-scale, longitudinal study of ketamine users has been published in the online journal Addiction. The results of the study have suggested that frequent ketamine use impairs memory with such users performing poorly on a range of skills such as recalling names, conversations and patterns.

Source article on Addiction, BBC News

A new report to be published this week by the Scottish Drugs Forum which looks at Scotland's "Trainspotting Generation" twenty years on, has revealed that long-term drug users require the same sort of support services as the elderly.

Source article on HeraldScotland

The latest NHS Scotland performance management (HEAT) targets include a commitment to ensure that 90 per cent of people who need treatment for their drug problem receive it within three weeks.

Source article on The Scottish Government, see also media comment on Press and Journal, and The Scotsman

Proposals to provide drug users in Aberdeen with free heroin under the NHS in a Scottish pilot scheme, similar to the ones recently trialled in England, have come under fierce criticism.

Source article on The Scotsman, Press and Journal

Articles featuring Glasgow's Drug Court, set up in Scotland eight years ago with the aim of tackling drugs misuse and the number of drug-related crimes in the city.

Source articles on Evening Times, Evening Times

The think tank, Transform, which campaigns for the decriminalisation of drugs, has put forward suggestions which they say would reduce crime and improve health - BBC News, Transform Drug Policy Foundation, see also related article on TimesOnline

A substitute for heroin which has proved to be less addictive than methadone is to be trialled in Glasgow. Extra funding has been obtained by Scotland's first Drug Court to prescribe the drug Suboxone, which has been designed to deter problem drug users from overdosing and stop the spread of viruses such as Hepatitis C.

Source article on Evening Times, HeraldScotland

UNODC has published the Global SMART Update: Volume 2, which illustrates shifts in the manufacture, trafficking and use of various synthetic drugs.

Source article on United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Drugs with a street value of £200,000 have been recovered from a house in East Kilbride.

Source article on BBC News

Vital investigations into unexplored aspects of recreational drug use could be abandoned following the removal of the UK government's top scientific adviser on drug misuse.

Source article on New Scientist

News articles following last week's release of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction's Annual Report for 2009.

Source article on The Scotsman, The Guardian, The Scotsman

The man in charge of leading the fight against the cannabis industry in Scotland, Det. Supt. Alan Buchanan from Strathclyde Police, has estimated that up to £100 million worth of cannabis is grown in Scotland, more than the scottish vegetable crop. BBC One is screening "Hash in the Attic" a documentary on the subject at 2235 GMT, Tuesday 3 Nov.

Source article on BBC News

Media comment following the stepping down of Professor David Nutt, as the Head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

Source article on BBC News, TimesOnline, The Observer, The Independent