Pubdate: Wed, 08 Nov 2000
Source: Oldham Evening Chronicle (UK)
Contact:  P. O. Box 47, Oldham, Lancashire, England  OL1 1EQ
Fax: 0161-652 2111
Website: http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/

TREATMENT NOT PRISON

Drug Tsar Keith Hellawell is quite upbeat in his annual report, 
insisting that drug use among young people is rising at a slower rate 
or levelling out.

In Greater Manchester, where the fight against drugs is spearheaded 
by a partnership involving all 10 local authorities, the accent is 
moving more towards offering drug offenders treatment rather than 
locking them up in prison.

The system - arrest referral - offers addicts arrested for a variety 
of offences the opportunity of accepting treatment for their 
addiction or being sent to prison.

Arrest referral will be backed up by new treatment and testing orders 
which will give the courts powers to put drug users on a programme of 
treatment to get them off drugs and to monitor progress with urine 
checks on a regular basis. Those found to be using drugs will be sent 
to prison, where drug treatment programmes are also in operation.

If treatment programmes work - if they help drug offenders to kick 
the habit and to stay off drugs - they will prove far cheaper in the 
long run than custodial sentences followed by a return to drug abuse 
and crime.

But there are question marks about the infrastructure behind any drug 
treatment programme and whether the drug services really have the 
resources to cope with offering treatment to all those who need it 
and then the support and back-up to help recovering addicts stay 
drug-free.
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