STATE HARASSMENT
Both NGOs supporting harm reduction
programmes in the Ukraine and their clients
are being subjected to harassment and
abuse from state authorities, according to
the International HIV/Aids Alliance. Although
substitution therapy is legal in the Ukraine,
patients are being denied treatment unless
they complete ‘voluntary’ surveys on their
health and HIV status, states the alliance,
with NGOs also ordered to ‘provide evidence’
to state prosecutors. ‘This is a very worrying
situation which is negatively impacting HIV
prevention programmes,’ said executive
director of the International HIV/Aids
Alliance in Ukraine, Andriy Klepikov. ‘Doctors
don’t want to get involved in substitution
therapy programmes, injecting drug users
are afraid to become substitution therapy
patients and even for NGOs this situation is
becoming personally dangerous to be
involved in.’
PILOT PROGRESS
There are ‘positive indications’ that drug
cour ts are helping offenders towards
rehabilitation, according to a study of pilot
schemes published by the Ministry of
Justice. Both staff and offenders had
‘responded positively’ to the approach, in
which a sitting judge or magistrate is
encouraged to build a relationship with drug-
dependent offenders to reduce the risk of
reoffending, and improve attendance at
hearings and community order completion
rates, says the report. The courts had ‘had
success in joining up agencies and getting
to the root causes of offenders’ problems’
said justice minister Jonathan Djanogly. ‘The
model is now embedded in six locations
across the country and we will be further
scrutinising their effectiveness.’
Dedicated drug courts pilot evaluation
process study available at www.justice.gov.uk
ADVENT OF A NEW ERA
The Priory Group has been acquired by
private equity firm Advent International,
subject to regulatory approval. Advent says
it will work with the existing management
team to ‘support the continued operational
improvements’ being made across the
group. ‘Advent is the ideal partner that
Priory has been seeking, given its extensive
global and UK experience of successfully
owning and managing healthcare
investments,’ said Priory Group CEO Phillip
Scott. ‘As a well funded, leading private
equity firm, we look forward to Advent’s
support in developing and growing our
business over the next few years.’ž
4 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 7 February 2011
News in Brief
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
The government’s plans to tackle the sale of below-cost
alcohol have been criticised as ineffectual by health
campaigners, with Alcohol Concern saying they will
‘hardly touch the sides’ in addressing binge drinking and
alcohol-related harm.
Health organisations have long lobbied for a minimum
price per unit of alcohol to stop retailers from using alcohol
as a loss leader, but the proposals were omitted from both
the previous government’s mandatory code for alcohol
retailers (
DDN
, 1 February 2010, page 5) and the Alcohol etc
(Scotland) Bill (
DDN
, 19 November 2010, page 4). Under the
newmeasures, the government has defined cost price as
‘the tax drinkers pay’, meaning that retailers will be banned
from selling alcohol for less than the cost of duty plus VAT.
The proposal would stop outlets from selling a litre
bottle of 37.5 per cent vodka for less than £10.71 or a
700ml bottle of 40 per cent whisky for less than £8.
However, consumers would still be able to buy a 750ml
bottle of 12.5 per cent wine for £2.03, a 440ml can of 4.2
per cent lager for 38p or a litre bottle of 4.5 per cent cider
for 40p. The Home Office said the measures were ‘an
important first step in delivering the government’s
commitment to ban the sale of alcohol below cost’ and
crime prevention minister James Brokenshire maintained
that the proposals would tackle the ‘worst instances’ of
deep discounting. 'By introducing this new measure we
are sending a clear message that the government will not
stand by and let drink be sold so cheaply that it leads to a
greater risk of health harms or drunken violence,’ he said.
Alcohol Concern, however, said the price of the ‘vast
majority’ of drinks would be unaffected, and the threshold
was too low to ‘deter those who use cheap drinks to get
drunk’. ‘There would need to be a minimum price of at
least 40 pence per unit to see a drop in alcohol-related
crime, health harms and deaths,’ said chief executive Don
Shenker. ‘Once again the supermarkets have won the day.’
The Faculty of Public Health said that while the
proposals were an ‘important acknowledgment’ of the
link between levels of consumption and affordability, the
plans would have ‘little, if any’ impact on health. ‘The
small increase in price on just a few products will neither
deter heavy drinkers nor, crucially, children and young
people for whom pocket-money price alcohol will remain
widely available,’ said alcohol lead Mark Bellis, while the
British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said the measures
would have a ‘particularly devastating’ effect on pubs. ž
The number of alcohol-related deaths in the UK fell
slightly in 2009, according to figures from the Office for
National Statistics (ONS), although numbers have been
rising since the early 1990s. Deaths rose from 4,023 to
9,031 between 1992 and 2008, but fell to 8,664 in 2009.
The dip was likely the result of the economic climate, said
Alcohol Concern.
‘The slight fall in alcohol-related deaths mirrors a
slight drop in alcohol consumption, and while this is
positive, is wholly due to a drop in consumer spending as
a result of the recession,’ said Don Shenker. ‘It is very
likely that alcohol consumption will rise again once the
economy picks up. Government alcohol policy should
ensure alcohol becomes less affordable permanently, not
just in an economic downturn.’
Alcohol death figures at www.statistics.gov.uk
Scorn for government’s
cheap alcohol ‘crackdown’
News |
Round-up
A new chairperson and nine new
members have been appointed to the
Advisory Council on the Misuse of
Drugs (ACMD), the Home Office has
announced.
Professor Les Iversen is the new
chair, having previously been appointed
interim chair for a period of 12 months
after the sacking of Professor David
Nutt (
DDN
, 18 January 2010, page 4).
The unpaid appointments are for a
period of three years, with the
membership of the ACMD now
standing at 25. ‘The ACMD is an
integral and valuable part of the
government's approach to tackling the
harms caused by drug misuse,’ said
crime prevention minister James
Brokenshire. ‘We are committed to
ensuring it remains an independent
body with a broad, robust skill base,
representing expertise in science,
enforcement, health and drug
treatment and social policy.'
However, despite the government
stating in its drug strategy that ‘high
quality scientific advice in this complex
field is of the utmost importance’, its
plans to remove the requirement for a
statutory minimum number of
scientists on the ACMD as part of the
Police Reform and Social
Responsibilities Bill led to criticism
when the bill was published late last
year. The appointment of Manchester-
based GP Dr Hans-Christian Raabe has
also sparked controversy. Dr Raabe is a
member of an inter-denominational
Christian group and has been criticised
for his views on issues such as harm
reduction and homosexuality.
The other new appointees are
strategic director of addiction and
offender care at Central and NorthWest
London NHS Foundation Trust – and
former NTA director of quality – Annette
Dale-Perera; consultant physician and
clinical toxicologist at Guy’s and St
Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Paul
Dargan; director of Sarah Graham
Solutions, Sarah Graham; Judge Kyrie Ll
James of the First Tier Tribunal’s
immigration and asylum chamber;
branch head (drugs and firearms), of the
Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
Nigel Kirby; director of Oxfordshire
DAAT, Jo Melling; chair of clinical
pharmacology and therapeutics at the
University of Hertfordshire, Professor
Fabrizio Schifano, and reader in
substance misuse at Liverpool John
Moores University’s centre for public
health, Dr Harry Sumnall.
Nine new members for ACMD