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Release solicitor Kirstie Douse answers your legal questions in her regular column   Reader’s question: I am a landlord of a flat that I own and rent out, and I think the tenants may be growing cannabis.  I live in a different city so I’m not there often, but the last few times I have visited recently […]

‘Being responsive is central to how we work’ We talk about ‘the workforce’ and there are new strategies  on the way – so it’s been interesting to look at the first census of its kind in England. It gives a snapshot of who we are – and shows that lived experience has become an important […]

Council call London’s drug and sexual health services are failing to respond appropriately to gay men’s drug use, according to NAT (National Aids Trust). The trust has written to councils calling for action to address a ‘recent and rapid rise’ in the use of mephedrone, crystal meth and GHB/GBL in London’s gay scene, citing high […]

Big spenders Drug users in the US spend an estimated $100bn annually on cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine, according to a White House-commissioned report from the Rand Corporation. Total expenditure is driven by a ‘minority of heavy users who consume on 21 or more days each month’, says What America’s users spend on illegal drugs, […]

In January the London Joint Working Group on Substance Use and Hepatitis C (LJWG) launched a new report on the case for a peer-based needle exchange in London – designed by, and run by, the people who know how these services can work best (see news, page 5). Peers have lived experience of injecting drug […]

Around 99 per cent of people who inject drugs live in countries that are failing to provide adequate harm reduction services, says a new report from UNAIDS. Despite overall new HIV infections declining globally, infection rates among people who use drugs remain unchanged, says Health, rights and drugs: harm reduction, decriminalisation and zero discrimination for […]

Opportunities are being missed to create a treatment system accessible to all, writes Karen Biggs, Chief Executive at Phoenix Futures. Under cover of the dramatic reshuffle, the Government has announced additional funding for drug and alcohol treatment of £267m from April 2024. This is the third year of additional monies committed to support the Government’s […]

Drug-related deaths: A strong message from Addaction’s Mortality Matters conference was that treatment services need to put competition to one side and challenge the conditions that are allowing drug-related deaths to rise. DDN reports. How should we tackle the alarming increase in drug-related deaths head on, asked Addaction’s medical director, Dr Kostas Agath, opening the […]

Public Health England (PHE) is working to produce the first UK-wide set of clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment, the agency has announced. While the UK drug misuse treatment guidelines – widely known as the ‘orange book’ – have helped to ensure good practice in drug treatment, there has so far been no equivalent for alcohol. PHE […]

‘As 52 per cent of the population, sometimes our needs aren’t thought about in a specialised, specific way,’ Trevi chief executive Hannah Shead told this year’s DDN conference session on stigma and women’s services. ‘We can sit and talk about this stuff for ever, but we need to see things change.’  According to OHID’s Adult […]

The Calico Group is pleased to welcome Tom Woodcock as Director of Treatment and Recovery in a new role.

Are we doing enough to protect children from their parents’ drug and alcohol use? At a recent safeguarding conference there was plenty of cause for concern, as DDN reports. ‘Graham Greene said “There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.” We are responsible for opening that door,’ Joy […]

More than 120 killings of children and young people were carried out in the Philippines between July 2016 and December 2019, according to a report by the Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the Philippine Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center. Just under 40 per cent of the killings were carried out by the […]

[…] Permanent • Temporary • Consultancy Supplying experienced, trained staff: • Commissioning• Service Reviews• DIP Management• DAT Co-ordination• Needs Assessments / Project Management/ Groups and 1-1 drug workers/ Prisons and community drug workers/ Nurses (detox, therapeutic, managers)/ Many more roles... CALL TODAY: 020 8987 6061Register online:www.SamRecruitment.co.uk Solutions Action ManagementStill No.1 for Recruitment and Consultancy AAAPRIL […]

Green future Transform has launched a new publication on regulating legal markets for non-medical use of cannabis. How to regulate cannabis: a practical guide looks at the challenges of developing and implementing an effective approach, with the regulation debate now firmly part of the mainstream according to co-author Steve Rolles. ‘With so many countries leading […]

The government needs to invest an additional £552m in the drug treatment system over the next five years through the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), says the second part of Professor Dame Carol Black’s Independent review of drugs – one of more than 30 recommendations in the long-awaited document. An additional £15m in employment […]

Alongside last month’s welcome confirmation of treatment funding until 2025, the government also announced more than £50m to provide targeted housing support for people in treatment and recovery – the first time this has happened as part of a national drug strategy. DDN hears from OHID’s Rosanna O’Connor about the grant’s aims and ambitions. Last […]

Supporting people and changing lives People work for people – whatever your job, whatever the industry, the ultimate aim is to improve people’s lives. Nowhere...

Forward’s employment service director Asi Panditharatna looks at what the organisation has achieved over the last year and goals for 2022. Happy New Year to our commissioners, funders, partners, employers and the people we support. In 2021 we had an amazing year providing more employability, vocational training, careers advice and enterprise support services to people […]

[…] rooms, the other five key interventions are listed as sterile injecting equipment, voluntary and confidential infectious disease testing, infectious disease treatment, opioid agonist treatment – including in prisons – and finally, vaccinations against hep A and B, respiratory infections, tetanus, and the pneumococcal and the human papillomavirus vaccines for people living with HIV who inject […]

[…] proportion than the 4.2 per cent in the rest of the country), and only one in three London boroughs has a hep C testing-to-treatment pathway. In London’s prisons the situation is similarly poor, says PHE, with only 6.4 per cent of new receptions reported as having been tested, compared with 7.8 per cent in […]

With huge strides being made towards finally eradicating hep C it was vital that we kept up the momentum, heard delegates at LJWG’s Three years to go to elimination conference. ‘We now have three years to achieve our shared goal of elimination of hepatitis C as a public health issue in London,’ London Joint Working […]

 Inspiration fix Don’t curb your enthusiasm!  THE ENTHUSIASM AT THE WELSH SERVICE USERS’ CONFERENCE(page 12) was infectious and refreshing, particularly in this climate of real and impending cuts. It was a reminder of what’s working for many people – and that includes some economically sound decisions on best treatment options. Chris Campbell, founder of the user group SMUG, […]

The Metropolitan Police has made what it says is the largest ever seizure of synthetic opioids in the UK. Around 150,000 nitazene tablets were...

[…] there to give to others – targeting those high-population areas is really important.’ Inadequate supply Another alarming finding from the Release document was that only half of prisons and one in five young offender institutions were actually providing naloxone to those leaving custody – this despite the up-to-eightfold increase in risk of a drug-related […]

[…] of Lancaster. Horizon Alcohol, Drugs and Sexual Health Support – a service offering free, confidential and non-judgemental support for all Blackpool residents. Drug & Alcohol Services in Prisons – providing confidential help and support, and a range of life-saving clinical and psychosocial programmes.   Delphi Medical provide flexible solutions to recovery by working with […]

Stanton Peele challenges the received wisdom of the 12-step approach I recently received this email from a UK addictions worker: ‘Stanton, I was in a public health meeting today (well I was until I walked out). The government focus is currently all about facilitating 12-step engagement. I tried to make some kind of stand, and […]

Off track? Drug treatment is being derailed by the sector’s refusal to push for reform, says Ian Sherwood The distressing reality of drug dependence alters little over time, but society’s response to drugs and drug users has changed markedly over 30 years. During this time the field has developed an avoidance of the drug reform […]

Lack of stable accommodation makes it almost impossible to recover from substance issues. In the third of our latest commissioning series, we look at strong partnerships across the homelessness and substance misuse sectors. If it’s possible to draw any positives at all from the COVID pandemic, one might be that it demonstrated what proper joined-up […]

The Liberal Democrats have made a manifesto commitment to decriminalise the possession of illegal drugs for personal use and introduce a ‘legal, regulated’ market for cannabis. The latter would ‘break the grip’ of criminal gangs and raise £1bn in annual tax revenues, says their manifesto document, which also pledges to repeal the controversial Psychoactive Substances […]

The Achieve partnership’s cross-sector approach is making a real difference to people’s lives in the Greater Manchester area, says Dr Jonathan Dewhurst. Read it in DDN Achieve is the community alcohol and drug recovery service for Bolton, Bury, Salford and Trafford, led by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH). We provide support and […]

[…] those bereaved by addiction. Our services include a helpline, support groups, an annual 'bereaved by addiction' conference and our young people’s bereavement project. We also work in prisons, schools and community settings. The F SW will work flexibly to ensure a high -quality helpline service; this may include weekend, evenings and public holidays and […]

Funding cuts have left treatment and recovery services ‘on their knees’, commissioning has ‘become fragmented with little accountability for outcomes’ and partnerships between local authorities and health and criminal justice agencies have deteriorated across the country, Professor Dame Carol Black told the Westminster Social Policy Forum’s Tackling drug addiction and substance misuse – latest thinking on […]

Following the Drugs, Alcohol and Justice APPG’s look at the challenges for women accessing treatment in last month’s DDN, Anna Whitton describes some developments at WDP and across the sector when it comes to improving women’s treatment provision. The Collective Voice ‘Women’s Treatment Working Group’ launched on International Women’s Day 2021. Comprised of female leaders […]

Duchess of cambridge visits treatment programme The Duchess of Cambridge visited HMP Send this month to see a RAPt addiction service in action. The programme, based in a standalone women-only unit, is an intensive 12-step drug and alcohol programme. The Duchess heard personal stories from some of the women about their experiences with addiction and […]

The pandemic has worsened health and wellbeing for many and widened inequalities further. Link workers can improve outcomes for people whom GPs may struggle to support and help achieve better results, writes Julie Bass. Primary care is once again at the forefront of vaccination efforts, this time in the race to booster-jab the nation against […]

WDP’s Capital Card scheme has been helping to incentivise and empower service users, the team tells DDN. Read the full article in DDN Magazine People who come into drug and alcohol services looking for support and treatment are very often also experiencing profound isolation from their communities. Not only can this be damaging to their […]

Release solicitor Kirstie Douse answers your legal questions in her regular Legal Line column Reader’s question:Last year I was violently attacked on my way home from work. I had to have a number of operations on my face and still have visible scars. I am also psychologically affected – I can’t work, only leave the […]

October’s recovery summit in Scotland brought together people from all walks of life to explore what they could do for recovery, as Kuladharini explains. Scotland’s second national recovery summit took place in Glasgow at the end of last month. The event was hosted by the Scottish Recovery Consortium, a small charity funded since 2010 by […]

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Your letters and comment from DDN magazine and our social media channels

The government’s drug strategy brought increased investment, fresh ideas and a renewed focus on the importance of drug treatment services in local communities. We’ll be about three years into this ten-year strategy when parliament is dissolved, government offices are cleared out and we march to the polls to pick our representatives for the coming years.  […]

The DDN letters and comments page, where you can have your say about the drug and alcohol sector. To be included in the next magazine, send your letters and comments to claire@cjwellings.com or to 57 High Street, Ashford, Kent TN24 8SG. Letters may be edited for space or clarity – please limit submissions to 350 […]

Heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and MDMA are now being sold at ‘unprecedented’ levels of purity, according to the latest DrugWise survey of the UK’s street drugs market. This confirms a trend of rising purity levels detected since 2014, says Highways and buyways: a snapshot of UK drug scenes 2016, which is based on interviews with […]

Needs-led, wraparound services are vital to tackling homelessness, says Vanessa Johnson.  Homelessness is a growing scourge in British society, which the government seems unable – or unwilling – to tackle. People find themselves homeless for a variety of reasons, including mental health challenges, loss of income, and/or substance use.  While many people’s ideas of homelessness […]

Media savvy The news and views from the national media Laws against smoking have irreversibly shifted attitudes. The same drive is needed for alcohol consumption. The police, magistrates and judges must insist on rehab for alcoholics as they do for drug addiction. And finally, while the NHS must care for those already addicted, it needs […]

[…] partnerships and a peer-to-peer approach. The key partners who can help local services provide more naloxone are: approved premises, pharmacies, police, hospitals, ambulances, hostels, homeless shelters, and prisons. People can also help to give out naloxone to their own peers. By working together as organisations and as individuals, we can make sure that naloxone […]

Our ‘anonymous drama’ (AD) programme has been supporting people in recovery, both in residential settings and community groups, for several years now – with spectacular results. When I’m describing it to someone who has never heard of it, I usually say it’s like ‘drama therapy’ for people who often have no interest in either drama […]

The DDN letters page, where you can have your say. To be included in the next magazine, send your letters and comments to claire@cjwellings.com or to 57 High Street, Ashford, Kent TN24 8SG. Letters may be edited for space or clarity – please limit submissions to 350 words.    Competent compassion I am writing in response to Chris Ford’s […]

Welcome to our latest issue! ‘The situation requires a real shake-up in the way we engage’ ‘We begin to categorise and stigmatise without even realising it,’ said a speaker at the recent ‘Hit Hot Topics’. Throughout the event we heard how ‘language can become perception’ and be very alienating. We also heard about people who inject […]

Local authorities in England will receive £421m for drug and alcohol treatment services through to 2025, the government has announced. More than 150 councils are being allocated funding, which includes £154.3m for 2023-24 and ‘indicative funding’ of £266.7m for 2024-25. The money will help to enhance the quality of the treatment on offer, support more […]

As deputy drug czar for the Blair government, Mike Trace oversaw the expansion of today’s drug and alcohol treatment system. In the first of a new series, he gives his personal view of the successes and failures of the past 20 years, and the challenges the sector now faces. Read it in DDN Magazine. It […]

[…] definitely getting themselves in order and they do seem to understand that hepatitis C needs to be a priority – they’re certainly looking to really improve things in prisons, for example.  When it comes to drug services, the report calls on them to establish peer support programmes and encourage testing, among other measures – does he […]

Communities and conversation are key to making recovery a reality, delegates heard at Addaction’s annual recovery conference. Jill Stevenson reports Communities working together was a central theme of Addaction’s fourth National Recovery Conference last month. The annual get-together looked at how peer support and combined neighbourhood/group action could provide the catalyst to further recovery from […]

The European drug market has ‘continued to adjust’ to disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, says EMCDDA’s European drug report 2021: trends and developments. Traffickers in a ‘resilient and more digitally enabled’ market have adapted to border closures and travel restrictions, as reflected in changes to trafficking routes and less reliance on human couriers. While street […]

[…] lack of momentum to prioritise harm reduction – had scaled down progress in many countries. Referring to HRI’s latest biennial report, she highlighted that harm reduction in prisons ‘lies far behind what’s available in the community’, with several programmes closing since the last report and Spain being ‘the only country that has anything up […]

Commissioners are on a mission to do things better. But how can they take on board the many complex health issues with less money in the pot? DDN reports. There’s much talk of developing innovative commissioning practice – prompted, in the main, by the need to ‘do more with less’. As part of the refining […]

Pharmacists are to be allowed to give out methadone, buprenorphine and other medicines containing controlled substances such as opioids or barbiturates without a prescription during the COVID-19 pandemic. The home secretary wrote to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) earlier this month asking them to urgently review emergency measures that would ‘ensure […]

Paul Anders shares some key findings from, and the thinking behind, the Recovery Partnership’s State of the sector 2013 report.  Drug treatment in the UK is regarded as world class – effective, evidence-based and supported by a wealth of data, with figures from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) showing how far the sector […]