Tomorrow's Strategy Today
Monday/25/Feb 2008 Filed in:
CommentaryIts been a long wait, but its nearly upon us. The new drug strategy will be launched by the Home Office on Wednesday. Its feels funny to be commenting before publication, but from what I've heard, its pretty much going to be the same old same old - with maybe a few bells and whistles. So as they dot the final teas and cross the eyes of the new strategy over at Marsham Street, I thought I'd let you know in advance what the reactions will be across the field ....The legalisers will hate it and say that only by regulating the market for all substances can we ever hope to have a successful drug strategy.
The abstention lobby will say that there isn't enough about people successfully coming off drugs. The harm reductionists will say that there isn't enough about health in it (and given our levels of blood born viruses and the substantial disinterest we've seen in needle and syringe programmes over the past ten years there probably isn't). The police will say its all a crime issue and there's not enough money going into enforcement and DIP (but secretly many of them will be concerned about harm reduction too)
The mental health trusts will say its all a health issue and there isn't enough about Dual Diagnosis. The major drugs charities will say more money needs to go into treatment - and that they would have liked to see something more about creating a level playing field for them in the procurement processes (ie direct grant funding them for their core costs). Small drugs charities will be too busy trying to do their work and keep afloat to even notice the new strategy.
The Department for Children Schools and Families will welcome the inevitable new investment in Young People Schools and Families and the drug education lobby will tell us its all recycled money anyway and that none of its new really.
Online auction sites will release press statements welcoming the new strategy as thousands of nervous and confused clubbers sign up to shift dodgy ipods before the new asset seizure regulations for low volume dealers come in.
The Daily Mail will have a headline about massive increases in drugs and crime - all of it linked to cannabis and alcopops - and The Independent will do the same only they'll have a more complicated looking diagram and a marginally more moralistic leader.
People who do research will say there's not enough emphasis on the evidence base and people who work in DATs will say *!@*!! the evidence base what are the targets (and where's my budget gone)?It being a Wednesday and given what's happened to the Pooled Treatment Budget, many grass roots drugs workers will be scanning the Guardian and wondering if it really isn't too late to train as a probation officer. (It is).The people who were responsible for writing the last strategy will smile and nod and secretly think theirs was much better. The people who hope to be responsible for writing the next one will smile and nod - and secretly think theirs will be much better.
And the Home Office? Well I guess they'll all be breathing a big sigh of relief that its out of the way for another few years. Or is it? Maybe this time rather than a strategy cast in stone we're going to see something a bit different - something that's more about collaboration and debate than a fait accompli from the powers that be? Its my personal hope that there will be real open discussion and dialogue about and around this new strategy, less spin and a franker acceptance of what works and what doesn't. Because despite the industry infighting and the media hysteria, this is an important time in UK drug policy. The strategy that the Home Office unveil on Wednesday will be the background against which all our work over the next three years will be framed. Its important because its a strategy coming at a time of stabilising or decreasing investment. We've had our feast, our troughful of resources - only time will tell if we spent them wisely or not. The next three years will be about effectiveness (whatever that is), value for money and localism. That is going to require a different discipline from the drugs field - more co-operative working to avoid duplication, but also more challenge to policy initiatives we know won't work (and less keeping quiet just so the money can be pocketed)
In my predictive 'survey' of reactions above I missed out one group - people directly affected by drugs and drug use.
Well, for them I guess Wednesday is going to be pretty much the same as Tuesday. Some will have a good day, some won't. Some people will have a hit with a clean needle and some with a dirty one - someone will catch HIV. More people will get Hepatitis C. Some people will get busted, others will graft and score with no problem at all. Of those who get busted some will get assessed, some will go into treatment. Some of them will stay for a short while - some for longer. Someone will see their family for the last time. Someone will start a new life without drugs. Someone will be sleeping rough - drunk or off their face on whatever they could get their hands on. Someone else will be opening the door to their new home - maybe the first place ever they could call their own.
Some people will still be dealing with the impact of other people's drug use - kids will be coming home from school wondering if their mum or dad is drunk or stoned; parents will be worrying about their kids walking to the shops through a street drug market - or getting caught up in using. Someone's partner may catch HIV - and neither of them know it. A house will get burgled. Someone will buy some shoplifted perfume for a Mother's Day present. On a street somewhere, someone will sleep easier knowing that someone else is spending the night banged up. Another person will cry themselves to sleep for the exact same reason.
Much of our current strategy is predicated on the idea that we can make some of these peoples days work out a bit differently in the future. Whether this is through the provision of treatment, aftercare, or mainstream services and support, through realistic community-gains focussed enforcement strategy, or through international initiatives, the purpose of the strategy and of our work must be to make things better. Its about identifying the harms of drug use, wherever and however they occur, and trying to intervene to reduce the damage, to reduce the harm. It has to be about more than words on paper, ministers speeches, or hitting the targets. Its about people. And that's what - if we are to take more responsibility for the strategy locally - the drugs field has to get better at dealing with - individuals who have very different needs and communities that are full of competing demands for our help.
Whatever the strategy says lets hope we can deliver what's needed.
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Tags: Drug Strategy, Drug Policy, Home Office