Campaign to Warn of Heroin’s Addictive Power

A new £170,000 advertising campaign will warn teenagers that heroin is just as addictive and dangerous whether smoked or injected. Hugh Henry, the deputy justice minister, yesterday launched the second wave of the Know the Score anti-heroin campaign. He said the central message of the campaign is that heroin leads to addiction whichever way you take it.

The five-week campaign, which starts on Monday, is aimed at people aged between 13 and 19 and includes billboard, television and radio adverts.

Mr Henry said: “Misconceptions can often cause confusion, but with a drug like heroin they can cost lives. I don’t want anyone to be in any doubt that heroin, however you take it, is an addictive and destructive drug.”

Recent figures show heroin and morphine were responsible for 356 deaths in 2004. Mr Henry hopes to emulate the first phase of the campaign last year, which resulted in a 50 per cent increase in calls to the Know the Score advice line.

But Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, believes the campaign could inadvertently encourage youngsters to try drugs. She said: “The Know the Score website shows our children the paraphernalia of drug abuse and even how to conceal drugs from parents. Those who are at risk must be protected with an abstinence message.”