CARE CRISIS
There are now 140,000 children in the UK
being raised by grandparents and other family
members and friends as a result of parental
substance misuse, according to a new survey
by Grandparents Plus. Parental drug or alcohol
misuse is the single biggest reason why
grandparents have to step in to bring up
children, says the charity, with more than half of
carers having a chronic health condition or
disability themselves. Grandparents Plus is
now joining forces with The Children’s Society,
Adfam and Mentor UK to highlight the plight of
carers bringing up children under challenging
circumstances. ‘We want to see their care
recognised, valued and supported,’ said chief
executive Sam Smethers. ‘But cuts to local
authority budgets combined with welfare reform
will penalise them and risk more children going
into care.’ www.grandparentsplus.org.uk
SUBSTANCE STANDARDS
Drug testing company Concateno and the
Family Drug And Alcohol Court have called for
national standard procedures for testing for
parental substance misuse in child protection
cases. Concateno’s specialist child protection
division, TrichoTech, provided more than
11,500 tests to family law and social work
professionals last year alone. It is estimated
that up to 1.3m children in the UK are
affected by parental alcohol misuse.
DRUG DRIVING TEST
The Home Office has produced the
specification for a new police station-based
drug-screening device for use on motorists
suspected of drug driving. Once approved, the
device will cut bureaucracy and allow suspects
to be dealt with faster, says the government,
as currently a medical examiner has to be
called out to assess whether a suspect is
impaired through drugs and authorise a blood
sample, which is needed to support a
prosecution. A positive test on the new drug
screener, however, will mean that a blood test
can be taken immediately. ‘Motorists under
the influence of drugs are a danger on the
road,’ said crime prevention minister James
Brokenshire. ‘We are determined that police
have the highest quality devices to help
identify them. This specification is a big step
towards that goal.’
News in Brief
6 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 7 February 2011
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
The NTA has launched its consultation on a new service
framework to replace the
Models of care
handbook in the
light of the growing focus on recovery.
The framework should reflect the importance of making
recovery ‘a desirable and realistic goal’, says the agency, and
will be designed to support local areas in delivering the new
drug strategy (
DDN
, 17 January, page 10).
Mindful of the criticism of the short consultation
period for the strategy itself (
DDN
, 25 October 2010, page
6), the NTA has set a three-month timescale and wants to
hear from anyone with a ‘personal or professional interest
in drug treatment’. The new document has the working
title of
Building recovery in communities
, with key
discussion areas including bringing together prison and
community treatment and whether to closely integrate
drug and alcohol treatment.
The NTA remained committed to a ‘balanced
treatment system which not only reduces harm but also
promotes a culture of ambition and a belief in recovery’,
said chief executive Paul Hayes. ‘The drug strategy sets
out a new vision for treatment and recovery and
Building
recovery in communities
will be the sector's action plan to
make it happen. Recovery is about people getting better,
overcoming dependence and getting on with their lives.
‘The current framework for treatment has served us
well in the past but we are now moving into a challenging
and exciting phase and the NTA wants anyone with a
personal or professional interest in treatment for
substance misuse to share their knowledge, skills and
experience to shape a new blueprint for drug treatment
for 2011 and beyond.’
Available at www.nta.nhs.uk. Consultation period ends 4 May
NTA: ‘recovery a desirable
and realistic goal’
News |
Round-up
The number of people testing positive for opiates
has fallen by 50 per cent, according to drug and
alcohol testing provider Concateno.
The drop confirms reports of a ‘heroin drought’,
says the organisation, which is warning of a spike
in overdoses and drug-related deaths when
supplies increase.
Positivity rates dropped by half in the last
quarter of 2010, based on data from monthly test
results conducted on behalf of Concateno’s drug
treatment clients. The tolerance levels of drug
users could also be dropping as they use more
adulterated forms of the drug, says Concateno,
risking overdose when purer forms become
available. Opium production in Afghanistan halved
last year because of damage from plant disease in
the main opium-producing provinces, according to
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) (
DDN
, 11 October 2010, page 4).
‘This situation creates a worrying cycle: a
shortage in drug availability at street level can mean
it is more likely to be cut with higher proportions of
other substances as bulking agents,’ said Concateno’s
head of oral fluids analytical services, Peter Akrill.
‘This reduces the active component of the opiate, and
a regular user therefore has to ingest a greater
quantity of the drug to achieve the same “hit”. From
experience, we know that when heroin then becomes
available, there is a real and likely chance of increased
overdoses and fatalities.’
See news focus page 7
Heroin shortage
prompts overdose
warnings
Harm reduction
boost for Middle East
and North Africa
Twelve countries in the Middle East and North Africa are set to
gain harm reduction programmes under an initial $8.3m grant
from the Global Fund To Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Iran, Pakistan, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco,
Egypt, Afghanistan, Oman and West Bank and Gaza will receive
needle and syringe exchange programmes and opioid
substitution therapy following a first round of funding in July.
The Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region forms
part of major drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan to Europe
and North America and is the only area apart from Eastern
Europe experiencing an increase in new injecting drug use-
driven HIV infections. There are an estimated 1m injecting drug
users in the region, with the number of new infections doubling
from 36,000 in 2001 to 75,000 last year.
The funding follows a successful bid by the Beirut-based
Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association
(MENAHRA). ‘The Global Fund announcement is timely and
will save lives,’ said MENAHRA director Dr Elie Aaraj. ‘With few
exceptions, all MENA, countries are marked by a weak
response to HIV and IDU. Similarly with few exceptions, these
countries share a weak civil society where in some it is quasi-
absent. The Global Fund’s round of financing will help to fill
that void and will help us access injecting drug users, a
quarter of whom are HIV positive in some countries like Libya
and Iran.’
The 22nd International Harm Reduction conference will take
place in Beirut in April, the first time it has been held in the MENA
region, organised by The International Harm Reduction
Association (IHRA) in partnership with MENAHRA and Soins
Infirmiers et Développement Communautaire (SIDC). The 2 May
issue of
DDN
will contain a full report.