MENTOR FOUNDATION'S 1^st INTERNATIONAL FORUM

25 January 2000

Thank you for inviting me to the Mentor Foundation’s first International Forum on the Prevention of Substance Abuse.

This Forum contains a clear message that the misuse of drugs is a world-wide problem.

No country is immune from the effects of drugs.

Which is why organisations such as this are important – to help share knowledge and ideas between countries particularly on drug prevention and treatment practices.

This is essential if we are to be successful in our fight against the harm that drugs cause.

I want to talk to you today about the anti-drugs strategy here in the UK.

I’m sorry I won’t be able to stay to listen to other speakers about their strategies, but there is an official from here my department, David McKintosh, who you can contact and who will pass on any feedback to me.

I am the Minister within the UK government with particular responsibility for tackling drug misuse.

Why me? Well it’s because tackling the drug problem requires resources from across government.

Different departments – of Health, Education, Home and Foreign Affairs all have a key role to play.

My job – as Government Co-ordinator - is to help pull all those different strands together – to make sure the different parts work together and deliver the results on the ground.

Drug misuse is a complex and difficult problem.

It is not only a threat to a person’s health; it is a threat to families and to communities because of the related crime.

It destroys peoples’ lives.

My party – the Labour party - came into office with a manifesto pledge to appoint an outside expert to bring in fresh thinking, experience and expertise to the government’s fight against drugs.

You have already heard from Keith Hellawell that the first challenge he was given was to formulate the Government’s overall Anti-Drugs Strategy.

Written by Keith and his Deputy, Mike Trace, and based on extensive evidence and consultation, the Government’s 10-year anti-drugs strategy Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain was launched in April 1998.

The key aim of the strategy is to create a healthy and confident society; increasingly free from the harm caused by the misuse of drugs.

It focuses on four areas:

helping young people;

protecting communities;

providing treatment;

and stifling availability of drugs on the streets.

The strategy contains clear targets for reducing the use of all drugs substantially.

With particular targets for the reducing use by young people of the most dangerous drugs – like heroin and cocaine – by 25 % within five years and 50% within ten years.

The strategy is designed to help individuals move away from drugs – but also to help reduce the impact on the wider community of drug related crime.

We know that up to one third of all property crime is committed by drug misusers.

So the simple fact is that if the misuse of drugs can be cut, then the incidence of drug related crime – with all the fear and misery that it causes people - can be cut too.

To back up the strategy, the government has put in an extra £250m into specific anti-drugs work over the first three years.

This includes an extra £70m for health and local authorities for drug treatment services and £18m to support drug prevention activities - particularly among young people.

The well-being of young people is paramount - it is also fundamental to the strategy.

Figures in the last couple of years have shown a small reduction in the number of 14 and15 year olds who experimented at least once with illegal drugs. from around 32% in 1996 to around 26% in 1998.

But we need to make sure these figures continue to fall.

Schools play a critical role.

We believe every school – whether it’s in the inner city, the suburbs or rural areas - should have a drug education policy.

The majority of schools, particularly secondary schools, have already established them and we are encouraging and helping all others to do so.

Young people need the knowledge and skills to resist drugs.

They need the attitude too – and this is perhaps the hardest to change.

It’s about having confidence in yourself and hope for the future.

But it ‘s also about encouraging young people to choose healthier lifestyles, and to participate and get on in life, rather than escape and run away.

Teachers need help to keep up with the ever-changing drug scene, which is why we are working with independent organisations like the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse to make sure that schools have proper guidance and the up-to-date information they need.

Drug education is most effective as part of a wider personal, social and health education programme that begins in primary schools and continues in secondary schools and beyond.

It should not just end in the classroom.

That is why the Health Education Authority is running a campaign in the UK which specifically aims to educate 11-25 year olds and parents about dangers of drug misuse.

The campaign includes the production of a wide range of materials including targeted press and radio advertising and drug education and literature aimed at young people.

This includes an interactive CD-Rom and an internet site called www.trashed.co.uk.

A specific goal of the campaign is to raise awareness of the National Drugs Helpline (0800 776600) which is a 24 hours a day freephone service for anyone wanting more information, advice or just to talk.

It’s very important that the action we take as governments is based on solid evidence.

It’s difficult - when you’re dealing with an illicit activity - to get information that is always 100% reliable. But any drugs strategy needs sound research that is independent and as accurate as possible.

Otherwise we may never know which policies and services are most effective.

So, for example, as part of our strategy, we need to measure the benefits of the treatment services we are investing in.

In the UK we are funding the National Treatment Outcome Research Study which looks at over a thousand drug misusers in treatment, and will measure the effect of that treatment on drug use, health, social functioning, and criminality.

It is the largest study of treatment results ever conducted in the UK and I hope the results (when we have them) will be of value not just here but in other countries too.

What I can say so far is that, given the severity and chronic nature of the problems experienced by the people taking part in the study, there is a clear reduction in the levels of drug taking and criminality as a result of effective treatment services.

Patients engaged in treatment have shown substantial improvements in reduced drug use compared to when they began .

This and other research backs up what we already know - that treatment works.

Which is why a major part of our strategy is based on the expansion of treatment services

We must also ensure we have enough properly trained staff to provide a high quality service to all those who need it.

That is why I am pleased to announce today that the government is shortly to begin a major new recruitment campaign to provide the extra trained staff that the treatment sector needs.

There are many different types of services – many of the actual providers are NGOs. Let me give you a few examples of projects here in London:

There’s the Structured Rehabilitation Service set up by the Turning Point group in Barnet for young drug misusers aged 18-25;

In Southwark and Lewisham the local authorities have set up a service for crack users, targeted at those most in need and at highest risk

and the Kaleidoscope Project in Kensington which has introduced a dual diagnosis worker to provide extra support for people with both drug misuse and mental health problems.

As I mentioned earlier, effective prevention of drug misuse also means effective crime prevention.

New research here in the UK shows that for every £1 spent on treatment, £3 is saved in spending in the criminal justice system.

That is a great investment both in human and financial terms.

The early evidence from our pilot Drug Treatment and Testing Orders – which direct offenders towards treatment – showed that the average number of crimes they committed fell by up to 90%.

And to help drug misusing offenders gain access to the treatment they need, an extra £20m is now being invested in the expansion of Arrest Referral Schemes.

In prisons we have also pledged an extra £76 million for treatment programmes, which include counselling, and throughcare services.

The Prison Service has already made considerable progress with a significant reduction in the rate of positive mandatory drug tests from 24% in 1996/97 to 18% in 1998/99.

But of course the process can‘t just stop when people are released from prison.

We need to ensure that probation services, local health services and the employment service are working together to ensure that treatment can continue if it’s needed and individuals progress is monitored.

Similar work is also being done in relation to ex-servicemen and women by the Ministry of Defence as part of our overall programme to tackle all aspects of social exclusion including drug misuse and homelessness.

We can educate people about the harm that drugs do, and provide treatment services, but whilst there are drugs available on the streets, people will be tempted to misuse them.

Our approach must therefore also focus on availability – on the supply of drugs.

We have improved links between the agencies tasked with stifling the availability of drugs into the UK and this has resulted in significant numbers of seizures of illegal drugs during 1999, particularly heroin and cocaine.

And we are now channelling the money seized from drug traffickers back into the fight against drug misuse, via a Confiscated Assets Fund.

It also crucial that we continue to work closely with international partners to restrict the flow of drugs across national borders.

My colleague John Battle has already outlined some of the initiatives that the UK is currently involved with.

No one is under any illusions about the scale of the task we face here in the UK or across the world.

There are no easy answers and we have to be realistic and sensible about drugs and drug misuse.

Take, for example, the arguments over cannabis-based medicines.

This is not an argument – as some in the media suggest – about legalising cannabis.

This is a medical argument that can only be settled by proper scientific research.

That’s why the UK is now licencing two unique research projects to make a proper assessment of what the benefits might be.

And we will licence others if necessary and keep an open mind on the options available.

I think that’s a sensible way forward.

There is no doubt that the problem of drug misuse is confronting every society.

And it is still a growing problem. We have to face up to that.

Here in the UK we have a 10-year drugs strategy which I am confident will deliver results.

But there is a long way to go.

And no one is claiming to have all the answers.

Which is why sharing knowledge and expertise with other countries is vital to success.

I hope you will get a flavour of our approach this afternoon. I look forward to hearing reports of your ideas too.