News
ACMD ISSUES URGENT
WARNING ON FUNDING CUTS
FUNDING CUTS ARE THE ‘SINGLE BIGGEST THREAT’ TO
TREATMENT RECOVERY OUTCOMES, according to the
government’s own advisors, the ACMD. Maintaining funding
levels for treatment is ‘essential’ for preventing drug-related
deaths, states Commissioning impact on drug treatment,
which contains examples of funding reductions brought
about by re-procurement or variations to existing contracts.
The disruption caused by frequent re-procurement is
creating instability and churn in the system, ‘draining vital
resources’ and leading to ‘risky transition points’ for service
users, it says, with ‘significant extra efforts’ needed to
protect investment and quality. Re-procurement was
reported as an expensive process for both commissioners
and providers, with some commissioners having to ‘fight’ for
contract lengths of more than three years, while others said
delays in local decision-making were leading to ‘rushed
processes and poor transitions’. Commissioning contracts
should be between five and ten years, the report urges,
while links between treatment services and local healthcare
should also be strengthened.
‘A lack of spending on drug treatment is short sighted
and a catalyst for disaster,’ said ACMD recovery committee
chair, Annette Dale-Perera. ‘England had built a world-class
drug treatment system, with fast access to free, good-
quality drug treatment. This system is now being
dismantled due to reductions in resources. Unless
government protect funding, the new drug strategy
aspiration of “effectively funded and commissioned
services” will be compromised.’
The report also wants to see more transparency and
‘clearer financial reporting’ to challenge local disinvestment,
and for drug and alcohol services to be mandated within
local authority budgets – a call backed by a National Aids
Trust briefing endorsed by Blenheim, Release, IDPC, SMMGP
and others. The government also needs to ensure that
provision of the ‘whole range’ of harm reduction initiatives is
in place to address increasing rates of drug-related deaths,
says Still no harm reduction? A critical review of the UK
government’s new drug strategy, which urges that naloxone
be made ‘routinely available’ and that use of consumption
rooms is considered in areas of high-prevalence drug use.
UNFAIR ODDS
BLACK AND MINORITY ETHNIC PEOPLE FACE
BIAS, including ‘overt discrimination’, in parts
of the criminal justice system, says the final
report of David Lammy MP’s 18-month
review. Last year’s interim report found that
black and Asian men were nearly 1.5 times
more likely to receive custodial sentences for
drugs offences than white men (DDN,
December 2016, page 5). ‘The criminal
justice system has deep-seated issues to
address,’ Lammy stated. The Lammy review:
final report at www.gov.uk
4 | drinkanddrugsnews | October 2017
COUNTY LINES
‘England had built a world-
class drug treatment
system, with fast access to
free, good-quality drug
treatment. This system is
now being dismantled’
AnnETTE DALE-PErErA
Despite ‘compelling and extensive evidence’ for the cost-
effectiveness of harm reduction initiatives, political and
financial support for them have ‘sharply declined’ in recent
years, it says, with harm reduction ‘barely mentioned’ in this
year’s drug strategy. This is in ‘sharp contrast’, the briefing
states, to Ireland’s new strategy, Reducing harm, supporting
recovery, which includes support for both consumption
rooms and decriminalisation (DDN, September, page 5).
Commissioning impact on drug treatment at www.gov.uk
Still no harm reduction? at www.nat.org.uk
Black and Asian
men are nearly
1.5 times more
likely to receive
custodial
sentences for
drugs offences
DAviD LAmmy
SUPPORTING YOUNG PEOPLE AND FAMILIES to
be resilient is one of the key ways of tackling
gang and drug-related violence, according to
researchers from the University of Suffolk. The
academics were looking into the phenomenon
of ‘county lines’, where drug gangs from big
cities target smaller communities where the
law enforcement response is likely to be less
severe. ‘Young people are particularly
vulnerable to the harms generated from these
illicit enterprises, and a sensitive but robust
response is required,’ says the report.
Document at www.uos.ac.uk
CANCER CLAIMS
THE DRINKS INDUSTRY IS MISREPRESENTING
THE EVIDENCE about alcohol-related cancer
risks, according to research by the London
School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and
Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet. While drinking
is a ‘well-established’ risk factor for a number
of cancers, including liver, breast, colorectal
and oral cavity, the drinks industry is
misleading the public through ‘activities that
have parallels with those of the tobacco
industry’, says the review. Analysis of cancer-
related information on the websites and
publications of nearly 30 industry-funded
organisations worldwide found that ‘most’
showed ‘some sort of distortion or
misrepresentation’ of evidence. How alcohol
industry organisations mislead the public
about alcohol and cancer, in the journal Drug
and Alcohol Review, at onlinelibrary.wiley.com
AMBITIOUS AIMS
THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT has promised an
additional £20m of funding for drug and
alcohol treatment as part of its 2017-18
programme. It has also begun its promised
overhaul of the country’s drug strategy and
will deliver a ‘refreshed’ alcohol framework
before the end of the year, says the
programme document, A nation with
ambition. Scotland’s drug death rate is now
the highest in the EU, while the number of
alcohol deaths has risen by 10 per cent in a
year (DDN, September, page 4).
Document at www.gov.scot
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