Alcohol/Drugs/Gambling
Naloxone saves lives but we need to improve its availability
ACMD finds naloxone prevents deaths by opioid overdose but says we need a national joined-up approach to promote its take-up.
21st June 2022
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ACMD finds naloxone prevents deaths by opioid overdose but says we need a national joined-up approach to promote its take-up.
ACMD report on the growing use of Fentanyl and how the UK should respond.
ACMD report on Drug-related harms in homeless populations and how they can be reduced.
ACMD report on the ageing cohort of drug users finds most treatment services are not equipped to help older opiate users.
ACMD report on Custody-Community Transitions highlights increasing drug-related harms in prison and increased risk of death by overdose on release.
The ACMD warns the government that reduced funding is undermining the drug treatment system and that this situation is exacerbated by frequent re-procurement.
This report vindicates the importance of the ACMD; the advisory group took its own decision to produce a report on this key, and increasingly worrying issue (that is to say, it was not asked by government to produce it) and has been prepared to emphasise that funding sufficient good quality treatment is the only way to stop an increasing number of individuals dying from their heroin (and other opioid) use.
The ACMD found that the current quality of drug treatment in England varies significantly and is being compromised by frequent re-procurement and shrinking resources.
The ACMD found that “the majority of users consume cocaine powder relatively infrequently and, even among users, there appears to be a reasonable level of awareness that cocaine powder is not a ‘safe’ drug.”
Drugs remains such a politically sensitive issue that an honest review which highlights successes and failures with the same prominence seems very unlikely, irrespective of which political parties are in power. Until we can have an open and honest debate about drugs in this country, it will be difficult for us to have a truly effective drug strategy.
Measuring drug recovery is problematic, to say the least. Recovery from drug dependence is, like desistance from crime, rarely a linear process and typically includes lapse and relapse over many years. Different people choose different recovery goals: some people remain abstinent from all substances for life; others continue to use occasionally; or replace drug dependence with a reliance on alcohol.
