Drugs and Alcohol Policy:Trends and developments
Dr Marcus RobertsChief Executive, DrugScope
‘This strategy sets out a fundamentally different approach to tackling drugs and an entirely new ambition to reduce drug use and dependence. It will consider dependence on all drugs, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines. It recognises that severe alcohol dependence raises similar issues and that treatment providers are often one and the same ….’
Drug Strategy 2010
The new environment
Then:NTAPooled Treatment BudgetPDU and OCUCriminal JusticeTargets/performance management (national)Drug Action TeamsMore money
Now:PHE (Drugs, Alcohol and tobacco)Public Health BudgetNew trends and concernsPublic health/recoveryLocalismPublic health commissioning(Considerably) less money
Beyond heroin?
PHE Drug Treatment in England 2012-13
State of the Sector 2013
The unpredictable …
New synthetic opiates (ACMD report on AH-7912)
Rethinking ‘our’ sector
Some figures 298,752 ‘problem drug users’ in England 193,575 in drug treatment and 109,683 in alcohol
treatment 2.7 million people took an illicit drug in 2011-12 (about ¾
cannabis) 34% of men and 28% of women drank more than
recommended at least one day in the last week Some estimates suggest as many as 1.5 million dependent
on benzodiazepines 50 million anti-depressants prescribed (Health and Social
Care Information Centre)
Some thoughts The new environment and workforce and
skills development. Severe and multiple disadvantage and the
pervasiveness of drug and alcohol as issues. Services, interventions and sites. Competent for what and who are ‘we’? Unrecognised competencies (do we need
to keep up with the chemistry?)
www.drugscope.org.uk