Policies, legislation

August 27, 2010: NO WAY TO DISPENSE PUBLIC MONEY
Comments: 3 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
by Kathy Gyngell Chair - Prisons and Addictions Forum Centre for Policy Studies Read the complete blog here. Summary below. The NTA’s poor and unfair practices mean it cannot be trusted. This £19million+ a year public-health authority should be wound...

August 26, 2010: TIMETABLES FOR NEW GOVERNMENT POLICIES
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
HOME OFFICE The HO released its 2010 Drug strategy consultation paper towards the end of August and readers have until end-September to respond. This is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get real help for addicts to recover. Feel free to...

August 23, 2010: FROM HOPELESSNESS TO ACTION: MOVING ADDICTS INTO RECOVERY
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Therapeutic Techniques
RESPONSE TO HOME OFFICE DRUGS CONSULTATION We need ‘saltation’ – a successful leap to the major recovery league, a single mutation which dramatically alters the treatment phenotype, both a quantum jump and a series of rhythmical steps in time. Deirdre...

August 10, 2010: CAN THESE LEOPARDS CHANGE THEIR SPOTS?
Comments: 7 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
RESPONSE TO THE NTA BUSINESS PLAN 2010/2011 by Deirdre Boyd, CEO of the Addiction Recovery Foundation Kathy Gyngell, chair of the Centre for Policy Studies' Addictions working group With the threat of abolition hanging over its head, the National Treatment...

August 8, 2010: A GLOSSARY FOR OUR TIMES
Comments: 4 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
REWRITING THE DICTIONARY Tickboxers could eradicate war, disease, poverty and addiction in a mere few strokes of the pen, to meet targets – by rewriting the dictionary. Deirdre Boyd offers a glossary to recent claims. Preview from the September 2010...

August 6, 2010: MARIJUANA LEGALISATION'S UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
Next November, Californians will ballot on allowing people 21 years and older to possess, cultivate and transport cannabis for personal use, as well as enable its commercial production and sale. Professor Keith Humphreys of Stanford University School of Medicine's psychiatry...

July 27, 2010: OPEN LETTER TO PROFESSOR STEVEN FIELD
Comments: 4 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
CHAIR OF COUNCIL - ROYAL COLLEGE OF GPs 14 Princes Gate Hyde Park London SW7 1PU Dear Professor Field, GP OVERPRESCRIBING OF ADDICTIVE DRUGS I am w riting to you regarding serious concerns I and many others have about the...

July 26, 2010: HEALTH SECRETARY: NTA TO BE ABOLISHED
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
Health secretary Andrew Lansley announced today that bureaucracy will be cut as health "arm's length bodies" are reduced from 18 to 8-10, saving over £180m by 2014/15 - and one of the bodies to be abolished is the National Treatment...

July 10, 2010: ABOLISH NTA TO CUT DRUG ADDICTION
Comments: 2 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
"Methadone prescriptions for heroin addicts would be cut and the National Treatment Agency that runs the programme scrapped under plans from the Tories favourite think-tank," reports Rosemary Bennett, social affairs correspondent of The Times newspaper. "The Centre for Social Justice,...

June 30, 2010: NTA EVADES DEFINITIONS
Comments: 1 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
IN FRAMEWORK FOR UK The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse plans to roll out a “new framework document” for the country. Addiction Today will not reveal details in advance – but is already concerned about accountability and outcomes. The...

June 29, 2010: PATIENT PLACEMENT CRITERIA:
Comments: 0 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Therapeutic Techniques
SELECTING APPROPRIATE TREATMENT About 50 million lives are in the hands of companies across the globe which state that they use ASAM ‘patient placement criteria’ to authorise addiction treatment. What are these criteria? And how can they help give happier...

June 11, 2010: THE HEROIN TRIAL FAILURE
Comments: 9 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Research
by Anders Ulstein Read the full article here. Summary below. Read related article: Dodgy dossier 2. The Lancet report (29 May 2010) of a recent heroin prescription trial has been widely promoted as a success. But only five out of...

June 9, 2010: THE 'SCIENTIFIC CITIZEN'
Comments: 0 | Categories: Current Affairs , Policies, legislation , Research
THE DANGER OF UNQUESTIONING 'TRUST' by Kathy Gyngell Read the full article here. Summary below. Was anyone else more than a little disturbed by Professor Martin Rees' call in his Reith Lecture for public policy choices "to be leveraged by...

June 1, 2010: UKESAD 2010: VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation , Training
"UKESAD 2010 was an inspiration," writes InExcess TV founder and presenter George Williams who filmed the three-day international symposium Building Bridges: from addiction to recovery. "Our highlights capture its spirit, with clips from key presentations and interviews, including White House...

May 2, 2010: "STOP THE TOP": NTA RESPONSE... VS THE EVIDENCE
Comments: 2 | Categories: Current Affairs , National Treatment Agency - DoH , Policies, legislation , Research
Dr Jason Luty revealed research in the March 2010 issue of Addiction Today showing that the National Treatment Agency’s Top Treatment Outcome Profile form is “criminally invalid”. The NTA’s Colin Bradbury gives his defence below - and Addiction Today editor...

May 2, 2010: GOVERNMENTS, POLICIES AND MANIFESTOS
Comments: 1 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
“Government policies can improve drug problems – or worsen them,” White House drugs adviser Keith Humphreys notes. As Obama releases his first US drugs policy this summer, and three contenders for the next UK government publish their manifestos, it is...

March 3, 2010: ADDICTION TODAY EVIDENCE LEADS TO MORE REHAB TREATMENT/FUNDS
Comments: 4 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
... and more cocaine-powder users to be treated The Home Affairs Committee 96-page Report on the Cocaine Trade has been released - and among its recommendations to government are two which have been influenced by evidence from the Addiction Recovery...

February 25, 2010: END OF THE LINE FOR THE NTA?
Comments: 5 | Categories: Debate , National Treatment Agency - DoH , News , Policies, legislation
AND FOR THE ACMD? Iain Duncan Smith MP has given a speech in which he calls for the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse to be replaced. He also advocates for rehab places to be quadrupled - and filled with...

February 25, 2010: BREAKTHROUGH TO RECOVERY
Comments: 6 | Categories: Current Affairs , National Treatment Agency - DoH , News , Policies, legislation
As the country awaits a new government, can we hope for improvement in guiding desperate, vulnerable people towards true recovery from addiction? The Conservative Party adopted 70 policies, and Labour 39 policies, from the Centre for Social Justice, founded by...

January 20, 2010: Recovery voices must be heard
Comments: 1 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
"Drug users' voices must be heard in the battle against addiction," writes Mark Johnson in the Guardian newspaper today. "I was humbled by the many people who contacted me about my last column, in which I labelled the way our...

January 6, 2010: MYTHBUSTERS: SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION IN THE ACMD AND THE MEDIA
Comments: 12 | Categories: Cannabis comment , Current Affairs , Debate , Policies, legislation , Prevention
When Professor David Nutt was sacked by the Home Secretary for arguing against government policy on drug classification, he stated that his proposals were based on scientific evidence. Professor Andy Parrott goes mythbusting. It has been highly publicised across the...

October 28, 2009: THE DODGY DOSSIER OF NON-TREATMENT: 2
Comments: 0 | Categories: Current Affairs , News , Policies, legislation
THE NTA LANCET PRESS RELEASE An NTA article printed by medical journal Lancet led national media andinternational academic websites to the perception that this body of bureaucracy is successfully treating addiction/dependency. Deirdre Boyd reveals the truth behind the headlines. “Drug...

October 28, 2009: THE DODGY DOSSIER OF NON-TREATMENT: 1
Comments: 0 | Categories: Current Affairs , News , Policies, legislation
ANNUAL REPORT and GUARDIAN MEDIA BLITZ The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse spent your hard-earned taxes and mine on paying for positive PR in the Guardian this week, sponsoring a special supplement. "Commissioning editor Terry Kirby" wrote that the...

October 7, 2009: DODGY DOSSIERS OF ADDICTION NON-TREATMENT
Comments: 3 | Categories: Policies, legislation , Research
In the week of the Labour Party Conference, Jack Straw publicly called for heroin on the NHS – based on publicity for a project called Riott which had not been independently evaluated nor peer reviewed (click here for critique). The...

September 29, 2009: INJECTING ROOM FAILS
Comments: 5 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
A recent analysis of official reports on the Sydney Kings Cross injecting room confirmed that unavailability of heroin is of far greater significance in preventing heroin deaths than the availability of injecting rooms. Less than 9,800 drug users were registered...

September 26, 2009: WHEN IS RESEARCH NOT RESEARCH?
Comments: 5 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
THE RIOTT HEROIN TRIALS (NB: RIOTT randomised injectable opiate trials is not connected with RIOT, the UK's only abstinent service user group) “Clamour grows for heroin on the NHS” shouted the Independent last week. This was news to me, as...

September 20, 2009: OPEN LETTER TO JACK STRAW ON HEROIN
Comments: 5 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
To Paddy Tipping MP, Vernon Coaker MP: I was taken completely aback this morning when I read in the Times that Jack Straw wants to give heroin addicts heroin, on the NHS. How about giving alcoholics who cannot stop drinking...

August 31, 2009: DEATH BY DIVERSITY?
Comments: 2 | Categories: Current Affairs , Policies, legislation
WORKING WITH THE LGBT COMMUNITY Lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender services are a rarity, reports Sarah Graham. At the same time, where gay clubs go, straight ones usually follow – and they are succumbing to crystal meth. Back in 1992 on an OutRage! demo...

August 31, 2009: LEGISLATING FOR ADDICTION RECOVERY
Comments: 3 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
MAKE THE LAW WORK FOR YOU Are the much-lamented addiction-treatment structures in the NHS lawful? UK Advocates has sought legal advice on improving treatment and access to it– and is about to apply for a judicial review. Robert Beckett makes...

August 4, 2009: "MIXED MESSAGES ON DRINK AND DRUGS ARE THE ROAD TO SOCIAL RUIN"
Comments: 0 | Categories: News , Policies, legislation
" Law enforcement has been undermined by mixed and confusing signals. The latest such muddle surfaced last week in a report by a body styling itself the UK Drug Policy Commission. This said that, since the UK drug market can...