Pubdate: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175 Author: Anne Perkins, political correspondent, The Guardian Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) DRUGS WAR 'MUST TARGET POVERTY' Blairite Thinktank Calls For Centres To Test Purity The war on drugs has failed and should be replaced with an attack on poverty and joblessness, according to a report from a Blairite thinktank. The Foreign Policy Centre report also suggests public points be provided where the purity and hence safety of could be tested, and calls for the employment agency to make it easier for addicts trying to quit to claim benefits. The report is written by Rowena Young, who has close connections with Downing Street. She argues that soaring drug dependency statistics show the inadequacy of the government's attempt to clamp down, since it focuses disproportionately on the users of soft drugs rather than successfully convicting pushers of heroin and cocaine. A majority, 58%, of under 24-year-olds had used drugs, but only a tiny minority became dependent, the report said. Thousands of people used drugs recreationally without coming to harm. "Most grow out of it," it said. Government policy was hampered by "an unhealthy cocktail of acute public anxiety, simple nostrums, tabloid bile, vested interests and political opportunism". The report said: "There is not a single piece of evidence to show prohibition works. Seizures can grow impressively but the quantities of illicit drugs hitting the streets show an unerring ability to keep pace." It mocked the ambition of the former drugs tsar Keith Hellawell to create a drug free world for being a goal that "produces more incredulity than inspiration ... a far more sensible goal is a society in which substance use is well managed, and the risks minimised". The focus on cutting use and seizing more illegal drugs was misconceived and the results inadequately analysed. It ought to be replaced by concentrated efforts to ensure drug dependents came off and stayed off drugs, and to minimise the harm they caused by providing safe needles through vending machines. Schools should not exclude children who took drugs, but ensure they received help to take control of their lives. The report said the political climate was changing as other approaches failed, and the cost of failure mounted. One fifth of all people arrested were on heroin, and it was estimated that every heroin addict stole goods worth UKP43,000 a year. It challenged the government to respond. "It would be a major blot on its copybook if in five or 10 years time, the scale of problem use had continued to soar." Highlighting the link between deprivation and drug dependency first identified in the US in the 1950-60s, the report quoted a Glasgow survey from the early 1990s: "The relationship between deprivation and drug misuse is higher than any other variable they had studied. Poverty does not directly cause addiction. Instead it increases propensity to misuse." It suggested that the new national treatment agency should look beyond health issues and help people to change their lives. Work and training should be integrated into treatment, and at the same time agencies involved in regeneration should incorporate strategies for dealing with drug problems. Most controversially, it suggested that staff in employment centres assessing benefits needed the flexibility to be able to judge their clients' prospects, concentrating on "what will take them forward rather than imposing sanctions which lead to repeated short term failure". But it said legalisation was not an easy option; there would have to be controls on regulation and distribution. However, agencies working with drug users "should be allowed to permit supervised drug taking on licensed premises". - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl