Are
Drug and Abuse Issues Treated as Criminal Matters?
By Dr.Fourkan Ali
It
is no secret that the Government is split over how to best approach the alcohol
and drug abuse problem in Britain. Within the debate is a group of leaders
calling for the decriminalisation of most drugs in an effort to treat addiction
as a health problem rather than a criminal matter. Yet a letter written by the
executive director of the Changing Lives charity suggests that, practically
speaking, there really is no debate here.
Ollie
Batchelor maintains that the common practice all across Britain is to treat all
but the most serious offenders as patients with health problems rather than
criminals. He says courts routinely deal with offenders by issuing minimal
fines and referring them to treatment. Only dealers and persistent offenders
face harsh punishment for their actions.
If
Mr Batchelor were correct, it would seem as though the decriminalisation
question has already been settled. And if so, Batchelor contends that the real
issue is funding. He said that cash-strapped local authorities are looking to
reduce spending in any way they can, oftentimes targeting drug and alcohol
treatment programmes for cuts. On that count, he is right. The amount of money
the Government spends on addiction recovery has been falling for years.
There
was a time when the NHS referred alcohol and drug addicts to residential
treatment and picked up the bill themselves. Those days are over. These days,
residential referrals are reserved for only the most extreme cases. In order
for an addict to qualify, he or she must jump through a series of hoops proving
they have exhausted all other options. Not only has this new strategy
eliminated opportunities for accessing private treatment, it has led to the closure
of private clinics across Britain.
Batchelor
says that charities such as his are at risk of suffering the same fate if
things do not change. Changing Lives, as with so many others, depends on
government funding to keep daily operations going. When local authorities cut
that funding, the charities are forced to rely more heavily on donations from
private organisations. But that money is not an inexhaustible well either.
The Wrong Debate
In light of what Mr Batchelor wrote in his
letter to The Guardian, we would like to suggest the current debate
over decriminalisation is the wrong debate to be having. Instead, it would
appear as though we need to be talking about ways to increase funding for
treatment programmes in order to adequately help all those passing through our
courts. It should be obvious that using the courts to refer drug and alcohol
addicts for treatment does not do any good if the available treatment options
are inadequate.
The truth of the matter is that we cannot
treat drug addiction as a health matter unless we have the funding
to do so. Finding ways to come up with the funding is far more important than
continuing to debate whether drugs should be decriminalised. The longer we
ignore the funding issue in favour of decriminalisation, the longer the problem
will go unaddressed.
Addiction
Helper is here to assist you if you or a loved one is struggling with drugs or
alcohol. We know getting treatment can be challenging, but we are here to help
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assistance with permanently overcoming a drug or alcohol problem.
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