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UK: Call for illegal drug-use honesty

BBC News Online

Friday 17 Jun 2005

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An open debate about illegal drug use is needed if patients are to get the
care and support they need, says a leading medical journal.

The Lancet says public condemnation of the recreational drug scene has led
to secrecy among users that is perpetuating drug-related problems.

Without open debate, it says the scale of the problem can never be known.

The Home Office has commissioned the largest study into the treatment of
drug users ever carried out in the UK.

Researchers at the University of Manchester will investigate clinical,
criminal and wider social outcomes related to treatment and care for 3,000
problem drug-users.

Current estimates suggest third of people aged 16-59 have used one or more
illicit drugs in their lifetime.

That is equivalent to over 11 million people in England and Wales.

The British Crime Survey 2003/04 estimates 12.3% of people (or 4 million)
in this age range have used one or more illicit drugs in the last year and
7.5% (or over 2 million) in the last month.

Cannabis is the drug most likely to be used, followed by cocaine.

Ecstasy and amphetamines are the next most commonly used. Drugs like heroin
are used more rarely.

However, the estimates are based on survey results and many people may not
wish to divulge their recreational drug use, argues the Lancet.

The editorial says: "Without open debate, we cannot know the true extent of
the problem.

Cloak and secrecy

"Without open debate, there can be no accurate quantification of the risk
of harm...and doctors remain starved of the knowledge necessary to cope
with the acute and long-term effects of drug use."

In the same journal, doctors from Johns Hopkins University in the US, say
medics should make sure they are aware of the toxic effects of new and
emerging recreational drugs so they do not miss any cases.

Harry Shapiro from the charity DrugScope said: "The Lancet editorial raises
many important issues.

"The Lancet is right to call for a cooling in the overheated climate in
which drug misuse is too often discussed. We cannot hope for much progress
without such a change taking place.

"The current focus on crime and public nuisance can obscure the wider
health and welfare dimensions of substance misuse, and narrow views of the
'drug problem' contribute to the neglect of other kinds of harm and other
kinds of victim.

"We must be clear and consistent about the risks and dangers of
psycho-active drugs. But if the message is out of line with people's lived
experience, then drug policy will lose credibility, sensible advice will be
discounted and the risks and dangers of drug misuse will increase."

 

 

 

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