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News

NEW DRUG ACTION TEAM LAUNCHED IN POOLE

A new Drug Action Team is using local knowledge to help fight drug and alcohol misuse in Poole.

The new team is part of a national Government initiative to improve responses to drug and alcohol problems by working locally on prevention and the causes of misuse.

The cost of drug misuse both to individuals and to society can be enormous. Nationally, crimes to fund drug habits are estimated to cost victims £1.5 billion per year, the criminal justice system over £500 million per year, health and social services £100 million per year and the benefits system £600 million per year.

Local assessments of drug and alcohol services for young people in Dorset have highlighted the importance of early preventative work to impact on substance misuse and drug related criminal activity.

To launch the team, a conference on ‘Tackling Drugs To Build a Better Britain - Action in Partnership’ will take place on Tuesday 19 September for the wide range of agencies involved including government agencies, health organisations, prison services, police, customs and excise and a number of voluntary organisations which work with local people with drug and alcohol problems. During the conference agencies will discuss local drug issues and examine effective ways to:
· help young people resist drug misuse
· protect the community from drug-related anti-social and criminal behaviour
· provide treatment which helps people to live healthy and drug free lives
· stifle the availability of drugs on the street

The new Drug Action Teams based on local authority boundaries provide a new opportunity for health, police, probation, education, social services, housing and environmental services to work together combining local knowledge to deliver the national drugs strategy at a local level.

Following the publication of the Government’s Drug Tsar, Keith Hellawell’s second national plan, a number of challenging targets to lower drug misuse have been set including:

· reducing the proportion of young people using the drugs which cause the greatest harm - heroin and cocaine- by 25% by 2005
· increasing the participation of problem drug users, including prisoners, in drug treatment programmes which have a positive impact on health and crime by 66% by 2005.

As part of the programme Drug Action Teams will be required to submit annual reports giving progress on targets and identifying plans for the following year.

Fred Davies, Chairman of the Poole Drug Action Team, said: "It is important to recognise that drug misuse is a matter of concern for the whole community and not just for drug users and their families. In Poole we now have the chance to forge new links with health services and the Criminal Justice system, as well as a variety of local organisations. This will help us tackle drug misuse and perhaps more importantly, to reduce the risk of someone starting to use drugs in the first place."

-ends-

Ann Maguire, Drug Action Team Co-ordinator, tel: (01202) 261121