ADDICTS GET FREE HEROIN KITS; BOOTS GIVE EQUIPMENT TO DRUGS USERS.

Byline: Steven Stewart

HEROIN addicts are getting free "one hit kits" packed with syringes, spoons and drug taking equipment from chemist Boots.

And the move last night triggered fury from some anti-drug campaigners.

Health chiefs insist the packs are being handed out to cut the spread of Hepatitis C in the west of Scotland.

The One Hit Kits are available at 85 sites in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, containing dozens of needles, "cooking up" spoons, swabs and citric acid to prepare heroin.

But Helen Mackenzie, secretary of the Families United Support Group, said it was, "like giving 200 cigarettes to someone who was trying to give up smoking".

Dying

The anti-drug group are based in Dumbarton - an area with one of the worst rates of heroin addiction in the UK.

And Helen, 59, hit out: "These kits are an absolute disgrace. I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw them.

"The people who decided to introduce this initiative obviously have no idea what it is like to see their son and daughter slowly and painfully dying from heroin addiction.

"How can they have a health warning on a pack of cigarettes but not on this stuff - full of syringes and drug taking material? These kits have every single thing an addict needs except the heroin.

"They are making it too easy for these addicts. The pack has the jazzy name 'one hit kit' and some of the packaging suggests that this is aimed at younger people.

"This type of thing just encourages a whole new generation of drug addicts. It is capitalising on pain and addiction.

"I am disgusted that this kind of thing could be available free to people. There is nothing to stop a young kid going into the chemist and getting one of these packs."

But last night, NHS Greater Glasgow defended the One Hit Kits, which were introduced in February.

Carole Hunter, lead pharmacist in the Addictions Partnership, said: "There are more than 50,000 people with Hepatitis C across Scotland and 95 per cent of them have become infected through injecting drug use.

"We know that the needle exchange programme has been hugely effective in reducing HIV cross-infection and the One Hit Kits are designed to deliver similar reductions in the spread of Hepatitis C.

Sterile

"We introduced the kits to our needle exchanges to ensure intravenous drug users had a complete kit of sterile equip-menand to stop people sharing spoons and filters and so prevent the spread of Hepatitis C through the sharing of equipment."

Kits are distributed at pharmacies like Boots and other sites, including six nurse-led needle exchange centres.

Paul Bennet, standards director and superintendent pharmacist for Boots, said: "This is a national service commissioned by health boards.

"This service takes a harm reduction approach to drug use and aims to reduce the transmission of blood-borne viruses."

CAPTION(S):

DISGRACE: Boots gives out kits ANGER: Helen