Transcript The communications zone

Drugs and Alcohol Policy:
Trends and developments
Dr Marcus Roberts
Chief Executive, DrugScope
‘This strategy sets out a fundamentally different
approach to tackling drugs and an entirely new
ambition to reduce drug use and dependence. It will
consider dependence on all drugs, including
prescription and over-the-counter medicines. It
recognises that severe alcohol dependence raises
similar issues and that treatment providers are
often one and the same ….’
Drug Strategy 2010
The new environment
Then:
Now:
NTA
Pooled Treatment Budget
PDU and OCU
Criminal Justice
Targets/performance
management (national)
Drug Action Teams
More money
PHE (Drugs, Alcohol and
tobacco)
Public Health Budget
New trends and concerns
Public health/recovery
Localism
Public health commissioning
(Considerably) less money
Beyond heroin?
PHE Drug Treatment in England 2012-13
State of the Sector 2013
The unpredictable …
New synthetic opiates (ACMD report on AH-7912)
Rethinking ‘our’ sector
Some figures
298,752 ‘problem drug users’ in England
 193,575 in drug treatment and 109,683 in alcohol
treatment
 2.7 million people took an illicit drug in 2011-12 (about ¾
cannabis)
 34% of men and 28% of women drank more than
recommended at least one day in the last week
 Some estimates suggest as many as 1.5 million dependent
on benzodiazepines
 50 million anti-depressants prescribed (Health and Social
Care Information Centre)

Some thoughts
The new environment and workforce and
skills development.
 Severe and multiple disadvantage and the
pervasiveness of drug and alcohol as issues.
 Services, interventions and sites.
 Competent for what and who are ‘we’?
 Unrecognised competencies (do we need
to keep up with the chemistry?)

www.drugscope.org.uk