Using a form of discourse analysis of various government texts, this article examines the way in which central government in Scotland formulated its response to the problem of ‘glue-sniffing’. Drawing on a theoretical framework developed by Foucault, it traces the links between professional knowledge, political programmes and parents' desires. It describes the discursive manoeuvres government deployed in constituting parents as primarily responsible for their children's sniffing. It suggests that in doing this government sought to align its own political objectives with the aspirations of parents, by purporting to preserve their freedom and autonomy. It concludes that ‘expertise’ is used selectively, both in legitimating and producing policy, and in linking this to subjective life.