The persistency in the misuse of drugs and its detrimental impact on humans as well as the community signifies the intricacy in this issue that cannot be resolved solely. Besides the national and the local governments, international partners and the community sector, the public should contribute in resolving this growing concern. The situation has worsened over the last quarter of the twentieth century and has mostly affected the youths who fall prey to illness, crimes, death and other social problems as they become dependent on drugs like cocaine and heroin, in particular. If the UK government and other law enforcement agencies develop strategies to reduce the use of drugs and deter the related harms amongst the younger population, it is equally important to comprehend the roles played by both legal and illegal drugs in the lives of the young people and other drug users.
The misuse of drugs results in significant impact on health and society. The misuse of drugs is perceived as both the cause and outcome of broad factors such as mental ill health and other physical problems. The approach and the means that is used by justice agencies to deal with the use and supply of drugs is based on four essential themes, namely, reducing demand, restricting the supply, global action and building recovery.
According to Bean (2014), the UK government aims at safeguarding individuals and society from the detrimental effect of the misuse of drugs by preventing from consuming drugs altogether. In order to prevent the alcohol and drug dependence, the government sets out action that is required to ensure an effective global approach at both the local and national levels for deterring the use of drugs, thus, prevent commission of crimes due to the consumption or misuse of drugs.
Present policies and organizational structures
THE is an approach that extends support to the local areas by initiating measures to improve the wellbeing and health by providing guidance under the Healthy Child Program for the school nurses, midwives and health visitor, etc. This is because schools play a significant role in assisting young people and children to develop resilience and confidence that is required to make a positive contribution to the British society (Disch 2016).
The broader approach to prevent the drug addiction strives to undertake an evidence-based approach for preventing substance misuse. For instance, it aims at expanding the Alcohol and Drugs Education and Prevention Information Service (ADEPSIS) that is a leading source of evidence-based information and resources for drug and alcohol education and prevention, which purports to reach young people through schools or other settings. The other initiatives include fostering European Drug Prevention Quality Standards (EDPQS) principles to enable partners examine and develop the quality of drug prevention initiatives. The education providers like college and universities extend support to their students with the promotion of the UK Anti-Doping’s Clean Sport University Accreditation Scheme, which promotes prevention of drugs by providing a positive healthy and drug-free culture and living for students as well as the public who uses the campus facilities (Dikic, Djurdjevic and McNamee 2017).
People like the homeless and prostitutes, are at greater risk of drug misuse as it can be perceived as both the cause and misuse of drugs. In order to tackle drug abuse in this respect, the 2016 Violence against Women and Girls Strategy is said to be used to deal with prostitution and the harms, which also includes misuse of substance, and it extends its support to those who wishes to leave such profession. For the homeless who are equally prone to the risk of drug misuse, the Homelessness Prevention Program enables the local areas to develop a holistic approach to prevent and reduce homelessness by fulfilling their needs (Coy 2017).
As per research studies, approximately 45% offences are committed by offenders who usually consume heroin/cocaine. However, the UK criminal justice system endows with a fundamental opportunity to tackle misuse of drugs and ensure that the individual has effective access to the needed support (Godlee and Hurley 2016). The second approach to restrict the supply of drugs aims at reducing the high rate of serious and organized crimes that tend to affect the interest of the country and its nationals as well.
Present policies
As per the Serious and Organized Crimes Strategy the UK government and the enforcement agencies persist to tackle the organized criminals and the enablers of criminality related to distribution of drugs and drug trafficking. The legal framework that exercises control over drug consumption is the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDA), which remains to be the primary legislative framework to prevent the misuse of drugs. The government does not intend to decriminalize drugs, however, since drugs have been proved to have harmful impact on human health, if consumed, it is considered illegal (Godlee and Hurley 2016).
The enactment of Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 signifies the fundamental changes in the manner how the supply of psychoactive substances is tackled. This statute ceases the availability of the psychoactive substances from open sales on the high streets of UK, thus, putting an end to the rapidly growing nature of the market. Thus, the implementation of the statute has enabled the law enforcement agencies to tackle these issues at each level in the society and prevent the risk it posed to the users and the society as well. According to section 58 of the Act requires the Home Office to review the implementation of this statute within 30 months from its enforcement to ensure its effectiveness in deterring use of psychoactive substances and preventing the society from its harmful impact (Disch 2016).
The internet being one of the significant enablers of criminality as it is being used to buy and sell illegal drugs, thus, evading law enforcement action. The marketing and distribution of controlled substances through hidden/darknet continues to develop but the government aims at tackling the criminal use of the darknet through the provisions set out in the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defense and Security Review 2015. It is evident from the arrest of Darknet’s most popular British vendors and his business partner in February 2016 after the NCA investigated that they were buying and selling catalogued drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine.
There has been progress made by the UK government to support people from recovering from their dependence on drugs. This evident from the fact that it has confirmed the continuation of the Public Health Grant to the local authorities that provides financial assistance to the alcohol and drug services (Bean 2014).
Present policies and organizational structures
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 ensures that welfare and health are given priority especially the vulnerable people. The service user contributed significantly to the evolution of effective alcohol and drug treatment systems. The local alcohol and drug treatment commissioners must assure that their commissioned services are effective and safe to improve the health of the individuals enabling them to recover from drug dependency.
Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK Guidelines on Clinical Management extends support to ensure improved health of the drug and alcohol offenders in prisons. The governors exercises control over the treatment and services in the prison, which enables them to ensure persistency of treatment with the services n the community.
Present policies
In order to extend support commissioners to undertake effective services, the Health and Justice Information System has been introduced to provide effective measures to assess the effectiveness of the drug treatment systems within the custodial settings.
The UK is known as the global leader in tackling harms that result from drugs. It aims at reducing the global demand and supply for drugs, which ultimately enables us to reduce the impact of drugs at home ((Bean 2014). This is evident from the fact that being a member of the European Union UK works in association with the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Action.
Present policies and organizational structures
On April 2016, the country enhanced its cooperation in delivering an effective approach with the UN Drug Conventions by agreeing to implement the commitments set out in the ‘Outcome Document’. Some of the provisions include enhancement of international action in tackling harms posed by drugs and psychoactive substances; to fortify cooperation between the UN agencies and ensure the roles of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The UK has a history of delivering human rights obligations, which include guaranteed access to measures and treatment, that reduce the harms posed by the use of drugs and are proportionate to the criminal justice responses.
Community sentences that require treatment may provide the courts with an alternative option for custody where it may allow to take out the most vulnerable and chaotic person out of prisons and guide them towards community based interventions that would be more effective than the courts-based interventions. On the contrary, the judges in problem-solving courts like the drug courts, tends to oversee the progress in treatment through the court-based reviews. This implies that judiciary plays a fundamental role in extending support to the drug offenders to live a drug and crime free life. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice has considered continuing with the initiatives that already exist at the grass root level in the country. This is evident from the prison reforms as stipulated in the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper where prisoners will be supported for rehabilitation and given trainings and assistance to develop skills that will further enable them to lead a productive and drug free life.
According to Tilley and Sidebottom (2017) Decriminalization of drugs is not the solution for tackling the intricacy involved in drug related problems and neither it is sufficient to consider the harmful impact that results from consumption of drugs on the individual. However, Coy (2017) argues that the legal framework, which includes the MDA 1971, is an approach to tackle the problems associated with misuse of drugs and alcohol.
The contemporary era considers that though the adoption of punitive approach would be an effective deterrent for the drug offenders but there are fewer chances that the offender will not commit crimes or will stop consuming alcohol and misusing drugs. Therefore, drug treatment is perceived as the most appropriate as well as an effective way to tackle the growing use of drugs. Godlee and Hurley (2016) believe it would assist people to surmount their dependency on drugs for survival, which would ultimately reduce drug consumption and improve their health. A decline in drug consumption implies reduces offending and crimes and relieving the families and communities from the outcomes of dependency on drugs and alcohol.
Further, most of the people are not sympathetic towards the drug addicts because they have used illegal substances. However, such behavior signifies a lack of understanding about nature of addiction and this stigmatization is a significant reason that makes it harder for the drug addicts to start afresh. Therefore, it is important for the government and the society to ensure that stigmatization is tackled while developing policies to rehabilitate the drug addicts and offenders.
The NHS have variety of services for the users of drugs where after the offenders are arrested, the police forces and local authorities identify them and start dealing with them which includes drug testing, treatment and assessment by the drug workers. As mentioned earlier, decriminalization of drugs would not deter the use of drugs neither it will deal with the factors that lead them into drug consumption. However, the legal framework that punishes the drug offenders with life imprisonment or imprisonment for 14 years for the consumption of Class A and Class B and C drugs respectively cannot solely deter consumption of drugs and offending. Therefore, in order to prevent the offenders from re-offending, sentencing strategies should be accompanied with treatment and prevention strategies that have been undertaken by the government as evident from the reforms in prisons of UK, which includes trainings and assistance to the offenders for leading a productive life.
The UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC) states that the areas that are likely to suffer the most include the test purchasing of drugs, drug-related undercover surveillance operations and forensic testing and all these areas have a harmful effect on the operations that are carried out to get hold of influential traffickers and drug importers. However, the report of UKDPC states that almost 58% of the police forces are reluctant to spend time on tackling illicit drug issues. Further, the expenses incurred to rehabilitate and develop policies to deter use and supply of drugs, have caused decline in their funding, and thus limiting their resources. However, the UK government assures that by excluding unnecessary expenses and working efficiently, savings ca be made while safeguarding the frontline services comprising the police forces (Disch 2016).
Apart from the existing governmental strategies and policies, the UK government aims at establishing a new ‘Drug Strategy Board’ which will be more transparent in its performance for supporting action discharged by the local authorities in delivering best possible outcomes (Disch 2016). To foster the enhanced and improved accountability and governance, the Care Quality Commission shall play a significant role in delivering substance misuse services and providing trainings to inspectors and commissioners to assist the offenders in rehabilitating.
Conclusion
To conclude, a partnership-based and coordinated approach is pertinent to ensure a decline in the consumption of drugs and extend support to the offenders and drug users to a live a productive and crime-free life. The governmental strategies and policies sets out the measures to be undertaken at every level through this partnership-based and collaborative approach, as it is essential to tackle the drug related issues from every aspect. Therefore, the government as well as the society collaboration is vital to achieve the common goal which is to reduce crimes, build a healthier and fairer society, safeguard the vulnerable and most importantly, to enhance the living standards of the individuals.
References
Alcohol and Drugs Education and Prevention Information Service (ADEPSIS)
Bean, P., 2014. Drugs and crime. Routledge.
Coy, M., 2017. Prostitution in (and out of) policy on violence against women and girls in the UK. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 1(1), pp.117-126.
Dikic, N., Djurdjevic, N. and McNamee, M.J., 2017. Doping. Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics, pp.1-14.
Disch, L., 2016. Representation. In The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory.
European Drug Prevention Quality Standards (EDPQS)
Godlee, F. and Hurley, R., 2016. The war on drugs has failed: doctors should lead calls for drug policy reform.
Health and Social Care Act 2012
Healthy Child Program
Homelessness Prevention Program
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDA)
National Security Strategy and Strategic Defense and Security Review 2015
Psychoactive Substances Act 2016
Tilley, N. and Sidebottom, A. eds., 2017. Handbook of crime prevention and community safety. Taylor & Francis.
UK Anti-Doping’s Clean Sport University Accreditation Scheme
UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC)
UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
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