The first, produced by Matrix Knowledge Group looks at the Illicit Drugs Trade in the UK . It has some interesting findings - the steadiness and consistency of demand for drugs, mark ups for both heroin and cocaine of in the region of 16,000 - 17,000%, the importance of personal contacts and trust in sustaining and extending business. Matrix interviewed 222 convicted and imprisoned individuals who had been engaged in 'high level' drug dealing. Most interesting in many ways were the attitudes expressed by individuals towards risk - with some individuals reporting that confiscation of assets was a more troubling prospect than prison. The report is available at homeoffice.gov.uk…rdsolr2007.pdf

Next up we have the report from the baseline interviews for DTORS (The Drug Treatment Outcomes Research Study). The researchers recruited 1796 individuals from across the country who were seeking drug treatment. These people are going to be followed up over the next year - so this research should give us some interesting information about what we actually achieve with people who come for drug treatment. In this initial look at the group I was most interested in the fact that of people coming into treatment through the criminal justice route, 73% of them had been in treatment before. The researchers suggest that this might mean that CJS interventions "re-instigate contact for a difficult group". Maybe so - and it'll be fascinating to see how many of them sustain contact and achieve the kinds of outcome that we - and they want. However it also begs the question of what was their previous treatment contact like if they're still bang at it? The risk behaviours reported by respondents in terms of blood born viruses were worrying - and serves as a reminder that in all services its critical to keep repeating those messages about not sharing works or other injecting equipment. The report is available at homeoffice.gov.uk…horr03c.pdf

The latest report of the Drug Harm Index is interesting - though like all reports about this piece of work should never be read without reference to Dr. Russell Newcombe's July 2006 Review of the UK drug Strategy PSA Targets and Drug Harm Index sadly no longer available on the somewhat chaotic Lifeline webpage (so far as I could tell!), but thankfully still obtainable from the indispensible drugs library at Stirling University drugslibrary.stir.ac.uk…psa.pdf

The Home Office report tells us that between 2004 and 2005 there's been a small fall in the drug harms (from 89 to 83 - go figure)that the index measures and that this is largely due to reductions in burglary, shoplifting and other drug related crimes. The report also tell us that the reduction in Hepatitis C cases has been offset in terms of the harm index by the increases in drug related deaths. But what of bicycle theft I can hear you ask with baited breath - well you can check for yourself at homeoffice.gov.uk…rdsolr2207.pdf

The Arrestee Survey 2003 to 2006 comes in at a tasty 139 pages. Its the result of interviews conducted in police stations with around 8000 people arrested because of offences related to drug use between 2003 and 2006. By far the most prevalent crime among the group was shoplifting - with over 35% of those taking heroin or crack at least weekly having been arrested for it. (This will come as a shock to many of us who've worked with drug users for some time who expected insider trading to be a key issue). Sadly also unsurprising was the fact that 29% of the respondents who took heroin or crack more than once a week had been in Local Authority care at some point in their youth. Only 1 in 10 of those taking heroin and crack frequently were in any kind of paid employment. On the positive side, the number of younger drug users reported that they injected drugs dropped from 33% in 2004 to 25% in 2006. 57% of those interviewed were dependent drinkers. The report - which is worth a read and probably good to keep in the smallest room in the house for a fascinating dip from time to time - is available at homeoffice.gov.uk…hosb1207.pdf

The National and Regional Estimates of the Prevalence of Opiate Use and/or Crack Cocaine Use 2005/06 tells us that just over 332,000 people in England are problem drug users and that the areas with the highest prevalence are London, Yorkshire and Humber, and the Northwest (curiously also the three areas in which I've spent most of my career). The East of England and the South East of England apparently have the lowest prevalence. The figure of 332,000 apparently represents only a very small rise on the last sweep of this research in 2004/5 - so the numbers of problematic drug users have remained pretty much stable. Short, sweet and available in summary form at homeoffice.gov.uk…rdsolr2107.pdf

Five down, three to go. My favourite next (yes I have a favourite) Its The Drug Interventions Programme (DIP): addressing drug use and offending through ‘Tough Choices’. This report, that compares results from DIP pre and post the Drugs Act and the pithily named "Tough Choices" (Test on Arrest rather than Test on Charge, Required Assessment etc) comes with more caveats than one would find in a caveat collectors cabinet of caveats. This is understandable as the researchers had a very difficult task - working with an imperfect research model using just desk research and official information sources to draw a picture of a very complex set of behaviours and individuals in a highly pressurised political environment. The Home Office summarises the key findings as being -

• The overall volume of offending by a cohort of 7,727 individuals was 26 per cent lower following DIP identification.
  
• Around half of the cohort showed a decline in offending of around 79 per cent.
  
• Rates of entry into treatment for DIP referrals were higher than for previous arrest referral programmes.

The report also shows us that -

• There were higher rates of attrition before 12 weeks after 'Tough Choices' was introduced

• There was a large increase in the number of "Low Crime Causing Users" (LCCUs - people with 0 - 3 convictions over the past three years) getting "gripped" by  DIP but a reduction in the proportion of "High Crime Causing Users" (HCCUs - people with 9 or more convictions over the past three years) coming into DIP
• There was a small increase in the number of HCCUs coming into DIP after the introduction of 'Tough Choices'
• Referrals into tier three and four treatment reduce from 47% to  41% after the introduction of 'Tough Choices'

Its a really interesting - if somewhat cautious - report - worth looking at alongside the Arrestees Report above. As one of my correspondents pointed out:

"From table 30 you can calculate that the 2172 people with no convictions for offences committed in the 6 months pre-DIP recorded 2492 convictions for offences committed in the 6 months post DIP excluding the offence that brought them in to DIP. Having come in to contact with DIP, from zero before, each commits a proven offence on average over once. Those figures relate of course only to the earlier test on charge cohort. What happened in the test on arrest cohort we don't yet know but it does suggest that the DIP process is not acting as an early intervention in to offending careers."

The researchers themselves suggest that more research is needed to better understand some of the findings - and to corroborate some of the evidence. Have a look for yourself at homeoffice.gov.uk…horr02c.pdf

The final two reports are both related to Blueprint - the flagship drug education research programme meant to have produced its full evaluation by now. The Blueprint Delivery Report and The Blueprint Practitioners Report are both available at drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk…execsummary.pdf?view=Binary. And you'll get a better and more detailed commentary than I'll ever produce here at the drug education forum. - Blueprint Drug Education Research Programme - Delivery and Practitioner Reports « Drug Education News

Tags: Home Office Research, DIP