Transcript Mike McCarron - Scotland`s Futures Forum

The mainstream challenges of
developing healthier alcohol
and drug policies and practice
Mike McCarron, The Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action
Teams
Scotland’s Futures Forum – 3rd April 2008
Global View
The Global Village proportionately reduced to
100 people includes:
•
•
•
•
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6 possessing 59% of wealth and living in USA
80 living in poverty
70 illiterate
50 suffering hunger and malnutrition
52 women and 48 men
Global Substance Use by Adults
• 50% Alcohol
• 30% Tobacco
• 5% Prohibited drugs (inc 4% cannabis)
• 0.6% Problem drug use is mainly in poorest
communities (as in Scotland)
Inter-Country Comparisons
Sweden
Tax rates Sweden:
Individual:
•
Under 26000 - 31%
•
over 26000 51%
•
over 40000 56%
•
Employers Social Security contribution 32% of gross income
•
VAT 25% Most services
Community Contrasts
Individual Situations
• “If there is less [food] I eat less.I have to
feed the family first. Most days I don’t
eat.The only place my diet will get me is
death and is that really such a bad
option?”
-Service User (SDF Gallery)
Structural Relative Inequality
Scotland’s Challenge
• Sizing the problem: alcoholrelated deaths
Male liver
cirrhosis
mortality
rates:
Scottish
rate =
2.5 times
E&W rate
Sizing the problem: deprivation and
alcohol
In Scotland 2005, men in most deprived areas 6 - 7 times
more likely to die an alcohol related death
160
Death rate per 100,000 population
140
120
100
80
60
Male
Female
40
20
0
Least deprived
2
3
Deprivation quintile
4
Most deprived
Source: ISD Scotland based on GROS
Scotland: Some Promising
Policies
New Futures Fund
10,000 Clients over 5 years in 70 projects, costing £34m
(1,630 clients with drug problems in last two years)
– 75% reported increased self confidence and motivation
– 50% thought their chances of getting a job had increased
–
–
–
–
21% went into a job
12% moved into education or training
14% joined a government employment or skills programme
10% went into volunteering
Promising Policies
• Housing right for all by 2012
• Unemployment analysis – Community Benefit
(Raploch) – apprenticeships (Glasgow)
• Improving individual sense of wellbeing
• Promoting “recovery”& essential services
• Lower income proportionate increase
• Early years prioritisation – kinship care
allowance
The Next Step
• 1998
“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” (ACMD, Drug Misuse and the
Environment)
• 2008
From now on alcohol an drug policy and practice should
be fully integrated within strategies and practice seeking
to reduce poverty, multiple deprivation and social
exclusion – and vice-versa
Because
A big reduction of inequality in
Scotland would make a major
contribution to reducing the damage
caused to its population by alcohol
and drugs by half by 2025