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PROBATION PROMISES
The government has launched an
invitation to tender for organisations
‘looking to turn offenders’ lives around’
as part of its controversial ‘transforming
rehabilitation’ strategy (
DDN
, June, page
6). The public would ‘finally benefit from
the best of the private and voluntary
sectors, working together with the public
sector, to cut reoffending,’ said justice
secretary Chris Grayling, with contracts
expected to be awarded and mobilised by
2015.
www.justice.gov.uk/transforming-
rehabilitation/competition
FAMILY FEELINGS
Adfam has launched its annual writing
competition for families affected by drugs
or alcohol, with a grand prize of £150 and
£100 prizes for runners up. Entries for
Family Voices 2013 should be no more
than 500 words and sent to Adfam, 25
Corsham Street, London N1 6DR or
emailed to carols@adfam.org.uk.
The
Adfam/DDN Families First conference will
take place in Birmingham on 21 November.
Details at www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
VOLATILE SUBJECT
A new national support service for
people affected by the misuse of
aerosols, gases and solvents has been
launched by specialist agencies Re-Solv
and Solve It, with funding from the
Department of Health. Although more
than 50,000 people in the UK misuse
volatile substances, little support has
been available for them or their families.
www.communityforrecovery.org
CARE POWER
The government intends to legislate to
give the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
statutory independence, ‘rather like the
Bank of England has over interest rates’,
according to health secretary Jeremy
Hunt, who will relinquish powers to
intervene in the CQC’s operational
decisions. The measures will be included
in the Care Bill, which passes through
the House of Lords this month.
PHE PORTAL
Public Health England (PHE) has launched
a new ‘data and knowledge gateway’, with
a range of tools covering areas such as
alcohol, drugs, housing and deprivation,
at
datagateway.phe.org.uk
. An updated
alcohol and drugs support pack has also
been developed to support the joint
strategic needs assessment process and
local health and wellbeing strategies.
Pack at www.nta.nhs.uk/jsna2013.aspx
NEWS IN BRIEF
There has been a 33 per cent reduction in HIV infections in
adults and children worldwide since 2001 but ‘little
change has occurred in the HIV burden among people who
inject drugs’, according to a report from UNAIDS.
People who inject drugs account for more than 40 per
cent of new infections in some countries, predominantly in
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with many of these
countries ‘yet to demonstrate a robust response to this
public health challenge’, says
UNAIDS report on the global
AIDS epidemic 2013
.
Although people who inject drugs account for not more
than 0.5 per cent of the world’s population they now make
up between 5-10 per cent of all people living with HIV.
Progress in ensuring the ‘respect of human rights’ and
‘securing access to HIV services for people most at risk of
HIV infection, particularly people who use drugs,’ has been
slow, says UNAIDS, with ‘gender inequality, punitive laws
and discriminatory actions’ continuing to hamper national
responses. ‘Concerted efforts are needed to address these
persistent obstacles to the scale up of HIV services for
people most in need.’
Meanwhile a new study from Public Health England
(PHE) has highlighted the HIV and viral hepatitis risk for
men who inject anabolic steroids and tanning drugs.
Researchers found that one in 65 of 395 men surveyed for
the report had HIV, while one in 18 injectors had been
exposed to hepatitis C. ‘Injectors of anabolic steroids and
associated drugs are now the biggest client group at many
needle and syringe programmes in the UK,’ said the
report’s co-author, Jim McVeigh of Liverpool John Moores
University. ‘This research shows that anyone who injects
drugs is at risk of HIV and other blood-borne viruses,
regardless of their substance of choice.’
UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic 2013 at
www.unaids.org
Prevalence of, and risk factors for, HIV, hepatitis B and C
infections among men who inject image and performance
enhancing drugs at www.gov.uk
October 2013 |
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| 5
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Round-up
Eastern Europe still bucking HIV trend
It is likely that overall cannabis consumption would rise
‘significantly’ if the drug were legalised and prices
dropped as a result, according to a study of the economic
impact of legalisation by the Institute for Social and
Economic Research.
Average potency could fall, however, with ‘aggregate
consumption of the psychoactive ingredient THC rising
much less than consumption of the good itself, and
possibly even declining’, says
Licensing and regulation of
the cannabis market in England and Wales: towards a cost-
benefit analysis
.
‘All unambiguous claims for or against radical policy
options should be treated with caution,’ say the report’s
authors, given the levels of uncertainty around important
issues relating to the introduction of a regulated market.
These include a lack of understanding of why rates of use
had declined over the last decade and the ‘degree to which
the association between cannabis use and long-term
adverse outcomes is truly causal’. Much of the ‘heated
public debate’ on cannabis policy is far too limited in
scope, it concludes, with few of the ‘the most vocal
participants in the debate on drug policy reform’ taking a
‘sufficiently broad perspective’.
Product regulation similar to that for tobacco would
have some advantages, the document states, although
policy makers would need to bear in mind the
consequences of different potential forms of regulation,
with laissez-faire reforms likely to encourage large
numbers of small producers and therefore potentially
higher potency levels and consequent long-term harm.
Although the impacts on criminal justice and
treatment costs would likely be ‘modest’ – at around £200-
300m – the document estimates that the tax revenue
from licensed cannabis supply in England and Wales
would be between £0.4-0.9bn, ‘far less than some of the
assumptions that have appeared in the policy debate’.
However, the contribution to ‘reduction of the government
deficit’ would be between £0.5-£1.25bn, it says.
What the study did reveal was ‘large gaps in our
knowledge and in the data resources that would be required
to supply the missing evidence,’ said co-author Professor
Stephen Pudney. Some of these ‘may never be filled
adequately, because of the extreme difficulty of estimating
the true long-term causal effects of variations in drug use
on outcomes’, he said, with more sustained investment in
data and research needed to better understand the impacts
on areas such as drug-related crime and demand behaviour.
‘In these times of economic crisis, it is essential to
examine the possibilities of more cost-effective drug
policy,’ said Amanda Feilding, director of the Beckley
Foundation, which commissioned the report. ‘Our present
prohibitionist policies have proved to be a failure. Cannabis
comprises 80 per cent of all illicit drugs consumed
worldwide. If we are to protect the young, surely
governments can do a much better job than the cartels.’
Meanwhile, justice secretary Chris Grayling has
announced that ‘simple cautions’ are to be banned for a
range of offences including supplying class A drugs and
that the government intends to review the use of ‘all out
of court disposals for adults’ – including cannabis
warnings – as they can be ‘inconsistent and confusing’.
A total of 54 simple cautions – ‘a slap on the wrist’
according to Grayling – were issued in 2012 for ‘supplying
or offering to supply’ a class A drug. The announcement
was made in the same week that Durham chief constable
Mike Barton wrote in the
Observer
that ‘outright
prohibition just hands revenue streams to villains’ and
called for a radical reform of drug policy.
Cannabis legalisation could
see use rise but potency fall