Cannabis Harm Minimisation:

Vernon Coaker made a presentation  at the “Tackling drugs reducing crime” conference in Nottingham this week.

He said :

“Greater access to treatment and more effective treatment has not only delivered results for individuals, it has also benefited society and is helping to break the cycle between drug misuse and offending. And those offenders who enter drug treatment through the Criminal Justice System – through, yes, a degree of coercion – do as well as those who enter treatment completely voluntarily. So I hope we can now all accept that what matters is what happens when people get into treatment rather than how they get there.”

Do people who are forced into drug treatment do as well as those who have made the decisions that it it what they want?  Not according to Mark Eaton, quoted in Centre for policy Studies “2008 Drug Strategy – The Continuing Nationalisation of addiction“.

The real business of this strategy is about spending something like £4 billion of public money over the next decade on drug treatment. Now, the point about that is that this strategy was actually written after the Treasury last year agreed its funding for all of this, based on the same targets as the old strategy. So frankly, whatever the press release says, we can be confident that this new plan will be very similar to that old one, based primarily on measuring how many people are signed up for treatment, and the problem with that is it doesn’t tell you whether treatment is actually doing any good. If you remember, last October on the Today programme, we revealed some figures which showed that of the 180,000-odd people who were signed up for treatment, 20,000 never actually had any treatment, 80,000 didn’t complete their treatment, and just 5000, less than 3%, left the government programme free of illegal drugs. Now, since that report, one academic in the drugs world said it was, ‘like a rocket fired into the English drug treatment structure, an Emperor’s New Clothes moment’.

In my opinion engagement is esential for change.  If people have no intention of giving up drugs how can the treatment work?  I would like to see the evidence that those who are forced to have treatment do as well as those who chose to have it.

Vernon Coaker also talked about agencies working together:

” I wanted to say how proud I think we should be of those achievements and the investment that has made them happen. They would not have happened without the commitment of front line staff such as police officers, drugs workers, probation and prison staff and many, many other agencies. I want to thank the many people in this room who have been part of that success both here in Nottinghamshire and also nationally.”
And about  working with communities :

“Harnessing local participation provides quality intelligence and a better understanding of local concerns; and, just as importantly, it can provide a hostile environment for drug dealers and other criminals. And if that results in some more appropriate role models for our young people, then we will truly have made progress.”

But true partnership is for everybody - he talks about tackling drugs without any reference to engaging drug users themselves.   Why should he be listened to if he does not show that he is listening to others?  Drug users ar just as much vulnerable to local crime as everybody else.  Partnership working engages everyone – it is not about us and them.