Scotland’s drug users are facing a new threat to their freedom.

The Scottish Executive has awarded a contract to Cozart, an Oxfordshire-based forensic testing group, to supply portable drug-testing services for those arrested in Scotland.

Under a new policy approved last year by the Executive, all Scots arrested for so-called “trigger offences”, such as robbery and burglary, could be subject to saliva-based tests to determine whether their crime is linked to drug abuse.

Initially, the pilot project will cover three police stations in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, but the scheme could be rolled out more widely if deemed a success by the police, who are trying to destroy the link between drugs and acquisitive crime. Suspects who test positive for heroin or cocaine will be channeled into drug treatment programmes.

Cozart, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market, already supplies its RapiScan testing equipment to 173 police stations in England and Wales under a similar scheme introduced last year.

RapiScan is a portable device that can be used by police to check for the presence of a number of substances in bodily fluids. It tests almost 20,000 people arrested in England and Wales each month.

The two-year contract in Scotland will come into effect in June, with options to extend it for a further two years. Financial details of the contract are not known.

After the launch of the pilot project last year, Hugh Henry, the Scottish Deputy Justice Minister, said: “Around a third of all recorded crime in Scotland is related to drugs and more than three quarters of those sentenced by the courts to a custodial sentence show signs of drug misuse and drug-related offending.

“We need effective interventions that nip drug-related offending in the bud and channel offenders into the treatments we are supporting. These pilots will give adults with drug problems in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen an incentive to engage with services and get the help they need.”

Cozart develops and manufactures drug-testing equipment, including kits for on-site testing of saliva and crime scene laboratory testing.

The company, which also has subsidiaries in Italy, Spain and Sweden, sells kits to police and law enforcement agencies, as well as to employers who operate drug-testing policies.

Up to 80%
Percentage of new Scottish prisoners who test positive for drug abuse
£66.7m
Amount Scotland invested in drug treatment in 2005-06

Sources: Scottish Prison Service and the Scottish Executive

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