Uk's Drug Policy

Until the introduction of the recovery agenda, the UK’s drug policy focussed upon the problems arising from drug use, targeting reduction of the harms from disease dissemination and drug related offences. As provision can be accessed through the NHS, treatment has often been provided in a clinical framework of assessments and interventions. However, planned exits from services have not been well managed or measured to prevent relapse. As engagement with recovery groups and the community have not been included in measurements of treatment delivery or in commissioning, two separate therapeutic approaches have developed. One in statutory care, delivered through health and social services, and the other through community mutual aid groups such …show more content…
Ingrained problematic drug use can create an identity for people who have been forced to see their drug taking as central to their lives, as an ‘addict’ or a ‘junkie’. For people to move towards ‘recovery’, new identities may need to be forged. It needs to be recognised that for individuals there are often many positives in their drug taking, and their drug taking lifestyle needs to be addressed if ‘recovery’ is to be promoted. The lifestyle of procuring and taking drugs can create a structure and purpose to a person’s life, as well as social contacts and support. To simply remove these benefits without looking to replace or supplement them can only promote relapse and make ‘recovery’ unsustainable. Where previously, considerable time would be invested in procuring drugs, thereby socially conversing with people and maintaining a structure to their day, people who have stopped taking substances can find themselves isolated and with too much spare time on their hands. Lack of confidence and little knowledge of how to access community resources can greatly increase the risk of …show more content…
Ladders to escape are hauled up and a return to normality can be blocked through criminalisation and imprisonment, pushing the ‘addict’ deeper into their addiction shaped hole. When substance use becomes an all-encompassing occupation, people fall behind their contemporaries in acquiring education, training, contacts and work experience and consequently find themselves increasingly unable to ‘haul’ themselves out. Where certain drugs are heavily stigmatised, people who use these drugs problematically can very quickly become socially isolated, leaving them nowhere to turn but towards the armed services. Research on Vietnam veterans found overwhelmingly that veterans with persistent and dependant reported symptoms of heroin addiction managed to avoid re-addiction without formal support once they left behind the environmental and social factors that had led to their drug use in the first place and reveals the significance of the social, cultural and economic surrounding that an individual has in supporting problem drug use. People who have periods of problematic drug use, yet retain strong social and work relationships, can use these links to pull themselves back, or be supported by their friends and family, to move towards less problematic drug use and