Fresh Perspectives on Alcohol and Drugs

Scotland's Futures Forum's year long project has been collecting fresh perspectives on the problems associated with alcohol and drugs and hopes to answer the question "how can Scotland reduce the damage caused by alcohol and drugs by half by 2025?". It will use the learning to come from the project to stimulate public policy debate at Holyrood and in a wider European context.

Arguably, Scotland has failed to meet societies aspirations of significantly reducing the damage caused by alcohol and drugs. The Forum believes that there is a need to take a systems view of the problem(s) rather than address the problem through a succession of individual policy initiatives, for example, through health or education or the criminal justice system. The picture is hugely complex and many of the issues (and solutions) are necessarily inter related. In taking a systems approach to our study, we hope to better understand that complexity, discover where the best use of resources might be and, through the project Flash site, communicate that complexity in an intelligible and interactive way.