Transcript Women into Work - Scottish Drugs Forum

DRUGS AND POVERTY WHAT ARE THE CONNECTIONS
Scottish Drugs Forum Conference 2006
Morag Gillespie
Drugs and Poverty
• Literature review - financial support from
ADATT
• medical/ criminal justice focus
• explore links between drugs and poverty
• think of consequences for policy and
practice, reopen debate
• Personal expertise in poverty related
issues, especially the welfare state and
welfare rights.
Links - drug use and poverty
• changes in 70s and 80s – de-industrialisation,
mass long-term unemployment
• no prospect of a ‘job for life’ and few
opportunities to gain employment.
• ‘New Right chose to blame the victim.’
• New enemy in the drug addict - young heroin
users - social outcasts threatening the
community cohesion
• 2 groups of youth: one, social deviants , the
other ‘respectable’ youth at ‘risk’.
New Labour
“We want now and in the future to see deprivation
given its full and proper place in all considerations
of drug prevention policy, at both the local and
strategic levels, and not let slip from sight.”
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (1998)
Scottish Parliament Social Inclusion, Housing and
Voluntary Sector Committee inquiry (2000)
– recognised most deprived communities were most
seriously affected by drug misuse and
– problem drug use inextricably linked with other extreme
forms of social exclusion - homelessness, persistent
offending and street prostitution.’
What is the follow through?
Policy shifts taking place in drugs policy
• move from voluntary towards compulsory
services
• Shift in priorities from helping the ‘health needy’
towards the ‘criminal needy’
• cultural shift from co-operation towards
coercion/ conflict
(Kubler and Walti, 2001)
Social-Public Order Regime
New term:
• changing working cultures between
health/social sectors and police,
• shift from antipathy and suspicion towards cooperation and consensus,
• more co-operation/ wider involvement in
addressing health/ social problems of drug
users,
• but extending social control over them (Kubler
and Walti, 2001)
Poverty and Social Security
• New Labour committed to eradicate child poverty
in 20 years and work seen as the main route out
of poverty.
• Reforms: tax/ benefits; New Deal; changes to
delivery; Progress 2 Work, Scottish New Futures
Fund Initiatives
• Labour market - uncertain route out of poverty.
• Work - 48% of exits from poverty but for 30%
households produced no benefit.
• children in families moving in and out of work
amongst those in persistent/ severe poverty.
Unemployment
• 51,000 opiate/benzodiazepine drug problems
• SDMD - 14,300 new contacts in 2004/5 and,
over 5 years, average 85% unemployment
• Employer attitudes - conditional re exoffenders/imprisonment
• Half prisoners have literacy problems, 43% no
qualifications, 45% on probation misuse alcohol
and drugs.
• Barriers to work: drug use and recovery
important - ex prisoners, mental ill health
• Low benefits, claims stopping, appeals affect
health and diversion from work.
Area Deprivation
Percentage of drug related deaths by Dep Cat
30
%
D
R
D
s
20
10
0
%
DRDs
1
0.5
2
6
3
12
4
24
Dep
Cat
5
15
6
18
7
24
Explaining the link?
• Pattern of who becomes addicted and who
encounters problems is not ramdom - close link
with social exclusion
• (Forsyth and Barnard) - children trying drugs socio-economic differences not reflected in
levels of reported drug usage.
• Concentration of problem drug use in areas of
deprivation amongst adult
Complex interactions
• Urgent housing need - ‘hard to let’ areas.
• availability of heroin locally including through
friendship networks on an experimental basis.
• heroin use can establish local status
• Drug becomes another commodity in hidden
and irregular local economy
• Fewer sustaining life commitments affect patters
of use.
• Life style can ‘solve’ burden of unemployment
and more difficult to give up in high
unemployment areas. (Pearson)
Drug selling in Communities
2 preconditions to an established drug market
• community - fragmented and atomistic with
little social capital
• very deprived but socially cohesive communities
with strong family and social networks
• retail drug markets can benefit deprived
communities e.g. illicit goods/ profit from
selling drugs.
• complex nature of local drug selling in
communities needs to be better understood
• include community capacity building, prevention
and ’exit’ strategies for those involved. (May et al)
(Seddon) Association of .certain drugs and criminality
seen as ‘natural‘ rather than historical.
• Focus on socially disadvantaged groups criminalisation of the poor and focus of penal
responses.
• Need location in social context = more incisive
analysis for effective, progressive, informed response
(Spooner) Chain of events, not a single factor in
problematic drug use
• social environment - powerful influence on health &
outcomes;
• social institutions/structures can influence
environment.
• more attention to ‘social’ determinants of drug use
Diversity
Neale - particular groups more susceptible to the
various risk factors, e.g.
• homeless people, care leavers and/or excluded
from school,
contact with criminal justice
system or mental health services
• higher prevalence of drug use among these
particular groups.
Pudney - Social/family disadvantage is dominant
influence on drug use and offending amongst
young people.
Hidden Harm Next Steps
“as a first step we need to explore putting an
oral contraceptive in methadone. In that way,
we could reduce the problem and prevent
some children from coming to harm” Duncan
McNeil MSP (Greenock and Inverclyde)
Others question “ill-considered and simplistic
proposals” - make the case for women to get
proper contraceptive advice and treatment
• Report - contract for parents, requiring them to
bring their drug use under control.
• Risk of masking drug use amongst mothers
Kinship carers
• SE - Potential guarantee of rates and
additional fostering allowances - new
national allowance
• benefit grandparents/ other family members
who look after children affected by parental
drug use.
• Glasgow City Council - streamlined system
of foster care rates that includes increased
weekly payments.
CONCLUSIONS
• some large and quite basic gaps in knowledge
• huge potential for research, evaluation, evidence
to inform policy and reflect complexities
Do we want drug free communities by using
drug-testing or restricting addicts from retail
areas? (Prof. McKeganey, Sunday times 11.6.06) or
acknowledge poverty and grapple with the
complex issues.
Government policy “an unhealthy cocktail of acute
public anxiety, simple nostrums, tabloid bile,
vested interests and political opportunism”
(Young,Guardian 29.3.2002)
Some questions to consider
1) Has specialisation reduced our
understanding/willingness to discuss the big picture
beyond our specialist remit -have partnerships
affected vol. sector independence.
2)
Do we need to increase “travel” among the drug
field and anti-poverty field for those with an interest
in seeing “the other side”, e.g. secondments and
placements for researchers, policy makers and
practitioners?
3)
Should we embrace collaborative work with
different researchers, policy makers and
practitioners?
4) “Drug knowledge” gained by traditional research
avenues - Do we embrace and value other types of
knowledge?
5) How do we ensure the interests of local communities
and communities of interest are included in
gathering new knowledge about drugs and poverty
6)How can UK social security policy (benefits)
contribute to reducing the spiral from recreational to
problem drug use, criminalisation to exclusion?
7) The link between conviction and deprivation – how
should this be tackled?
8) What are the most urgent priorities for everyone?
research priorities?