New action to tackle drug use to protect Families and Communities

HOME OFFICE News Release (043/2008) issued by The Government News Network on 27 February 2008

Earlier intervention to get drug using families into treatment, new asset seizure powers to reduce incentives for crime and delivering new approaches to drug treatment were today outlined by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

The vision for the Government's new ten year Drugs Strategy is a society free of the problems caused by drugs, with fewer young people using drugs and ensuring that those who enter treatment complete it and re-establish their lives, making a positive contribution. It also aims to cut drug related crime and reduce the harm that drugs cause to individuals, families and whole communities.

This year the Government will invest almost £1 billion in 'Drugs: protecting families and communities', which builds on the current ten year strategy, by:

* extending powers to seize drug dealers' assets to demonstrate that crime does not pay;

* placing a greater responsibility on drug-users on benefits to get treatment and back into work;

* embedding action to tackle drugs through the neighbourhood policing approach, gathering intelligence from communities;

* strengthening and extending international agreements to intercept drugs supplied to the UK;

* focusing on families where parents use drugs and prioritising treatment for parents to protect their children;

* piloting new approaches that allow more flexible and effective use of resources including personalised treatment;

* increasing the use of community sentences with a drug rehabilitation requirement; and

* developing support for drug treatment so that those who quit drugs are offered training and support in getting work and re-establishing their lives.

Over the last ten years drug use has fallen to an 11 year low and drug related crime fell by a fifth in the last five years. Unprecedented investment in drug treatment has more than doubled the number of people getting treatment to 195,000 in the last year and led to faster treatment services.

Compulsory testing on arrest and assessment by a drugs worker, backed up by tough sanctions - including, in some cases, prison sentences - have contributed to a fall in recorded acquisitive crime of around 20 per cent and over 1,000 crack houses have been closed since 2003. But tackling drugs remains a formidable social problem with Class A drug use costing the UK £15 billion a year in crime and health costs alone.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said:

"Illegal drug use is unacceptable. It wastes lives, destroys families and damages communities. While drug use is at an 11 year low and drug related crime has fallen by a fifth in the last five years I am well aware we are dealing with a formidable social problem.

"The Government's ambition is clear. We want to see fewer people start using drugs and for our society to be free from the problems caused by drugs. We want those who do use drugs to enter and finish treatment and move on to lead healthy, drug-free lives. We want communities to be free of drug-related crime and we want see tough enforcement of the law.

"We will continue to send a clear message that drug use is unacceptable; that we are on the side of communities; that we demand respect for the law and will not tolerate illegal or anti-social behaviour; but that we will provide help for those who are trying to turn their lives around, to get off drugs and into work, to ensure drug problems are not handed on to the next generation; and that we expect drug users themselves to take responsibility, and will help them to do so."

The strategy will use opportunities presented by the benefits system to provide a more personalised approach so that drug users receive tailored support, such as training, and, in return, are required to attend drug treatment sessions. The aim is to strike the right balance of responsibility and support so that drug users stay off illegal substances for the benefit of them, their families and their communities. So, as a first step, if you are a known drug user receiving benefits, you will be required to attend an assessment by a specialist treatment provider.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said:

"Over the past ten years we have substantially expanded drug treatment - more people than ever are entering treatment, they are waiting less time to get into programmes and staying in treatment for longer. This new strategy builds on that success.

"Every drug user is different. This strategy will ensure that treatment is more personalised and tailored to suit individual needs. A key element is an innovative new pilot scheme which will help drug users who are on benefits get into treatment, get a job and live a drug-free life."

Children Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls said:

"We know that a small minority of parents are themselves drug-users. That can put children at risk - so we are announcing that parents with dependent children will get better and faster access to specialist drug treatment.

"At the heart of the new drugs strategy is recognising the influence of families in tackling the problem. So we will help parents by providing more information and support to help them talk to their children about drugs.

"We are also launching our new Parents' Partnership, which brings together big-name children's charities and parents' groups to help parents who don't know what to say to their children about drugs or what to do if they think their children might have a problem."

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said:

"We want to make sure drug users get the support they need to help them kick the habit and get back into work, where they can support themselves and their families. "Today's strategy sets out the first steps in ensuring the benefits systems gives people the access route of drugs while making sure taxpayers' money is well spent"

Deputy Chief Constable Howard Roberts, Vice Chair of the ACPO Drugs Committee, said:

"The last ten years have seen a significant coming together of the strands within the issue of tackling drugs. We particularly welcome the enhanced emphasis in the new strategy on prevention through working with young people and families. We recognise that it is the combination of effective enforcement, drug treatment and prevention in a context of all agencies working, both together and with communities, that is important for a successful future."

NOTE TO EDITORS

1. "Drugs: Protecting families and communities" is on the Home Office website at http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/.

2. The Drug Strategy has been informed by a three month consultation, launched on 25 July 2007, which led to more than 1,000 responses from the public. This was complemented by an innovative outreach programme undertaken by Ipsos MORI.

3. Over the next ten years the Government aims to:

CUT drug-related crime and disorder

We will do this by:

* Extending police powers to seize more dealers' cash and assets on arrest, rather than conviction, and re-invest those proceeds into the community. Those who buy 'bling', plasma screens and other household goods, to avoid circulating cash, will have their assets seized before they have a chance to disperse them;

* Widening the kind of assets liable for asset recovery and remove the 12 year limit within which such proceedings must be taken to send a blunt warning to criminals that they cannot keep their ill-gotten gains. We have already seized £125 million of criminal assets in the last five years but want to build on this success: we are committed to recovering £250 million per year in 2009/10;

* Enhancing asset seizure agreements to other key countries, starting with the United Arab Emirates in April 2008, so dealers can't channel proceeds abroad;

* Identifying and targeting the drug-misusing offenders causing the greatest harm to communities, using more effective and integrated approaches, improving prison treatment programmes and increasing the use of community sentences with a drug rehabilitation requirement;

* Expanding our work with other countries to prevent drugs reaching the UK, including drug screening at overseas airports;

* Ensuring tough sanctions for drug dealers importing and supplying drugs, including issuing ASBOs after conviction to prevent them re-establishing their businesses;

* Encourage the police to make full use of crack house closure powers and powers to close cannabis factories to bring respite to communities;

* Ensuring that people are aware of work being done to tackle drugs and enforce the law in their area;

* Working with neighbourhood policing teams across the country to ensure that community concerns about drugs are reported and acted upon.

CUT the risk of drug use among young people

We will do this by:

* Working closely with parents through a new coalition of family charities (Alcohol Concern, DrugScope, Rethink, The Children's Society, Adfam, Addaction, Family Welfare Association);

* Improving the information and guidance available to all parents to help them prevent young people's use of drugs, alcohol and volatile substances;

* Continuing to offer credible and well-used drug advice and information to young people - including through FRANK;

* Improving universal education and information for children and young people about drugs, alcohol and volatile substance misuse;

* Examining what more schools and colleges can do to identify and support pupils at risk of substance misuse, those already misusing substances and those affected by parental substance misuse;

* Involve families where appropriate in the treatment of young people misusing drugs;

* Reducing the availability of alcohol, cigarettes and volatile substances through tougher action on illegal and underage sales;

* Better tailoring of the drug treatment system to meet young people's needs, for example through parental involvement in treatment planning and at the important transition stage to adulthood; and

* Increasing access to sporting and positive activities.

CUT the number of families devastated by parental drug use

We will do this by:

* Providing family-based treatment services to protect more young people and families. Drug-using parents will continue to have quick access to treatment;

* Helping families at risk to improve parenting skills and help parents to educate their children about the risks of drugs, support families to stay together and break the cycle of problems being transferred between generations, drawing on learning from innovative programmes and providing intensive support where needed;

* Supporting extended family members, such as grandparents, who take on caring responsibilities for the children of drug using parents by looking at the circumstances in which local authorities can make payments to those caring for children classified as 'in need', backed up by improved information for carers and guidance for local authorities; and

* Supporting parents with drug problems so that children do not fall into excessive or inappropriate caring roles.

INCREASE the number of drug users making a positive contribution to society

We will do this by:

* Exploring the case for a new regime for drug users to provide more personalised support than the Incapacity Benefit or Jobseekers Allowance regimes, which in return for benefit payments puts responsibility on claimants to move successfully through treatment into employment;

* Increasing the support available to drug users to help them get housing and work through a new role for treatment agencies working with job centres and housing advice services; and

* Setting up trial projects to explore the potential of a more flexible use of funding to address individual needs.

EXPAND and improve drug treatment services

We will do this by:

* Tailoring drug treatment even more closely to individual needs, including those of people with complex needs, such as mental health problems;

* Providing family-friendly services to protect more young people and families. Drug-using parents will continue to have quick access to treatment;

* Driving higher completion rates for clients on treatment programmes, with more people re-establishing their lives and moving into work;

* Continuing to improve the standard of all treatment services, with a focus on treatment outcomes and on more clients overcoming drug dependence;

* Putting in place further major improvements in prison drug treatment. We will ensure better quality and more consistent drug treatment is provided across all prisons to offer a real chance for offenders to break free from a cycle of drugs and crime;

* Using evaluation from already established pilot studies to assess the effectiveness of new treatments including injectable heroin and injectable methadone. We will use emerging evidence to ensure we provide treatments that have proved to work and reduce crime.

* Exploring research into new and innovative treatment approaches to develop a better understanding of how addiction works and how it can be treated.