£499 HEROIN FINES FURY

Paltry punishments for suppliers despite the mounting death rate of Scots users Number avoiding jail soars as penalties for supplying are branded 'pocket change'

- BY DAN VEVERS Chief Reporter

HEROIN dealers are receiving average court fines of just £499 despite Scotland's drug deaths epidemic, we can reveal.

The shockingly lenient punishments are being handed out despite 1065 fatalities last year the highest per capita of any European country. Meanwhile less than a third of those convicted of dealing offences receive a jail sentence, according to official figures.

Bereaved families along with politicians and campaigners have reacted furiously and demanded custodial sentences for dealers rather than fining them "pocket change".

Linda McVean, whose son Frankie died of an overdose, demanded prison for heroin dealers while Lib Dem MSP Jamie Greene hit out at the puny penalties.

Greene said: "Given the vast profits and immense misery that heroin can generate, it seems strange that the punishment is a monetary fine of a sum that major players in the drugs business will treat as pocket change.

"Not only that but the punishments for different drugs feel totally arbitrary.

"The law acts like there's little difference in the harm caused by drugs like heroin and the harm caused by something as common as cannabis."

The average penalty for possessing heroin with intent to supply was £499 in 2022-23, similar to the typical fine for dealing cannabis of £485 and £503 for ecstasy. For cocaine dealing the figure was £719.

Opioids like heroin are responsible for up to 80 per cent of the nation's overdose deaths, with 1065 suspected drugs deaths in Scotland last year.

Drugs campaigner Annemarie Ward, of charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, hit out at the paltry fines.

She added: "When dealers for huge criminal gangs who are making millions, arguably billions, of pounds in Scotland are getting fined 500 quid, that's effectively decriminalisation.