Professor Neil McKeganey, one of Scotland’s leading addiction experts, wants ministers to introduce American-style legislation to make fast-track adoption automatic where parents put the safety of their children at risk.

McKeganey said the “draconian” strategy is needed because too much attention is paid to the needs of addicts rather than their children.

Last month an 11-year-old heroin addict from Glasgow was found slumped over her desk in a primary school classroom. The girl is alleged to have been exposed to heroin through her mother, who is an addict. Last night it emerged that the youngster had been reported to police for possession of heroin aged nine and that her baby brother was born addicted to the drug in November. Her mother, who was known to social workers, has been told that she faces court action to have the boy taken into permanent care.

McKeganey — who has previously called for women drug addicts to be paid to take contraception — said Labour’s policy was putting youngsters at risk of becoming addicts themselves by copying their parents’ behaviour.

“Where you have children being born into addicted families, parents need to be given a very clear choice,” he said. “If we cannot support the number of children we have in these families we have a choice — either take the drugs out of these families or the children out of these families. These parents have to decide what they love most, their children or drugs.

“They should be offered drug treatment and if they are not drug-free in a 12-month period, we should look at placing that child in a family that is not addicted to illegal drugs.”

Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which came into force in America in 1997, states are obliged to begin court proceedings to put the children of addict parents up for adoption where they have been in foster care for at least 15 of the previous 22 months. Parents can have as little as six months to kick their addiction before losing their children.

Addicts are identified during ante-natal checks or through contact with the police or social workers. In return for treatment for their addiction, they have to agree to regular drug tests.

“This legislation sounds quite draconian but it clarifies the situation,” said McKeganey. “Parents have to understand that they cannot continue with their drug addiction and claim to be looking after their children — these two things are incompatible.

“It hasn’t led to thousands of children being removed from parents and hasn’t allowed the situation where children are circling around the childcare system with no consistent parenting and has led to increased cessation in parents’ drug use because they know the clock is ticking.”

McKeganey said that the children of drug addicts were being failed by the system, despite a series of government inquiries and initiatives. It is estimated that up to 20,000 children in Scotland have parents hooked on drugs. About half live in Glasgow where, according to a recent survey, there are as many as 60 pre-teen heroin addicts.

“We still have thousands of children living in the most desperate circumstances — children are paying with their own lives for their parents’ drug use,” he said. “We are handicapped by the inclination, as far as possible, to keep these families intact and to place the adults’ interests above those of the child.”

Maggie Mellon, of the charity Children 1st, said: “We have to focus on children and their welfare. Is the parenting good enough? Is it safe enough? If it isn’t, then you have to look at support from the extended family. If that support is not there, foster care or adoption should be looked at.”

SEVENTY ARRESTS

At least 70 Scots schoolchildren have been arrested for drug dealing over the past year, including a 15-year-old who was selling heroin.

Figures from Scotland's police forces reveal that 29 under-15s were arrested in Strathclyde, under 14 under-16s in Lothian and Borders, while Fife reported 10 involved in supplying heroin.

Times Recommends

• He’s 65 - Mick Jagger becomes a pensioner
• Love affair with Labour ends in a Glasgow kiss
• From Moss Side to Rio, theatre saves lives