War on Drugs

“Despite the £10 billion spent on the War on Drugs, the numbers emerging from government treatment programmes are at the same level as if there had been no treatment programme at all”, said Miss Gyngell in her report.

The report is critical of NICE stating, 'for NICE effective treatment interventions are limited to those treatments which have been subject to randomized controlled experimentation and are clinically based. This automatically limits the knowledge or treatments they can drawn on'.

The report is equally critical of Frank, the Government's drugs information service for young people, which recently hit the headlines when advisers were caught telling 13-year-olds that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol.

The report calls for the Government to “abandon the harm reduction approach”, “develop treatment support aimed at abstinence and rehabilitation” and “include a far tougher, better-funded enforcement programme to reduce the supply of drugs”.

The report states that more than £1.5 billion a year is spent by the Government in attempts to combat the drugs problem, and more than £800 million of that is spent on ineffective treatment programmes.

'It is time to abandon our failed drugs policy. We should develop proper treatment support aimed at abstinence and rehabilitation'.

"During a decade of Labour drugs strategy, policy itself has become an intrinsic part of the problem. It has been a costly investment in failure. The combination of centralised targets and a ‘medical management' approach to treatment has further entrenched addiction, adding to intergenerational cycles of substance dependency".

We have been campaigning for the last 4 years for our treatments to the used for the treatment of addiction and dependency, now this report confirms our findings and experience when dealing with the addiction services, they are 'dismal and ineffective'.

Please click on the reports below to read more about the scale of the problem.

The Phoney War on Drugs by Kathy Gyngell Published May 2009	Breakthrough Britain Addictions Published July 2007	Breakdown Britain Addictions 2006

Tackling Problem Drug Use Report 2010
A Report by the National Audit office confirms 'The Government is spending £1.2 billion in 2009-10 with the objective of bringing down the costs to society of problem drug use of £15 billion a year. But there is no framework in place for evaluating the achievements of the 2008 Strategy which limits Departments' understanding of the overall value for money achieved and where future resources should be prioritised. Without an evaluative framework for the Strategy as a whole we are not able to conclude positively on value for money'.

Critics say 'this is ridiculous, they [Labour] are spending £1.2bn a year on their drug treatment strategy but have no idea of whether or not it is successful. The lack of a 'evaluative framework' is either, intentional so the NTA can hide their dismal success rate, which was a questionable 4.3% in 2009 or gross incompetence'.

Addiction Today
For other facts about NTA treatment options see the Addiction Today website here.

Tory Health Reform
Tory health reform plans include:

• Scrapping all politically-motivated targets
• Putting more detailed NHS performance data online
• Improving cancer and stroke survival rates
• Enabling patients to rate hospitals and doctors
• Giving anyone the power to choose any healthcare provider that meets NHS standards
• Putting patients in charge of their own health records
• Opening up the NHS to new independent and voluntary sector providers
• Linking GPs' pay to the quality of results they deliver