Heroin death exposes Shetland drugs blight

Police on Shetland have tracked a dramatic rise in heroin seizures and addiction rates.

The scale of heroin addiction in Scotland’s remote islands has been exposed by a court case that ended with a man jailed for supplying drugs to a teenage girl who overdosed and died.

Megan Chapman, 17, seemed to have shaken her addiction to heroin and was about to begin a dream job at stables near her home in Lerwick, the main town of Shetland, the court heard. But she died at the home of her friend Christopher Leask, an addict.

Megan’s death stunned Shetland. The islanders were forced to confront an uncomfortable truth: despite its prosperity, remoteness from Britain’s cities and low crime rates, heroin had taken hold, couriered in by drugs gangs from Liverpool and Glasgow. The case exposed surging rates of heroin abuse among under-25s.

Leask, 34, was jailed today for nearly two years. The judge, Sheriff Graeme Napier, said he “struggled to understand” Leask’s behaviour. “You invited the girl round for dinner, and in preparation you went out to buy a bag of heroin where others would’ve bought a bottle of wine,” he said.

Megan’s mother, Kristine, said after the verdict that Megan had been “a completely different person” when she seemed to have beaten her addiction. “Up until then, I always thought there was a chance we would lose her. It was a hard fight. She was so happy. She’d come home with a plant she’d bought me. She was just delighted the plant had flowered. She was just so happy the night she went out.”

Police on Shetland have tracked a dramatic rise in heroin seizures and addiction rates. In 2005 they confiscated 22g of heroin. That jumped to 74g in 2006. Last year it totalled half a kilogram. And the finds are continuing. Among cases this year, £100,000 worth has been seized off one ferry from the mainland alone.

On a population of 22,000, the impact has been profound. Shetland boasts one of the UK’s lowest crime rates; police solved 71% of crimes committed on the islands last year, the second-best rate in Scotland.

Yet while heroin abuse in Scotland has stabilised at about 1% of the population, Shetland now has an estimated 600 problem users of heroin and cocaine – three times the national average. Three heroin users have died in the last two years.

Chief Inspector Malcolm Bell, the islands’ most senior police officer, said: “Our drugs problems up here are probably linked to the ability to pay for it, as opposed to deprivation. There’s very little evidence of a causative crime link to our drugs problems. We have very low levels of dishonesty. Muggings, assaults and robberies are virtually unheard of.”

Made rich by its share of the North Sea oil revenues pumped ashore at Sullum Voe oil depot, and its successful trawling and fish farming industries, Shetland has developed an “instant gratification culture”, says Gill Hession, head of the drugs and alcohol action team. “It’s fun and it’s vibrant because it has a lot of money and because it has this work hard, party hard culture. On Shetland, if someone wants something they’ve generally got the money to get it.”

Shetland is being targeted by drugs gangs, some linked to Liverpool drugs syndicates. In November, two Liverpudlian couriers were jailed for over five years. But the suppliers believe the rewards are worth the risks; here, heroin sells for twice the mainland price. “Shetland is just another lucrative market – it’s an illegal business but a business nonetheless, and they’re supplying a demand. That’s the bottom line,” said Bell.

Kristine Chapman says the fate of the man who gave Megan the deadly hit is irrelevant to her. She still waits to hear her daughter’s noisy footsteps clumping down their stairs. “I don’t have room or time to think about him,” she said.

“I feel nothing. She was 17, she was beautiful and she got it wrong. But he was nearly 20 years older – he should’ve known better. He should’ve had more bloody wit.”