- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of a report in the Evening News on 12 February 2009 of increased quantities of cocaine being seized by the police, what action it intends to take to curb the supply of cocaine.
Answer
The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) works with and in support of the Scottish Police Service and other law enforcement agencies to tackle, disrupt and dismantle serious organised crime groups with an emphasis on the trafficking of Class A drugs and money laundering through targeted intelligence, interventions and enforcement activity. It has done this very successfully. In 2006-07 the SCDEA and police in Scotland recovered over 93.5kg of cocaine, an increase of more than 16kg from the previous year.
Collaboration with UK and international partners is also providing the opportunity to tackle the upstream trade in cocaine.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of any group in society that on average is more likely to abuse (a) cocaine and (b) other illegal drugs and, if so, what action it is taking.
Answer
Our national drugs strategy,
The Road to Recovery, states that there are associations between deprivation, health inequalities and problematic drug use. Studies have shown that there is a clear link between problem use of heroin and crack cocaine and deprivation.
In addition to the programme of action set out in the drugs strategy, the Government is implementing a range of reforms that will directly address the underlying causes of drug misuse. This includes the Ministerial Task Force On Health Inequalities ˜Equally Well'' report; the government''s poverty framework Achieving Our Potential: a Framework to tackle poverty and income inequality in Scotland, and the Government''s Economic Strategy. These are available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-20289 by Fiona Hyslop on 12 February 2009, whether it has recently commissioned research into how effective such programmes are in reducing offending behaviour.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-20952 on 11 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-20289 by Fiona Hyslop on 12 February 2009, what proportion of school children has had access to the (a) Knife City DVD and (b) It’s Jist for Protection performance by young people in the last 12 months, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that young people are more likely to be victims of knife crime than adults.
Answer
The national Violence Reduction Unit “ firmly established as the centre of expertise in tackling violence “ consider that young people are generally more at risk of being the victims of knife crime, although this will vary from community to community.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the current campaign by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency highlighting the ethical impact of cocaine abuse that targets university students to change attitudes and reduce demand for cocaine will be rolled out to all higher education institutions.
Answer
This campaign was piloted at Strathclyde University and it has already been rolled out to all other universities. Following evaluation it may be rolled out to all further education establishments.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the current campaign by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency highlighting the ethical impact of cocaine abuse that targets university students to change attitudes and reduce demand for cocaine, whether similar campaigns are planned for other groups in society.
Answer
The SCDEA has a number of campaigns in operation aimed at reducing demand for drugs. These include campaigns that highlight the ethical impact of cocaine abuse and are aimed at various groups in society.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the current campaign by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency highlighting the ethical impact of cocaine abuse that targets university students to change attitudes and reduce demand for cocaine will also be rolled out to all further education institutions.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-20959 on 11 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it is offering student associations with the dissemination to students of information on drug misuse.
Answer
Student Associations do not receive support to disseminate information on drug misuse. Information is available to all members of the public, including students, through Know the Score, the national drugs information campaign.
- Asked by: Richard Baker, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what it estimates to be the proportion of the student population that abuses cocaine on a regular basis.
Answer
We do not hold the necessary data to estimate cocaine abuse in the student population.
