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SCOTLAND'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE PLAN

CHAPTER TWO: TACKLING DRUGS IN OUR COMMUNITIES

Drugs raid in the North of Scotland

2.1 Drugs are a blight on our society. They kill individuals, tear families apart and destroy communities. It is estimated that one third of recorded crime is drug related, ranging from the activities of highly organised international gangs, right down to the actions of a young user, driven to commit crime in order to feed their habit. Drugs offences recorded in Scotland have risen from 31,431 in 2000 to 40,465 in 2003 and there is a very real risk that we might be drawn into the worst excesses of drug-related gun culture.

2.2 It is now estimated that there are around 56,000 people in Scotland illegally using opiates such as heroin or benzodiazepines such as valium. Whilst we have been successful in containing the growth of this population, we know from bitter experience that there are no simple solutions. Drug use can both cause and be exacerbated by a wide range of factors including unemployment, homelessness, poor educational attainment and inadequate parenting. Drug misuse often occurs with other physical and mental health problems, with a particularly strong link to alcohol problems amongst chronic users.

What we have done

2.3 Protected our Communities

• We will continue to expand the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency (SDEA). (See Chapter 1 for more details).
• The police have worked with partners to deliver the national Safer Scotland initiative to target dealers and suppliers and the Crimestoppers campaign to encourage information from the public.
• We have built a framework of criminal justice treatment interventions which reflects the direct correlation between the seriousness of offences and the severity of drug misuse. This includes:
  • Arrest referral schemes in six areas of the country which provide an opportunity, at the point of arrest, to take up the offer of treatment or counselling.
  • Probation orders with a condition of drug treatment for offenders who are committing significant numbers of crimes to fund their drug misuse.
  • Drug treatment and testing orders (DTTOs) to target those offenders with a lengthy history of drug misuse and associated criminal behaviour are now available in areas covering approximately 70% of Scotland's population.
  • Pilot drug courts in Glasgow and Fife which utilise the sentencing options listed above and deal with drug misusing offenders by introducing multi-agency teams and sheriffs serving on a specialised bench.
  • Addiction services delivered within Scottish prisons and via transitional care as prisoners resume life within the community.
  • We have put in place powerful new legislation to strip drug dealers and their associates of assets gained through their criminal activities, and distributed over 400,000 to good causes.

2.4 Expanded Treatment and Care

• We have enabled more opportunities for treatment and rehabilitation by providing an additional 34m over the 3 years to 2003-04.
• We have increased the number of residential services by 33% and the number of non-residential services by 41% since 1999-2000. 12,657 new clients entered treatment services in 2003-04. Among those entering services, there were falls in the proportion reporting use of heroin and injecting.
• To identify, analyse and disseminate best practice we have established a Scottish Drug Misuse Research programme and an Effective Interventions Unit.
• To embed evidence-based integrated skills and approaches amongst people working to tackle drugs in Scotland we have established Scottish Training in Drugs and Alcohol (STRADA).
• To provide training and employment opportunities for recovered/recovering drug misusers we have provided 9.5m over 3 years.

2.5 Supported Young People

• To counteract the misinformation and myths that might lead young people into dangerous experimentation we have established the 'Know the Score' communication programme and delivered drugs education programmes in almost all Scottish schools.
• We have worked through Scotland Against Drugs to train staff in primary and secondary education on drugs issues.
• We have supported young people's projects through the Lloyds TSB Partnership Drugs Initiative by committing over 5m funding.
• To provide support designed to deal with young addicts' specific needs we have supported 45 specialist addiction services across Scotland with dedicated services or workers for under 16s.

What we are doing

2.6 Improving Care

• To deliver significant improvements to Scotland's drugs treatment and rehabilitation services and in line with our Partnership Agreement commitment, we have reviewed the provision of treatment and care services across Scotland and identified a range of actions, reflected in this chapter.
• To further reduce the risk of drug related death we have commissioned the Scottish Drugs Forum to deliver First Aid training to frontline drugs workers and the families of drug users.
• We are disseminating guidance on integrated care, employability and young people's services in order to promote best practice across Scotland.
• To introduce better training opportunities for a range of treatment and care professionals we are working with the Royal College of General Practitioners and STRADA.
• We are supporting drug treatment and targeting resources at areas of particular need by investing an additional 2m in 2004-05.

2.7 Helping Young People

• To protect the children of drug misusing parents we are implementing a comprehensive action plan on "Hidden Harm".
• We are expanding the 'Know the Score' campaign in order to explain the risks around volatile substance abuse and drug assisted sexual assault as well as explaining the harmful effects of drugs such as heroin, crack, cannabis and cocaine.
• To ensure we make the most effective use of our education resources we are assessing our education programmes against international best practice.
• We are delivering a range of diversionary projects for young people through the Lloyds TSB Partnership Drugs Initiative, Social Inclusion Partnerships and the work of Scotland Against Drugs.
• To give child protection workers access to training with a strong focus on the children of drug misusing parents we are providing 0.6m.

What we will do

Effective Prevention

2.8 There has never been and never will be a single, one size fits all solution that will work for every child in every circumstance when it comes to protecting young people and persuading them to remain drug free. Every parent knows that whilst some young people will accept and act on good advice some will question more and others will seem determined to do the opposite of what they are told to do. We recognise such traits within our own families, and we need to recognise them within society as a whole. This means we need to provide a range of different types of message, some explicit, some non-judgmental, some to help minimise the potentially fatal consequences of ignoring the warnings.

• To ensure we adopt strategies and approaches which are evidence-based we will work with the UK wide Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to research the risk factors leading to hazardous substance misuse amongst young people.
• We will develop broad communication strategies which target young people and draw strength from linking 'Know the Score' with other communication initiatives designed to promote healthy lifestyles. We will include young people in the future development of communication activities and provide a comprehensive suite of information about the risks associated with different types of drugs.

Disrupting Supply

2.9 The increasingly sophisticated and international nature of drug trafficking requires us to work with law enforcement partners to reinforce the role of the SDEA as an organisation dedicated to tackling all forms of serious and organised crime, including drug trafficking. At the same time, we remain committed to tackling both middle and lower level street markets through effective tactical and operational level action.

• We will support the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland (ACPOS) in updating its own drug strategy in the light of this plan and work with the police as key partners across a broad range of activities to tackle both demand and supply. As already highlighted in Chapter 1, we will establish a multi-agency law enforcement campus to bring together the key law enforcement agencies fighting serious and organised crime, and give the SDEA a new statutory basis.

Targeting Interventions

2.10 Evidence demonstrates the benefits of engaging and retaining people in effective treatment services. Early results from the Drug Outcome Research in Scotland (DORIS) project show that treatment services have proved successful in reducing levels of illicit drug use, injecting and offending, including theft from both shops and individuals. We will therefore continue to develop our range of interventions and invest increased resources in these. At each stage, we want to combine criminal justice sanctions with access to treatment and rehabilitation so that offenders can be offered help to overcome their addiction and reduce their reoffending.

• We will make DTTOs available throughout Scotland by funding the roll out to remaining courts by June 2005.
• We will consider providing access to drug treatment as a condition of bail and will draw on the conclusions of the Sentencing Commission on bail and remand, following its current consultation exercise.
• We will place more emphasis on intensive work within prisons in respecifying our current approach to addictions treatment and will further improve the links between community and prison based services on both admission and release.
• We will evaluate and act upon the lessons learned from the first two years of arrest referral schemes in Scotland.
• We will complete the Glasgow and Fife drugs court pilots in spring 2005 and make future recommendations based on a full evaluation of the impact made by the two pilot courts.
• We will support a pilot project run by Grampian Police based on the successful Tower Project in North West England, to explore how we can improve the direction of known drug users into treatment services.
• We will examine ways of improving the level of take up of treatment amongst drug addicted sex workers in Scotland.

Treatment and Rehabilitation

2.11 Scottish Ministers are committed to helping people to come off drugs and live drug free lives. This means we need to be clear and consistent with local service providers about what is expected of them in providing treatment and rehabilitation services, agree with them how improvements will be made and monitor performance rigorously to ensure that change really happens.

2.12 The treatment in individual cases will always need to be based on individual clinical judgement. The Executive's role is to define the services that drug users can expect in every area and ensure that our current and future investment is being used effectively. We want to see coherent packages of care designed to meet the assessed needs of the individual drug users provided through collaborative working between agencies and service providers not constrained by organisational and professional boundaries. Many different people will need to be involved including GPs and primary care teams, community based and residential specialist drug services, children and family services, community and hospital pharmacies, the Scottish Prison Service, housing services, criminal justice social work services and services and organisations who can support recovering and recovered users into education, training and employment.

2.13 Most drug users who seek treatment are unemployed. The opportunity of securing employment with all the physical, financial and emotional benefits that work can bring has a critical part to play in the process of rehabilitation. As part of Scottish Ministers' strategy to promote healthy working lives we will therefore look to support people with a history of substance misuse in gaining access to training, education and employment to help them put something back into Scottish society.

• We will implement the comprehensive range of actions within the Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Review in order to improve the breadth, quality and accessibility of services across Scotland.
• To ensure that family members are able to access reliable information on drugs issues and treatment services we will continue to support the development of the Scottish Network of Family Support Groups.
• We will support the employment of recovering and recovered drug misusers as part of Scottish Ministers' strategies on Closing the Opportunity Gap and delivering opportunities for Healthy Working Lives.
• To help retain staff, improve service quality and aid professional development we will provide better training opportunities for practitioners.
• We will invest an additional 6m per annum in treatment services on top of the additional 2m per annum announced for 2004-05 and ensure that funding allocations are linked to clear improvements in treatment capacity that will enable us to meet the treatment target described below.
• To focus on service capacity (numbers of clients) and outcomes (clients remaining drug free/entering education, training and employment/drug related deaths) we will reduce and refresh existing targets for treatment and rehabilitation and invest in the information systems to support such measurement.
• We will publish an update to the Plan for Action on Alcohol Problems in order to drive forward a comprehensive and integrated programme of action to tackle the harmful consequences of alcohol misuse through prevention and education, treatment and protection and controls.

2.14 Protecting Communities

• We will use the criminal assets recovered from drug dealers to support Community Safety Partnerships to promote schemes which encourage and enable individual members of the public to pass on information to the police about known drug dealers in their area.
• We will continue to invest in community initiatives aimed at reducing substance misuse, tackling the causes and effects of drug related crime and offering alternative lifestyle choices to individuals in our hardest hit communities. At the same time, we will streamline the range of funding streams which currently support community projects to reduce the risk of directing the attention of voluntary groups away from making an impact where it matters most.
• We will work through the Scottish Drugs Forum to enhance the capacity of community groups to take action to tackle local drugs problems and re-focus Scotland Against Drugs so that they can engage Scottish businesses directly in supporting the delivery of our drugs strategy.
• To ensure Scotland's Drug and Alcohol Action Teams represent good value for money, we will review the contribution they are making to the implementation of national strategy and consider their future role in the light of the development of community planning and community health partnerships.

Conclusions

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