The widespread availability of crack cocaine is ‘driving addiction, mental health struggles and homelessness’ in England’s deprived communities, says a new report from Birkbeck, University of London and the University of York.
This is especially the case in the north, the document states. Researchers interviewed people with crack, opioid and alcohol dependency in two towns – one in the north and one in the south – who had been out of treatment for more than a year. Many of the participants in the northern town felt that the easy availability of crack meant that it was ‘impossible’ to avoid. The ‘ubiquity’ of the drug had been a ‘key feature in their initiation and inability to stop’, the report states.
Almost half of the untreated participants in the northern town were using crack, compared to just 4 per cent of those in treatment, ‘highlighting a major gap in support’. Three quarters of those not in treatment were also in urgent need of housing, while 85 per cent had serious mental health issues. People using crack reported spending up to £500 a day on the drug, ‘often relying on benefits, begging, or shoplifting’, the report states. ‘Service providers across England confirmed high numbers of untreated users and the challenges of supporting them,’ it adds.
While heroin users in the UK are an ageing population, there is ‘growing evidence of new cohorts of younger crack cocaine users’, the document says. Participants in the northern town using crack were much younger than in the southern town, whether in or out of treatment. ‘Crack users are also highly marginalised, making abstinence an ambitious goal,’ it adds. ‘There is no “gold standard” for treatment and no accepted form of substitution therapy. Rapid response and dedicated services may be most effective.’
‘Violence, poor physical and mental health, severed relationships, bereavement and homelessness were common among the participants we interviewed in both locations,’ said Professor Charlie Lloyd from the University of York. ‘Crack and opioid use were part of their extreme marginalisation and formal drug treatment meant little in this context, when the fundamentals of safety and warmth were in such short supply.’
‘Our empirical research across the two study sites has highlighted that those who are dependent on crack, opioids and alcohol face a myriad of complex and multifaceted needs: substance use being one unmet need among many others,’ added Dr Bina Bhardwa from Birkbeck’s Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research. ‘This has led us to question – both conceptually and practically – ultimately, how we understand and respond to those with unmet needs in this area.’
Unmet need for substance misuse treatment available here