BoRdeR
intelligence
The Drugs, Alcohol and Justice Cross-Party
Parliamentary Group also met in May to
discuss what England could learn from drug
and alcohol strategies in Scotland and Wales
A
way for legalisation. Evidence would include detail
and working practice – such as in Switzerland – on
heroin assisted treatment (HAT) and drug
consumption rooms (DCRs).
While evidence was being collated and debated
there was an urgent need to engage now with
people about their drug use, as Fiona Measham
explained. Her service, The Loop, had been bringing a
mobile drug testing service to outdoor events, with a
great deal of positive engagement – from local police
as well as festival-goers. It’s a model that has become
a much-valued part of the festival scene – ‘one in five
people hand over their drugs when they find it’s not
what they expected,’ she said.
But there was now a major obstacle to operating
the service: the Home Office had announced they
would be licensing mobile testing (previously ‘a bit
of a grey area’, as there wasn’t a licence that fitted a
mobile lab situation). The application would take at
least 12 weeks, meaning The Loop was ‘on hold’ until
then.
‘So the concern is, we’re moving into the summer
season and have had to cancel presence at imminent
events,’ said Measham. ‘We’re all in limbo waiting
for the licence, but don’t want to endanger the
support of the Home Office long term.’
Members of the APPG hoped there would be a
way around this. ‘We can’t let bureaucracy make this
a lost summer,’ said Trace. DDN
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new strategy for Scotland, Rights,
respect and recovery had the
aspiration of putting recovery at its
centre, said Andrew Horne,
director of Addaction Scotland and
an advisor to the Scottish
government for the last 14 years.
There were now at least 120 organic self-starter
recovery groups, which were ‘about people taking
back their own recovery and not led by services’.
Scotland had 60,000 dependent drug users and
a predicted 1,000+ drug-related deaths in 2018 –
three times the rate in England. There had been
recent rises in HIV and hepatitis C, in both the
chemsex and mainstream using community. Horne
mentioned the ‘Glasgow effect’ – the drop in life
expectancy by seven years for residents,
irrespective of their social group, age or ethnicity.
The news was that there had been a mind shift,
said Horne. Scotland was now treating substance
misuse as a health and social issue – a health issue
first, rather than a criminal justice issue. ‘People
have the right to be safe and well,’ he said.
There was a ‘big need to address stigma’ in
personal and media references. ‘Stigma stops
people from entering treatment,’ he said. Service
users were still a very disempowered group that
needed more advocacy to help challenge decisions
about their treatment. Scotland still had health
boards, ‘which can be clinical and consumer led
and seen to lack compassionate care’, he explained,
and it was important to listen to what peer-led
groups had to say.
Drug treatment in Wales was health led and
there was an holistic approach, but it could get lost
in the ‘huge portfolio’ of devolved responsibility,
said Caroline Phipps, CEO of Barod, a third sector
organisation for adults and young people.
It was an interesting time, she explained, as
Wales was coming to the end of a ten-year strategy
that had started to see a reduction in harms. The
strategy review was showing evidence of short-term
impact and the value of a harm reduction approach,
but intelligence was missing on longer-term impact
and whole-population intervention.
One of the main concerns was that those with the
most complex needs were being failed, often
because of stigma. ‘We need to review concerns
around OST, waiting times and access to services,’ she
said, as well as looking at some of the criticism being
levelled at commissioners and services.
‘There has been a
mind shift.
Scotland is now
treating substance
misuse as a health
and social issue.’
‘People die of stigma – it’s the biggest issue,’ she
said. Well-being of Wales gave a policy framework
that needed to ensure service user voices were heard.
An ageing population, strong drugs, lack of
funding and a spike in drug-related deaths gave the
‘most challenging conditions of the last 20 years’,
underpinned by county lines, alcohol-related
harms, hepatitis C rates, poverty and isolation.
In positive news, there was a ten per cent increase
in funding for the sector in Wales, with a focus on
harm reduction, protecting families and reducing
drug-related deaths. There were good projects on
distributing naloxone, said Phipps, as well as
effective service user involvement and a pragmatic
approach to patient choice. There was now a need to
be ‘brave and bold’ with DCRs, diversion schemes and
decriminalisation. DDN
June 2019 | drinkanddrugsnews | 15