toolkit – ‘ thoroughly researched and referenced ’ and ‘ available to anyone who needs it , anywhere in the world ’. She hoped to adapt the toolkit for the UK , free to access . |
CHALLENGING CULTURE The need to challenge the narrative was demonstrated to great effect by Katrina Ffrench of Unjust CIC . ‘ Young black men are in gangs to push drugs – that ’ s the narrative ,’ she said . Her organisation was based in London but with a national focus to bring people together and hold flawed practices of drug law enforcement up to the light .
‘ Black people are four times more likely to be stop-searched and five times more likely to have force used against them than white people ,’ she said . ‘ But behind the statistics are people . The perception is that every black
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person does drugs .’
The narrative persisted – in County Lines scenarios , young black boys were seen as perpetrators not victims . Police officers were able to ‘ smell drugs in your car from theirs ’ – as shown by a recent case of car search of a young black couple with their baby , with no grounds for suspicion . ‘ Child Q ’, a 15-year-old schoolgirl had been subjected to an unlawful search in school .
‘ We have to end the racist war on drugs ,’ said Ffrench . ‘ And we have to stop criminalising mental health . Life is fucking tough sometimes and it ’ s your body , your choice .’ So how could we encourage the whole criminal justice system ‘ to de-escalate stuff ’? It was imperative to work together and engage with young people by acknowledging them , she said . ‘ We isolate them .’
‘ We don ’ t have enough of us infiltrating the system ,’ she told the audience . ‘ Go into these spaces , we need you . Are you working with marginalised groups – or just people who look like you ?’
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LIES , DAMNED LIES … Beccy Henderson talked about ‘ lies , damned lies and statistics ’ from her work as a consultant . |
Drug strategy focused on repeat offenders without considering the reasons why .
The reputation of drug testing on arrest had been tarnished by the private sector scandal of manipulated results . But headlines did not necessarily tell us the truth – we needed to check the methodology and sample size . Furthermore , there were stats ‘ they don ’ t want you to think about ’, she said , relating to childhood trauma and to deindustrialisation – the massive increase in opiate use coupled with the ‘ decimated communities ’ of the Thatcher years , which ‘ took away cohesion . It destroyed everything and people ended up taking heroin .’
‘ The barrier to any harm reduction is stigma ,’ said Henderson , refocusing on the here and now . ‘ We need to make it safe to say “ I use drugs , I want help ”. If we can remove stigma we can start to help . Stigma creates silence – and it ’ s silence that kills people .’
YOUTH FOCUS ‘ Are the key principles of harm reduction different for young people ?’ asked Stuart Haste of Compass ’ s free and confidential young people ’ s drug and alcohol
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service , as he looked at reframing the conversation to be relevant to the younger age group . Age 18-24 was a high target group for drugs education – ‘ but what about the age before that ?’ he asked . ‘ I have seven-year-olds in services using class C drugs .’
The ‘ near misses ’ were a lot higher than the deaths , and for young people it was often about trauma and mental health . Because it was ‘ so slow ’ to get a diagnosis through child and adolescent mental health services ( CAMHS ), drug and alcohol services found themselves on the frontline .
‘ We won ’ t tell them off , we ’ re inclusive , we will talk to the individual about trauma ,’ he explained . But we needed to stop splitting services and bring them back together so the person had a continuous experience .
FLEXIBILITY Natalie Broughton brought her perspective from Matrix young people ’ s service , a partnership formed of the local authority , Turning Point and local services . ‘ We want young people to know what support could look like ,’ she said . ‘ We start by meeting the young person where they ’ re at
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