Drink and Drugs News DDN November 2019 (1) | Page 5

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Stain removal
Middlesbrough
launches heroin-
assisted treatment
A
pilot heroin-assisted
treatment (HAT)
programme is
being launched in
Middlesbrough, the local police
and crime commissioner (PCC) has
announced. The programme will
concentrate on up to 15 people with
serious entrenched drug problems.
This treatment
and recovery pilot
is aimed at those
for whom all other
current methods
have failed
Participants will visit a clinic
twice a day where diamorphine will
be administered under supervision.
The aim is that with the need to
‘constantly fund street heroin’
removed, clients will be able to
engage with health, housing,
welfare and other agencies at
the clinic and ‘get their lives back
on track’. The programme will be
available to people for whom all
other treatment options have
failed and who are ‘causing most
concern’ to criminal justice, social
care and health services. It has been
organised and partially funded by
Cleveland PCC Barry Coppinger, with
further funding from Durham Tees
Valley Community Rehabilitation
Company and the Tees and Wear
Prisons Group.
The scheme is designed in part
to ‘free up the substantial public
resources’ being used to address drug
issues, the PCC’s office states, as well
as promote long-term recovery and
reduce rates of drug-related deaths
and acquisitive crime. The pilot will
be independently evaluated with the
aim of extending it for a second year
with funding from the Proceeds of
Crime Act (POCA).
‘This treatment and recovery
pilot is aimed at those for whom
all other current methods have
failed,’ said clinical team lead
Daniel Ahmed. ‘They are on a cycle
of offending, committing crime to
raise funds for street heroin, being
arrested and going to prison, being
released and offending again. The
cycle often only ends when they die,
often in the street.’
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has called on
Malaysia to abolish the death penalty for
drugs offences. Executions are a ‘stain’
on the country’s criminal justice system,
says the NGO, with the use of torture to
obtain confessions, an ‘opaque’ pardons
process and other serious violations of
the right to a fair trial. More than 70 per
cent of those on death row – 930 people
– are there for drugs offences, and
more than half are foreign nationals.
‘Malaysia has a golden chance to break
with decades of cruelty,’ said executive
director of Amnesty International
Malaysia, Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu.
‘Our research found a pattern of unfair
trials and secretive hangings that itself
spoke volumes.’
Fatally flawed: why Malaysia must
abolish the death penalty at www.
amnesty.org/en
WWW.DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS.COM
SOWING SEEDS
Addaction’s ‘Roots to
Recovery’ gardening project
is encouraging people to
get involved in outdoor
activities to help boost their
mental health. As well as
nurturing talents or interests
people ‘didn’t know they
had’ this can also improve
self-esteem, says founder
Georgie McConnell.
HEP HIT
Challenging
times for prisons
DRUGS CONTINUE TO PRESENT
a ‘significant challenge’ to prisons,
according to the prisons and probation
ombudsman’s annual report. While it
is ‘difficult to give an exact figure’ for
the number of drug-related deaths, the
document states, there were 36 ‘other
non-natural deaths’ in 2018-19, most of
which were drug-related, and a further
23 awaiting classification that are likely
to prove the same.
Annual report 2018 – 19 at www.
ppo.gov.uk
Lower limits for online slots
THERE IS ‘NO JUSTIFICATION’ for online slot machine style
games to have staking levels above £2, says a report from
the Gambling Related Harm All-Party Parliamentary Group
(APPG). The document calls for the government to ‘urgently
introduce’ new gambling legislation with a focus on harm
prevention, and wants to see the use of credit cards banned
by online gambling sites to prevent people using debt to
finance their gambling. The sector also needs to urgently
Local News
adopt a ‘more responsible’ approach to advertising to
protect vulnerable people and children, it continues, while
the use of ‘VIP’ accounts and other inducements should be
restricted. ‘This report highlights the urgent need for a root
and branch review of the regulation of online gambling,’
said APPG chair Carolyn Harris MP.
See the December/January issue of DDN for a special
eight-page supplement on gambling harms
Change Grow Live’s
Richmond Integrated
Recovery Service has
achieved ‘micro-elimination’
of hep C with its onsite
nurse-led clinic that
removes the need for people
to be seen in hospital. ‘This
is a marvellous achievement
for the team at Change
Grow Live Richmond,’ said
lead nurse Jennifer Hannon.
ROYAL RECOGNITION
The Cyfle Cymru peer
mentoring academy –
which helps people develop
their own careers and
education while supporting
and guiding others – has
received the Princess
Royal Training Award from
Princess Anne. The scheme’s
success was based on ‘the
talents and hard work of
our peer mentors’, said
programme director Lynn
Bennoch. ‘We’re thrilled.’
NOVEMBER 2019 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • 5