ABSTRACT
Just as the city is fertile ground for drug misuse, so, in principle, can it offer the potential for an organised response. Information gathering, planning and organising all tend to be more readily achieved in cities than in sparsely populated rural areas. However, the opportunities for a city-wide response will depend upon the wider political, legislative and cultural environment. In tackling its drug problems, a city has to conform to government policy and national laws. These may differ markedly from country to country. It also needs to work within existing institutions such as local government and health services. Thus, what is readily possible in one country may be difficult or impossible in another. Nevertheless, tackling drug misuse at the city level presents common challenges and opportunities wherever it might be. Four ingredients are essential and will be examined in turn:
1 A city-wide strategy 2 Political consent and support 3 Adequate resources 4 Effective city-wide and centralised services
The roots of the problem
Glasgow has a current population of around 620,000. Over the past 30 years, its traditional heavy industries have all but vanished, leading to mass unemployment. Its infamous slums of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were replaced in the 1950s and 1960s by high-rise flats and vast peripheral council housing estates. It is here that drug misuse has become a way of life for many, supported by flourishing networks of drug dealers and a thriving black economy based on stolen goods.
