A powerful Class A drug which has wrought havoc in the US, has reached Scotland.

The synthetic drug, methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth and ice, has been handed in to police in Shetland and although there have been no police seizures, officers say it is available.

Intelligence reports indicate that the highly addictive drug is being offered to street prostitutes in Aberdeen and is circulating predominantly in the north-east of Scotland.

Use of crystal meth in the UK is understood to be very low but police have expressed concern, having seen the dramatic hold it took in the US.

Crystal meth, a synthetic drug, can be produced in home labs, which have proliferated in the US. They are very dangerous as the chemical combinations involved are highly explosive.

The first major meth lab in the UK was found in a terraced house on the Isle of Wight in 2005. In December last year Timothy Morgan, 41, was the first person in Britain to be convicted of producing crystal meth.

Police were alerted to his activities, tracked during an 18-month investigation, by chance after he was arrested outside a nightclub at Newport on the island and white powder was seen falling from his pockets.

Morgan had tried to set up a fake medical supply company to source the main ingredient, ephedrine. When this failed, he tried to extract it from a common cold remedy.

Police say a "tiny" amount of crystal meth was handed in on Lerwick, in Shetland, earlier this year. There have been no major seizures and no labs found north of the border.

Between 2001-2005, 10 people in Scotland were found in possession of the drug in powder form, said to be less powerful than the crystal form.

Detective Superintendent Willie MacColl, of the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency, said training and awareness-raising is ongoing for fire crews and others who might have to deal with crystal meth labs and users.

"There is a small amount of evidence that it is being abused in communities here," he said. "We are alive to the risks it poses and are working to raise awareness."

According to the Association of Chief Police Officers, 3%-4% of those who test positive for drugs have methamphetamine in their systems. This compares with around 90% for crack cocaine.

A recent report by Druglink, the drugs information service and magazine, said use in Britain "remains extremely thin on the ground despite media reports of an imminent epidemic".