A HIGH-profile campaign to warn young people of the dangers of smoking heroin has failed to get the message across, a report has revealed.

The Scottish Executive's "know the score" anti-heroin campaign included television advertisements warning that smoking the drug can lead to addiction.

However, an evaluation of the campaign showed the specific message was missed and people took the adverts to be a generic anti-heroin message.

While the report said the adverts were remembered by most and generally well received, the underlying message seems to have been lost.

It was concluded that most among the sample of 16 to 34-year-olds "did not identify with the situation depicted by the TV advert because they rarely, if ever, took drugs alone. For them, drug-taking was viewed as a social experience. They struggled to envisage how their own drug-taking habits might progress to the scene depicted in the advertising."

For people aged 13 to 15, the report said the message was "in some respects too sophisticated and required a level of understanding of heroin which they did not possess".

An executive spokeswoman, said: "We don't want anyone to be in any doubt that heroin, however you take it, is an addictive and destructive drug. Heroin will destroy your lifestyle and ultimately heroin will destroy your life.

"That is why we continue to hammer home the message - heroin will rob you of all you possess, whether you smoke it or inject it. This campaign has made a positive contribution to those efforts."