February 2016 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 13
More conference reports at:
THE UK BAN ON LEGAL HIGHS
that
will begin in April is going to be one
of the stupidest, most dangerous
and unscientific pieces of drugs
legislation ever conceived. Watching
MPs debate the Psychoactive
Substances Bill yesterday, it was
clear most of them hadn’t a clue.
They misunderstood medical
evidence, mispronounced drug
names, and generally floundered as
they debated the choices and
lifestyles of people who are in most
cases decades younger than
themselves. It would have been
funny except the decisions made
will harm people’s lives and liberty.
Clare Wilson,
New Scientist
,
21 January
THE NEW ADVICE
from the chief
medical officer cuts the
recommended drinking limits for
men down to those of women – a
highly unusual thing to do by global
standards… The hyperbolic claim
that there is no safe limit at all –
that someone is taking their life
into their own hands when they
enjoy a glass of sherry – defies
common sense.
Telegraph
editorial, 8 January
DUAL DIAGNOSIS
is one of the
biggest challenges facing mental
health and substance use services,
but after 15 years of a variety of
initiatives it’s hard to see how
things have changed on the
frontline… The UK dual diagnosis
scene is running on nothing but
goodwill by a few enthusiastic
champions – how long can
anything be sustained on this
basis? With the increasing need to
provide evidence for
commissioning, it’s time to harness
the data that we have at our
fingertips to lobby service providers
and commissioners for new roles
and new initiatives.
Liz Hughes,
Guardian
, 9 December
THE PRESENT IMPERATIVE
to de-
stigmatise all manner of social ills
as the consequence of a totally
valid lifestyle choice seems to me
misguided and counter-productive.
Stigma, as a means of passive social
control, works.
Rod Liddle,
Spectator
, 5 December
THE BBC’S BIAS
in favour of the
legalisation of cannabis is great,
growing and ought to be
diminished. The corporation is
supposed to be impartial on major
issues of public controversy, but on
this subject it is rampantly partisan.
Your guess is as good as mine as to
why this organisation, dominated
as it is by London left-wing
metrosexuals, should be so one-
sided on this issue.
Peter Hitchens,
Mail on Sunday
,
6 December
IT WOULD BE NAIVE
to think that
legalisation or decriminalisation
would solve all our society’s drug
problems, but our best evidence
suggests that problem drug taking
is better dealt with as a medical
issue. Near-blanket prohibition has
failed to address drug harms while
mainly profiting the criminal
underworld. Our politicians have
made a habit out of rejecting
science, and we’re left with the
comedown.
Vaughan Bell,
Observer
,
13 December
The news,
and the
skews,
in the
national
media
MEDIA SAVVY
What can be done to tackle these problems? Should the focus, as some argue, be on
the reasons why drugs are used in prison (boredom, demotivation, corruption), or
on testing and punishment for usage? Hardwick says that any new strategy ‘needs
to go beyond specific drug services to reducing demands for drugs by offering
attractive purposeful alternatives, reducing prison violence and creating positive
staff prisoner relationships.’
Kit Caless is Addaction’s communications officer for London and the south
Quoting ACMD advice to the Home
Office that ‘the psychoactivity of a
substance cannot be unequivocally
proven’, Eastwood said it was an
example of needing to speak out when
things were wrong. Proving
psychoactivity was difficult, making the
legislation unenforceable.
‘Get out there and tell people that
this is one of the worst pieces of
legislation ever drafted,’ she said. ‘It’s
an affront to our brains.’
Professor Harry Sumnall, of the
Centre for Public Health at Liverpool
John Moores University, said that from
looking at treatment data, NPS didn’t
seem to be an issue for treatment
services – a long way from Neil
McKeganey’s picture of ‘a scourge that
could grow to eclipse heroin’, reported
by the
Scottish Daily Mail.
We were becoming prone to ‘risk
illiteracy, where we don’t have a good
handle on risk,’ he said. This could
make us powerless to act or react.
The key message to emerge was,
‘don’t panic, we already know what to
do’, said Sumnall. Existing approaches
were ‘entirely suitable’, with classic
harm reduction components
‘absolutely vital’, including messages
around not sharing syringes.
‘It’s not about new drugs,’ he said.
‘We’re not seeing new and novel
harms… It’s about understanding
cultural practices.’
THERE ARE NOQUICKAND EASY ANSWERS
to any of the questions posed by the prevalence
of NPS in Britain and its prisons.
But the debate is still in full swing.
YOU CAN JOIN IN
by attending
‘New psychoactive substances:
no longer a novelty – the expert view’,
15 March in London.
Details at
https://finder-akademie.de/
