Deadly street drugs will be targeted after it emerged that more Scots youngsters are taking the killer pills.
Scottish public health minister Joe FitzPatrick has admitted that, despite young people taking fewer drugs in general, an opposite trend has been evident for the “blues” that are produced by the million in makeshift Scottish drugs factories and sold for pennies.
He will seek new laws to control the way Amazon and other online sellers deal with drugs materials and paraphernalia.
The minister, who has been accused of moving at a “snail’s pace” at a time of emergency, hopes the chemicals that make up the deadly benzodiazepine tablets and the pill presses which allow them to be made in bulk will be outlawed.
FitzPatrick also hopes legislation can compel online sellers to notify police if patterns in transactions suggest benzo operations.
He revealed that he has been briefed on an apparent rise in young people taking the pills, which can be 50p or cheaper.
Speaking to the Record in his native Dundee, FitzPatrick said: “It’s important to state that consumption of drugs is at a historically low level for young people but, from the information we have, it’s looks like some drugs, like benzos, are being consumed in greater numbers by that age group.
“The supply is something we need to look at. Whereas other drugs are being imported, these benzos are being made in Scotland in large volumes. We can’t be complacent.”
The declaration this week comes more than three years after the Daily Record revealed that “blue plague” pills were fuelling the massive rise in Scottish drug death.
Weeks after our revelations in 2016, official statistics showed that deaths involving street benzos had rocketed by more than 500 per cent, from 58 to 303.
By 2018, the numbers had risen to 675 – more than half of the 1187 total Scottish deaths, the worst in the developed world.
The Record has lamented how little has been done in Scotland to specifically address the problem – which is arguably the single biggest factor in driving our death rate beyond the worst nightmares of most nations.
FitzPatrick said cheap pill presses are being bought by drug gangs to churn out pills by the million. He means to raise this as an urgent issue at the forthcoming drugs summit in Glasgow.
He also wants to see more education in schools specifically warning of the dangers of blues.
The minister said: “It’s horrific how cheaply someone can buy a pill press and get the ingredients to make these drugs and the net effect is people pay pennies for drugs and don’t even know what they’re taking.
“I’d like to bring in some form of drug testing in local communities and regulate the market, in terms of Amazon and online sellers who are dealing with any paraphernalia used in the manufacture of street drugs.
“There’s no requirement for Amazon or any other seller to notify police. I think we need to consider regulating the sale and that’s one of the things I want to be talking to the UK Government about at the .
“It might be that this is an approach we should consider across the UK.”
Education at community level is also to be ramped up. FitzPatrick said: “The other thing is education because we can do more to let people know the risks.
"If people are taking something they think to be Valium and it’s not, they need to know the extreme dangers.
“We would like to dry up the supply and do more to let people know what the drugs are and somehow persuade them not to take them in combination with other drugs and in such high numbers.
"One of our task force groups is looking at data and how to get the right information to the right people.”
The Daily Record has campaigned for years for more focus on the tablets, which can cost pennies and are often taken along with heroin, methadone, booze and prescription pills to deadly effect.
In many cases it is the topping up of blues – which use super-strong etizolam instead of the diazepam in Valium – which is the difference between life and death.
