DRUG PROBLEM: WHAT THE BRITONS ARE DOING

Paul Hayes, Chief Executive of the NTA (NATIONAL TREATMENT AGENCY) said today (27 February): ' This strategy demonstrates clearly that treatment is at the heart of the Government’s approach to protecting families and communities from the damaging effects of drug misuse. It is a welcome endorsement of what we have already achieved and provides a renewed focus on a balanced system of personalised treatment that works towards achieving positive outcomes.'

An estimated 3.764 million people in England and Wales use at least one illicit drug each year (British Crime Survey), and around one million people use at least one of the most dangerous drugs (such as heroin and crack).

For most people this will be a passing phase and they will not continue to take drugs or require any special treatment in order to deal with it. A minority of approximately 330,000 will, however, develop serious drug problems, typically involving heroin and/or cocaine. This is the group that the NTA targets.

While the numbers of people with serious drug problems may be small, drug misuse affects us all. Providing drug misusers with well-managed, effective treatment is the most successful way of tackling all of these harms. But giving up and staying off drugs is difficult. Most drug misusers relapse and need to return to treatment a number of times before getting their habit under control. However, around 50 per cent of those who do complete a comprehensive treatment programme are still drug-free after five years.

Impact of drug misuse	Impact of drug treatment
Drug misuse wrecks the lives of drug misusers, their families and friends.	Drug treatment gives clients the opportunity to improve their health, rebuild relationships and return to education or employment.
Drug misuse causes around 1,350 premature deaths each year in England.	Getting into treatment reduces the chances of someone overdosing.
Injecting drugs spreads HIV and hepatitis.	Getting good advice and information from a service helps to reduce risky behaviour. Drug misusers can also get vaccinated against hepatitis B and treatment for HIV.
Drug misuse contributes to crime.	Treatment helps to reduce the offending rates of drug misusers who commit crimes to fund their habit. For every £1 that is spent on drug treatment, society gets £9.50 worth of benefit from reductions in offending.
Drug pushing causes economic and social decline in some of our most deprived communities.	Drug treatment helps to reduce the demand for drugs. It can also enable drug misusers to reintegrate into society and become economically and socially active citizens.

UK drug strategy

The ten-year drug strategy (2008-2018) aims to restrict the supply of illegal drugs and reduce the demand for them. It focuses on protecting families and strengthening communities.

The four strands of work within the strategy are:

• protecting communities through tackling drug supply, drug-related crime and anti-social behaviour
• preventing harm to children, young people and families affected by drug misuse
• delivering new approaches to drug treatment and social re-integration
• public information campaigns, communications and community engagement

Key policies

These include:

• embedding action to tackle drugs within the neighbourhood policing approach, to gather community intelligence and to increase community confidence
• targeting the drug-misusing offenders causing the highest level of crime, improving prison treatment programmes and increasing the use of community sentences with a drug rehabilitation requirement
• strengthening and extending international agreements to intercept drugs being trafficked to the UK
• extending powers to seize the cash and assets of drug dealers, to demonstrate to communities that dealing doesn't pay
• focusing on the families where parents misuse drugs, intervening early to prevent harm to children, prioritising parents' access to treatment where children are at risk, providing intensive parenting guidance and supporting family members, such as grandparents, who take on caring responsibilities
• developing a package of support to help people in drug treatment to complete treatment to to re-establish their lives, including ensuring local arrangements are in place to refer people from Jobcentres to sources of housing advice and advocacy and appropriate treatment
• using opportunities presented by the benefits system to support people in re-integrating into society and gaining employment, with a commitment to examine further how claimants can be incentivised to engage with treatment and other services
• piloting new approaches which allow a more flexible and effective use of resources, including individual budgets to meet treatment and wider support needs.