Policies, legislation

July 3, 2009: A PHONEY WAR ON DRUGS – AND THE MYTH OF ADDICTION TREATMENT PROVISION
Comments: 1 | Categories: Policies, legislation
Has pouring £300million a year into methadone helped – or quicksanded the UK into the worst drug problem in Europe? Deirdre Boyd reacts to rigorous research from the Centre for Policy Studies. Print-friendly version: Download Addiction Today 119-Myth of treatment...

July 3, 2009: THE PHONEY WAR ON DRUGS
Comments: 1 | Categories: Policies, legislation
Despite this government spending £10billion – £1.5billion a year – on its drugs policy, the numbers emerging from government treatment programmes are the same as if there had been no treatment at all, revealed Kathy Gyngell in a recent document...

May 12, 2009: INVOLUNTARY TRANQUILLISER ADDICTION
Comments: 2 | Categories: Policies, legislation
An All-Party Parliamentary Group recently drew the nation’s attention to the damage caused by prescription and over-the-counter drugs – harms to a greater volume of people than from all illicit drugs. Michael Behan reports a worsening situation. Printer-friendly version here:...

March 15, 2009: MINISTER LOOKS AT WEANING PATIENTS OFF METHADONE
Comments: 4 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
Minister John Curran wants evidence on whether patients manage to stave off addiction, reports Stephen O’Brien in The Times newspaper. In Ireland, drug detox programmes for heroin addicts are to be overhauled in an attempt to reduce the death toll...

March 8, 2009: WILL GOVERNMENT SET DRUG-FREE TARGETS FOR TREATMENT?
Comments: 3 | Categories: Policies, legislation
DECISION MUST BE MADE IN MARCH 2009 In January, Drug Action Teams around the country submitted draft treatment plans for 2009/10 to the government’s National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse – NTA approval is needed before they can receive funding...

March 3, 2009: "DRUG-RELATED DEATHS": DEFINITION
Comments: 4 | Categories: Medical , Policies, legislation , Prevention , Research
Further to the debate on what does or does not count as a "drug-related death", Peter O'Loughlin gives the authoritative definition, as below. In 2000, the advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) published a report, Reducing Drug Related...

February 22, 2009: GPs, THE NTA AND THE NUMBERS GAME
Comments: 14 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Research
In good faith, the Substance Misuse Management in General Practice issued guidance now proven to be based on unfounded figures – they were taken at face value from the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. Peter O’Loughlin puts the record...

February 1, 2009: "UK DRUG REHABILITATION SERVICE IS COLLAPSING"
Comments: 1 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
“Private clinics struggle to get funding as government policy favours less effective – but cheaper – methadone clinics,” Nina Lakhani reports in today’s Independent on Sunday. Below is her article, which can also be accessed at the Independent website here....

January 29, 2009: 'LEAGUE TABLES' FOR ADDICTION-TREATMENT PURCHASERS AND PROVIDERS
Comments: 1 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
REVIEW IS NOT BASED ON PATIENT RESULTS A national review of drug treatment networks, published today by the Healthcare Commission and the National treatment Agency, could help to explain how poor commissioning led to the closure of about 15 addiction-treatment...

January 26, 2009: NO REASON TO BE SANGUINE ABOUT TEENAGE DRUG USE
Comments: 1 | Categories: Families and children , News , Policies, legislation
This month, the National Treatment Agency published the staggering figure of nearly 25,000 young people under 18 getting "treatment" for their drugs and alcohol problems.[1] 10 years ago, the thought of so many young teenagers using drugs to this degree...

January 21, 2009: MPS' INQUIRY CONCLUDES DEPENDENCE ON LEGAL MEDICINES IS "A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM"
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
The All Party Parliamentary Drugs Misuse Group today publishes the findings of a year-long inquiry into dependence to over-the-counter and prescription-only medicines. The inquiry, conducted Select Committee-style, took written and oral evidence from the general public, medical and addictions specialists,...

January 16, 2009: QUESTIONS THE NTA DECLINES TO ANSWER
Comments: 6 | Categories: Policies, legislation
XX XX 1. WHERE ARE THE 65,000-70,000 PATIENTS NOT IN REHAB NOR ON SUBSTITUTE MEDICATION? NDTMS figures, given in a 2008 parliamentary question, confirmed that 131,468 people in the last year received methadone or buprenorphine. But only about 2% (about...

January 11, 2009: NUMBERS AND TICKBOXES MUST NOT STRANGLE PUBLIC HEALTH
Comments: 2 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Therapeutic Techniques
Following Addiction Today’s identification of only 2% of patients managing to access drug-free rehabs, Dr David Best diagnoses what is wrong with a treatment system in which maintenance prescribing is the driver rather than a supportive adjunct. This is the...

December 2, 2008: OPEN LETTER TO PADDY TIPPING, MP
Comments: 1 | Categories: Policies, legislation
Re: COUNSEL’S OPINION ON THE LEGALITY OF PRESCRIBING METHADONE TO ALCOHOL DRINKERS To: Paddy Tipping MP From: Robert Beckett House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA By email: 30 November 2008 Dear Paddy, Recent copy correspondence and counsels’ opinion has clearly...

December 1, 2008: WHO ARE THE 70,000 NOT IN REHAB NOR ON SUBSTITUTE MEDICATION?
Comments: 3 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Research
Jon Hibbs, communications director of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, has written to Addiction Today stating that "one third of people in treatment (sic) are not on substitute medication. NDTMS figures, given in a recent parliamentary question, confirmed...

November 30, 2008: TIER-4 CAPITAL INVESTMENT PROGRAMME
Comments: 0 | Categories: Funding opportunities , News , Policies, legislation
Click here for related blog. “Abstinence-based drug treatment will grow by more than 2,000 places a year following over £54 million of government capital funding,” stated a press release issued by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse on 26...

November 30, 2008: Q: WHEN IS £54MILLION NOT £54MILLION?
Comments: 3 | Categories: Funding opportunities , News , Policies, legislation
A: When the NTA recycles a two-year old press release with an unusual juxtaposition of words and figure. Read related blog here. “Abstinence-based drug treatment will grow by more than 2,000 places a year following over £54 million of government...

November 21, 2008: TREATMENT EFFECTIVENESS:
Comments: 0 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Therapeutic Techniques
NATIONAL TREATMENT AGENCY REVIEW The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse released its Review of the effectiveness of treatment for alcohol problems. It is mostly excellent and a great reference tool – but some conclusions have led to a judicial...

November 17, 2008: HELP PILOT SYSTEM-CHANGE
Comments: 0 | Categories: Funding opportunities , News , Partnerships , Policies, legislation
DEADLINE 11 DECEMBER 2008 One of the aims of the Drug Strategy, Drugs: protecting families and communities (2008), is to deliver new approaches to drug treatment and social reintegration. “One of the key actions is to develop pilots to test...

November 17, 2008: DRUGS UNCOVERED
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Research
ASPECIAL REPORT BY THE OBSERVER Click here for an indepth report by the Sunday newspaper on drug attitudes and much more.

November 17, 2008: IS METHADONE THE ANSWER?
Comments: 2 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
OR DOES METHADONE STOP ADDICTS FROM TACKLING THE CAUSES OF DEPENDENCY? “Experts and users are divided about the merits of this 'maintenance' approach compared to the more robust alternative of rehab. Elizabeth Day listens to arguments from both sides,” stated...

November 13, 2008: "AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ACMD ABOUT ECSTASY"
Comments: 9 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Research
BY PROFESSOR ANDREW PARROTT The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has been devoting time to reclassifying ecstasy downwards, even though not requested by government to do so. Deirdre Boyd recalls parliament’s criticism of the ACMD here. Read Professor...

November 12, 2008: ACMD: ACRONYM OR ANACHRONISM?
Comments: 16 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Research
After the debacle and harm stemming from its recommendation to downgrade the classification of cannabis, the ACMD now wants to downgrade a drug which can be 10 times more powerful than cocaine. It is an opportune time to recall the...

November 3, 2008: NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE: ALCOHOL
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Research
The National Audit Office has published a report on Reducing Alcohol Harm: health services in England for alcohol misuse. The report found that a quarter of Primary Care Trusts had not accurately assessed the alcohol problems in their area and...

November 2, 2008: THE NTA: UNZIPPING TREATMENT FACTS
Comments: 7 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
A dozen rehabs in the UK have closed and others made counsellors redundant. Most depend on the state for clients – but it refers only 2% of drug abusers to drug-free treatment, creating a crisis of empty beds and waiting...

October 24, 2008: APPLE OF OUR EYE
Comments: 0 | Categories: National Treatment Agency - DoH , Policies, legislation
A major report by the NW Drug Treatment Commission calls for “massive investment” in treatment. and aims to “influence government thinking”. Deirdre Boyd finds its advocacy tempting. This article was first published in March 2002, Addiction Today issue 75. Its...

October 19, 2008: PRISONS AND BEYOND
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
Links to the Addiction Today article on NOMS' conference and to its presentations will be published here as soon as they are available.

October 8, 2008: TREATMENT EFFECTIVENESS:
Comments: 0 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Research , Therapeutic Techniques
ALCOHOL SERVICES The National Treatment Agency has released its Review of the effectiveness of treatment for alcohol problems. It is mostly excellent and a great reference tool – but some conclusions have led to a judicial review being explored by...

October 8, 2008: MENDACIOUS OR JUST STRAIGHT FOOLISH
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
HOW THE NTA IS AVOIDING TREATMENT TRUTHS Centre for Policy Studies blog by Kathy Gyngell “A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It...

October 4, 2008: NTA ISSUES GUIDE TO SUPPORT REHAB REFERRALS
Comments: 3 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
After Addiction Today's highlighting of the lack of referrals to abstinence-based rehabs and consequent closures of these much-needed services, the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse issued Improving the quality and provision of Tier 4 interventions as part of client...

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