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drinkanddrugsnews
| December 2011
Review of the year |
2011 according to DDN
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
JANUARY
With the field still digesting the new
drug strategy – published at the end of
2010 – the new year begins with more
official confirmation of major
restructuring for the sector with the
publication of the government’s
Health
and Social Care Bill
, one of the most
controversial documents in the history
of the health service and, according to
the King’s Fund, ‘the biggest shake-up
of the NHS since its inception’. Almost
a year later, the bitter war of words
over much of its content shows little
sign of abating.
FEBRUARY
The annual DDN/Alliance service user
conference continues to go from
strength to strength with its fourth
event,
Seize the Day!
in Birmingham,
where discussions are inevitably
dominated by funding challenges and
the looming new treatment landscape.
Meanwhile, Release says that funding
difficulties are putting its vital legal
helpline at risk, and the ongoing
‘heroin drought’ leads to warnings of a
potential spike in overdose rates when
supplies become more plentiful.
Government reform also continues
apace, with the publication of the
Welfare Reform Bill
.
MARCH
The government’s much-touted alcohol
‘responsibility deal’ with industry,
retailers and the third sector is branded
the ‘the worst possible’ and ‘all carrot
and no stick’ by Alcohol Concern, who
promptly pull out of the partnership
along with the BMA, the Royal College
of Physicians and other major players.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley,
however, is adamant that the ‘radical
partnership approach’ can deliver
‘more, and sooner’ than legislation.
APRIL
Harm Reduction International’s (HRI)
annual conference heads to the Middle
East and North Africa (MENA) for the
first time, with delegates in Beirut
hearing inspiring – and harrowing –
presentations from across the region
and beyond. Closer to home, the eight
payment by results (PbR) pilot areas are
announced by the government and
David Best tells
DDN
that ‘barbaric
discussions’ within a divided treatment
sector don’t look very impressive to the
outside world.
MAY
The sheer number of new drugs
coming onto the market means the
Misuse of Drugs Act is becoming
‘increasingly unenforceable’, warn the
UKDPC and Demos, while new NHS
figures reveal alcohol-related hospital
admissions in England are now topping
a million a year, at an annual cost to
the NHS of around £2.7bn.
JUNE
The Global Commission on Drug Policy,
which includes former UN secretary
general Kofi Annan and a number of ex-
presidents, calls for an end to the
‘criminalisation, marginalisation and
stigmatisation of people who use drugs
but who do no harm to others’, while the
Centre for Policy Studies’
Breaking the
habit
report kicks off a row about the
cost of drug use to the UK purse,
estimating the total ‘social and economic
burden’ of dependency at £3.6bn –
‘simply wrong’, says DrugScope. The
UNODC’s
World drug report
, meanwhile,
offers yet more evidence of ‘soaring’
levels of synthetic drug production.
JULY
The death of Amy Winehouse
unleashes a tidal wave of conjecture,
sermonising, finger-wagging and hand-
wringing from the nation’s media
commentators, despite the fact that
the official cause – death by
misadventure as a result of accidental
alcohol poisoning – would not be
known for another three months. The
government bans imports of
phenazepam, pending its control as a
class C drug, while a report from the
Independent Scientific Committee on
Drugs reveals that classifying ketamine
at the same level has had no effect
levels of use, and the latest
British
Crime Survey
shows that levels of
With the
economic
outlook
relentlessly
bleak and
structural
upheaval
ongoing, 2011
saw a nervy
treatment sector
simply trying to
get on and do
its job, while
drug use
patterns
continued to
shift and the
government
wondered how
to deal with an
ever-changing
menu of
‘legal highs’
STORMY WE
2011 ACCORDING TO DDN – THE HIGHS, THE LOWS