Drugs

At GOYH we work closely with Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and a range of other key national and regional stakeholders (including the National Treatment Agency, other Government Office teams and representatives from the Criminal Justice System) to ensure effective responses to meet national targets and local priorities on tackling the harm caused by illegal drugs.

The Drug Interventions Programme

A critical part of the Government’s strategy for tackling drugs is The Drug Interventions Programme (DIP).

DIP began in 2003 as a three-year programme to develop and integrate measures - known as “interventions” - for helping adult drug-misusing offenders out of crime and into treatment. DIP is believed to be a world-first, involving criminal justice, treatment agencies and other services, all working together to provide a tailored solution for adults who misuse Class A drugs and commit crime to fund their drug misuse.

We will continue our work for the foreseeable future, with funds of around £19.3 million a year in Yorkshire & Humber.
Some key points about the programme:

1. Everyone can win: drug-misusing offenders get help through treatment and support, communities suffer less crime and the taxpayer saves money as criminal justice costs are reduced.
2. We want to break the destructive cycle of drugs, offending and prison. Already, areas operating the programme intensively are seeing crime fall faster than elsewhere in the country.
3. A critical element of the programme is delivery of a broad range of effective treatment. Treatment works – and it is cheaper and more effective than putting drug-misusing offenders through the criminal justice system repeatedly without support to help them tackle their drugs problem.
4. Treatment is not a soft option: drug-related community orders imposed by the courts usually involve a strict monitoring regime.

Facts and Statistics

Tackling drugs is one of the Government’s highest priorities – backed with record investment, new powers and an expanded workforce.

Increasing quantities of drugs are being seized and organised crime groups and dealers disrupted

• In 2005/06, over 2,200 kg of heroin, 15,300 kg of cocaine were seized and taken out of the supply chain. 193 trafficking groups were dismantled or disrupted and £30 million of drug related criminal assets were seized.
• The total number of drug offenders brought before the courts has been rising since 2000.
• Since 2000, there has been a downward trend in the proportion of people perceiving drug use or drug dealing as very or fairly serious problems: from 33% in 2000 to 27% in 2005/06.

Record numbers of drug misusers are entering and staying in treatment

• Treatment works and is cost-effective: for every £1 spent on treatment, at least £9.50 is saved in crime and health costs.
• The number of individuals receiving structured treatment has increased by 13% from 160,450 in 2004/5 to 181,390 in 2005/6. This represents an increase of 113% on the 1998/9 baseline of 85,000 people receiving structured treatment.
• 77% of those entering treatment in 2005/06 remained in structured treatment for 12 weeks or more, when treatment is more likely to be effective.
• Numbers of drug-related deaths in England fell by 14% from their peak of 1,666 in 2002 to 1,427 in 2004.
• Among young people under the age of 20, year-on-year declines have resulted in 47% fewer drug-related deaths in the period between 2000 and 2004. More drugs workers are being recruited – up to 10,106 in September 2005; up by almost 50% from March 2002.

Drug-related crime is falling

• Acquisitive crime – to which drug-related crime makes a significant contribution - is continuing to fall and, in 2004/05, was a fifth lower than in 2002/03, the year before the introduction of the Drug Interventions Programme.
• Every month, around 2,500 drug-misusing offenders are entering treatment through the Drug Interventions Programme. This is on track to achieve our ambition to direct around 1,000 drug-misusing offenders into treatment every week by 2008.
• Drug testing on arrest and required assessment, introduced in the Drugs Act 2005, have been successfully implemented in all DIP intensive areas. Restriction on bail provisions have also been rolled out to all Local Justice Areas in England.
• the proportion reporting that they have ever taken any drug has fallen by 16%;
• the proportion reporting that they have ever taken Class A drugs has fallen by 18%;
• the proportion reporting the use of any drug in the past year has fallen by 21%;
• the proportion reporting the use of class A drugs in the past year is stable; and
• the proportion reporting the use of cannabis in the past year has fallen by 24%

For drugs help and advice, contact Talk to Frank: Tel 0800 77 66 00, which provides free, confidential advice, counseling and referrals to specialist services 24 hours a day.