Drug Action Teams
Drug Action Teams (DATs) work locally to deliver the National Drug Strategy. DATs are made up of representatives from the local authority (education, social services, housing) health, probation, the prison service and the voluntary sector. They ensure that the work of local agencies is brought together effectively and that cross-agency projects are co-ordinated successfully.
There are currently 150 English DATs, working to implement the four key aims of the National Drug Strategy, which are:
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Helping young people resist drug misuse in order to achieve their full potential in society
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Protecting communities from drug related anti-social and criminal behaviour
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Enabling people with drug problems to overcome them and live healthy and crime-free lives
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Preventing the availability of illegal drugs on our streets
To find your local Drug Action Team contact details, visit the DAT Directory.
Drug Interventions Programme
This programme is a major part of the measures in the National Drug Strategy for reducing drug-related crime.
It aims to take advantage of opportunities within the criminal justice system for accessing drug-misusing offenders – many of whom are difficult to access by other approaches – and moving them into treatment, away from drug use and crime.
The programme ensures that expansion of individual interventions is accompanied by a definite move towards providing a beginning-to-end support system for dealing with drug-misusing offenders.
