Scotland Against Drugs - People could draw wrong conclusions about heroin use

Alistair Ramsay, director of Scotland Against Drugs, today expressed concern that a study on heroin use would be looked at in "a superficial way" prompting misconceptions about the substance.

Mr Ramsay told politics.co.uk that the research, which claimed that the class A drug could be taken in a controlled situation for an extended period of time with little detrimental impact on the user, was "very informative to people working in the field", but he expressed concern about how the report would be received in the public domain. "There is a huge risk it will be looked at in a superficial way and the wrong conclusions taken from it", he said. The research, which looked at what the researchers called a 'hidden' population of heroin users, was "extremely useful" to people working in the sector, but Mr Ramsay remained concerned the study could be used to justify heroin use.