PARLIAMENTARY GROUP
implemented needle exchanges
to stop sharing and prescribing to
reduce injecting.
But there were still battles
to be fought over clean injecting
equipment. I had been seconded to
the Standing Conference on Drug
Addiction (SCODA) from the THT to
write a booklet about AIDS for drug
users, but in February ‘86 I spoke
at a large National Haemophiliac
Society meeting in Newcastle at
which I represented SCODA and
called for a serious examination of
supplying clean needles.
This was picked up on
Newsnight, and on Monday I found
myself called to the office of the
director. In fact the Friday before,
after six months of abstinence
from opiates, I had engaged a
private doctor to look after me
so that I didn’t resume injecting.
He strongly objected that I had
supported needle exchanges. I
was also told that I ‘looked stoned’
and under no circumstances
could someone work in a drugs
agency even on legal methadone.
That same day I returned to the
THT where we concentrated on
reducing the risk for drug users
through advocacy with politicians,
speaking engagements, and writing
leaflets. By 1988, the McClelland
report in Scotland and the ACMD
special report chaired by Ruth
Runciman gave the green light to
access to clean needles, setting
up 15 pilot schemes in England
and Scotland. These were quickly
expanded when the pilots reported
favourably and both reports called
for an immediate re-evaluation of
methadone prescribing.
GPs had also become more
independent and proactive especially
if they had no specialist prescriber.
West Berkshire Health Authority
under Ailsa Duncan, their drugs
coordinator, engaged me in 1988 to
train a group of around 15 GPs to
prescribe methadone. It was a fiveday
course with a written handbook.
Apart from Ailsa, none of the doctors
were aware they were being trained
by a methadone patient!
I have great respect for all
evidence-based treatment including
non-prescribing approaches when
it’s what the patient seeks. But
present policies that deny people
such approaches are shameful and
should not be tolerated. In the last
part of this series, we will look at the
golden age of drug services – the
first eight years of 2000. And how
it all collapsed and we ended up
where we are now.
Bill Nelles is an advocate and
activist, now in Canada. He founded
The (Methadone) Alliance in the UK
‘We know that the main
method of transmission
[of AIDs] among drug
takers is the sharing of
dirty needles... It was
clearly documented in
a paper produced by
Edinburgh professionals
in February 1986. The
Scottish Office commissioned a report from a committee
chaired by Brian McClelland published in September 1986,
which recommended decisively that the government should
bite the bullet and provide clean syringes at an exchange
centre, where drug injectors would be able to obtain free
needles and syringes.
‘The government’s response to that call has been so
inadequate as to be positively irresponsible. They sat on the
McClelland report for months. Eventually, they announced 15
pilot schemes, 12 in England and three in Scotland. Of course
such projects involve problems – the minister may wish to
comment on them – but we must make the projects work.’
Gavin Strang MP (Edinburgh, East),
House of Commons debate 31 March 1988
WHERE TIME
STANDS STILL
Things need to move faster to support
prisoners on release, heard the
parliamentary group. DDN reports
All probation services
would move to the
public sector in June
2021 – ‘a massive step
forward in providing
a unified service,’ according to
Katie Lomas, chair of the National
Association of Probation Officers
(NAPO). Outsourcing the supervision
and rehabilitation of offenders
to community rehabilitation
companies (CRCs) in 2015 had had
some disastrous consequences and
resulted in poor outcomes for the
people they were meant to serve,
she told the Drugs, Alcohol and
Justice Cross-Party Parliamentary
Group (which met online).
Clients had multiple needs
and services had to be flexible and
responsive, against a background of
tightening resources. Partnerships
were being hampered by a lack
of information sharing, which
was making it too easy for people
to ‘slip through the cracks’.
Everything in probation was
about relationships, she said, and
we must ‘develop and maintain
excellent partnerships in prison,
resettlement and the community’.
Despite reports by Lord Patel and
Lord Bradford outlining problems
and recommendations, there had
been little analysis and follow-up
or evidence that anything had been
taken forward, said Professor Alex
Stevens, former chair of the ACMD’s
Custody-Community Transitions
Working Group. Prisoners were
still routinely released on a Friday
afternoon without any support in
place, including housing, and just
£46 in their pockets. While the
proportion of prisoners released
with naloxone had increased from
12-17 per cent in England, the pace
of change was far too slow.
Amy Levy, Humankind’s assistant
director for North East prisons
reported positive results from
partnership working and mutual
support during the COVID situation,
with a focus on continuity of care
and harm reduction. Jaya Karira
and Max Griffiths, working in WDP
services, also emphasised the value
of improving communications
between prisons and treatment
services, specifically around prisoners’
medication needs on release. They
also called for mandatory naloxone
distribution and diligence around
BBV testing and information-sharing
with community healthcare teams.
A prison officer for more
than 30 years, Jo Simpson spoke
of his frustration that despite
improvements, the service had
‘hardly come on in leaps and
bounds’. ‘I have seen some good
reports but nothing done with
them,’ he said. Technology in
prisons was ‘non-existent’ when
it could have helped significantly
during COVID, enabling prisoners to
talk to their families and continue
their education.
‘People tend to blame the prison
staff, but we get frustrated that
things aren’t happening,’ he said.
‘They keep saying we’ve got a drug
strategy programme – but where
is it?’ DDN
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