Plans to introduce a temporary ban on new legal highs seem a logical step, but will navigate our drugs laws into unknown waters, claims Jeremy Sare An unchartered course (PDF)
Tag Archive for policy
Druglink article 2010 – Small steps by Andrew Brown
While we have moved away from the now discredited shock tactics used to warn children away from drugs in the 1980s, the last decade has seen slow progress in developing effective drug education. Small steps (PDF)
Druglink article 2010 – High on aspiration by Sara McGrail and David MacKintosh
Sara McGrail and David MacKintosh look at a decade of change within the drugs sector – and the looming government spending review. It’s July 2010 and a new broom is sweeping through Whitehall in the shape of a coalition government, short on policy detail, but high…
Druglink article 2010 – Through the looking glass by Marcus Roberts
Evidence-based policy rightly forms the backbone for how we tackle problem drug use. But we must recognise the limits of a purely scientific approach, says Marcus Roberts. The Wikipedia entry for ‘evidence-based policy’ suggests that it “can be traced back as far as…
Druglink article 2010 – The Blair experiment by Alex Stevens
Crime was always the lens through which the Labour government viewed drug policy. This focus led to a massive expansion of investment in drug treatment and the merging of this sector with the criminal justice system. The question now is whether these measures succeeded – and whether…
Druglink article 2010 – Sink or swim by Susanne MacGregor
Britain now has arguably one of the best drug treatment systems in the world. But there are choppy waters ahead, says Susanne MacGregor. The government’s 2008 drugs strategy aimed to “deliver new approaches to drug treatment and social reintegration”. It gave long overdue attention to…
Druglink article 2010 – An arc of triumph? by Harry Shapiro
Drugs is an issue the government generally likes to side-step at election time. It’s a complex subject mired in pitfalls and booby traps. There are easier ways to score political points. But how is drug policy regarded at the highest political levels? Looking at what goes on…
Druglink interview 2010 – David and Goliath by Jeremy Sare
Professor David Nutt, Head of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London was famously sacked as chairman of the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) last October. He now heads up the newly established Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD), which is being…
Druglink article 2010 – Grape Britain By Ian Gilmore
Politicians are happy to talk tough on binge-drinking yobs and yobettes as election day approaches. But when it comes to addressing the pernicious problem of the middle classes over-dosing on wine, they bottle it. Grape Britain (PDF)
Druglink article 2010 – Not for turning? by Paul Hayes and Annette Dale-Perera
Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith’s description of methadone as “a fatalistic, short-term, and damaging approach to drug and alcohol addiction” signalled a growing mistrust of the pragmatic harm reduction measures introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Paul Hayes and Annette Dale-Perera look back…