Eric Carlin’s Blog

The heartbreaking story of the murders of 5 young women in Suffolk highlights the importance of what we’re doing working in drug prevention. There’s a common theme - these young women would not have died, had they not been addicted to drugs. They would not have become addicted to drugs, and at such an early age, had something not gone wrong in their families, their communities, their schools, with their peers. They would not have been despised and rejected by “mainstream” society, including the “respectable” men who used them as objects to relieve their frustrations and lust. What happened to these young women at such a young age and how could it have been prevented? Why was the blankness and darkness which the drugs gave them better - or more accessible - than exploring life’s opportunities? Treatment is too late for these 5 young women. Moreover, for a lot of the media and the public, they’re just the latest “prostitute” victims; in death as in life the drugs have dehumanised and devalued them.  

Reading the account in today’s “Guardian” of Tracey Russell, who narrowly escaped being number 6 just brings home to me the strength of the connections - “We were worried, but when you are on drugs, you think if you can open a car door…you would know it is the murderer.” Also,

“Their life, she said was “horrible”. “You learn to blank it out over the years, and because you are on drugs, you just think of something else. I know that sounds odd, but you do. ‘Cos you get used to it and it’s over within seconds. Hopefully.”

When I worked in a street drugs agency, with a lot of women sex workers as clients, I sometimes heard the same types of comments - not often though, their situation was ongoing so they had to, as Tracey puts it, “think of something else”. I believe that almost all our clients wished they had never got into taking drugs and that they would be the best advocates for prevention. (As this was not their situation of course, my staff worked with great respect for them to give them support and to try to help them improve their lives; no more than one human being should do for another.)

I referred in my last blog to my frustration with the politicising of the drugs debate. Regardless of the legal situation - and there are perfectly reasonable arguments on either side - our focus must be on trying to stop children and adolescents getting into misusing drugs in the first place - offering them protection, support, discipline and opportunities, also letting them know that these drugs that they come into contact have huge risks. I often hear the argument that if drugs were legalised and regulated we would be more able to support drug users and protect them from harm. Although I agree that throwing people into jail is not the answer, I have to say that I’m not convinced that, legal or illegal, Tracey wouldn’t have still got into Steve Wright’s car - nor poor Annette, Paula, Gemma, Anneli and Tania.

I’ve been privileged this week to take part in a national conference organised by the Right Start Foundation in Birmingham drawing attention to the needs of BME communities to have more effective prevention and treatment services. Right Start have done some amazing work, in particular helping Asian women with drug users in their families access support for the drug user and themselves and, really importantly, expressing their feelings, hopes and fears publicly. They’ve also been working to help young Muslim people express their concerns about and experience of drugs. You know, this is so important and I felt humbled by the opportunity to take part.  Supporting these often ignored, not particularly politicised groups just to say in public how it is helps to change things - not immedately but drip by drip. In relation to young people, and particularly for communities which are challenged socially and economically and by prejudice, so much policy is created for them and done to them without properly engaging them in assessing what the problems are that the policy is intended to solve, devising and implementing the solution.

The front line work of engaging with communities - and not just the “usual suspects”  is so important. On the other extreme, I was depressed at various points in an international NGO meeting where I heard anti-drugs people condemning “harm reduction” and legalisers engage all over again in their sterile, unconstructive arguments. They are apparently diametrically opposed to each other, despite the fact that they all seem to acknowledge that all drugs can and do cause harm. I was told by one person that “a drug user cannot be a good mother”, by another that “prevention doesn’t work”. If only they’d listen to each other and to themselves they’d realise that this positioning doesn’t benefit anyone.  

It happens in the UK also. I sat through the ACMD public discussions about the classification of Cannabis and subsequently read a number of blogs which made me wonder if I had been sleeping throughout as these people had heard different things than I had. According to some blogs and journalists, the ACMD has apparently already decided about the classification of Cannabis, despite the fact that the Committee won’t report until the end of April. I thought that in the public session the Committee heard evidence; it certainly didn’t indicate in any way its likely decision. Nonetheless, these bloggers are either satisfied or angry already, depending on what they seem to have sussed the outcome, which apparently has already been decided, is and what they think about that. What a load of nonsense. 

The new Drugs Strategy comes out next week. Aside from the content, I hope that there will be a genuine - and funded - commitment to consulting with real people in communities and not just the campaigners with their intransigent attitudes and quite unsophisticated and unhelpful politicising of issues which affect real people’s lives.

I was invited to a preview of the key themes of the new Government English Drugs Strategy at the Home Office yesterday, Monday, 11^th February. This follows an extensive consultation period in which we actively participated, including providing opportunities for young people to contribute. The new Strategy is due to be launched on 27^th February. Separate strategies operate in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

I was hoping in particular to hear some change in relation to prioritising prevention work and to making it effective.  It was good to hear about the new Public Service Agreement (PSA) which includes “a new focus on prevention and families”. However, it seems unlikely that we will see at last the large scale investment in research and development of evidence-based prevention which is necessary if we are at last going to make a major impact on reducing the numbers of young people who get into trouble with drugs. Overall funding for drugs is not going to increase. Also, unfortunately, alcohol and drugs are still to be dealt with separately, with the rather lame excuse being given by one presenter that this had to be the case because one was legal, the other illegal.

If we re-orientated our thinking to regard drugs prevention primarily as a Public Health issue, the legal status of the drugs wouldn’t matter as we could focus our energies primarily on developing and using instruments which would reduce misuse and harm to the individual and to communities.

We are and will be engaged in the implementation plans, particularly in relation to prevention and families. We need to get the messages out to the young people who don’t misuse drugs that they are the norm and that they can still be “cool”. It’s also clear that we need to help parents and carers re-discover their confidence in giving guidance and support to their children and that we need to back this up with properly resourced, well-trained teachers and youth services, including in the voluntary sector.

We also believe that it’s vital that we monitor and raise the standard and broaden the scope of drug prevention activities and that’s why Mentor UK is developing a Quality Mark for drug prevention which we hope to establish as an “industry” norm.

What was said at the Home Office

I heard the following - There will be 4 key areas, which I hope I’ve summarised accurately:

Supply and crime – led by Home Office: This will remain a major focus of the Strategy. In fact there will be more emphasis on disrupting the criminal market, including increasing asset seizures.

Prevention and families – DCSF lead: There will be more support for families, including families of drug users, extending family intervention partnerships and support for parenting. There will be more emphasis on providing support for young carers and targeted youth support.  There will also be improved specialist treatment for young drug users. The role of schools and drugs education will be strengthened and reviewed and in particular there will be an assessment of how schools can support vulnerable young people.

Treatment – Department of Health lead: There will be more emphasis on treatment and social re-integration with planning and delivery focussed on localities. Clinical Governance will be emphasised through NICE and treatment will be evidence-based. The new PSA will prioritise heroin and crack and drug users who cause the most harm to themselves and others. There will be renewed efforts to join up services in prisons and in the community.

Public information, communications and campaigns – Home Office lead: FRANK will continue to be prioritised. Communications will have two main objectives; to support the new PSA by reducing drug use and also reducing the public’s anxiety and fears about drug use. FRANK will do more work in schools and to support parents and will link with local community activities. There will be increased support to Drug Action Teams and local partnerships to publicise their activities. The “Tackling Drugs, Changing Lives” awards will continue to recognise achievements, as will National Drugs Week. There will be more coalitions and partnerships and a particular strand of work will include looking at how to publicise good role models for young people.