The National Audit Office’s latest report, “Tackling Problem Drug Use”, shows that the cost of providing effective drug treatment to addict individuals has decreased by 20% in the last five years.  The total funding for treatment per adult in effective treatment stands at £3,000 compared to £3,700 in 2007 which is a 23% fall.

CEO of the National Treatment Agency, Paul Hayes, states: “Anyone who now needs treatment can get it quickly, and record numbers of drug users are receiving help. The numbers dropping out of treatment early are falling, the numbers staying in long enough to benefit are rising, and the numbers successfully completing treatment for dependency are increasing year on year. We have always known that society benefits from effective drug treatment because it cuts crime, improves public health and fosters stable family relationships. We can now demonstrate how the treatment system has risen to the challenge of delivering greater productivity for taxpayers as well.”

The United Nations published and released last week the 2009 annual report of the INCB*, reporting on the latest substance trends from data as obtained from nine regions around the world to include: Africa, Central America and the Carribean, North America, South America, East and South-East Asia, South Asia, West Asia, Europe and Oceania.  Some of the major developments mentioned on the European region, which includes the United Kingdom:  Rejection of the downgrading of MDMA (“ecstasy”) in February 2009 in the UK; decline or stabilisation of the abuse of cannabis and MDMA; decline of cocaine seizures in Western Europe; increase of the illicit market for opiates in Eastern European countries; the UK accounts as one of the regions where most of the heroin is seized in Europe

*  The INCB is an independent body that monitors the implementation of UN drug conventions and monitors the global supply of legal drug.

Testing for counterfeit drugs at its base in Kent, Pfizer has found a growing number of online prescription drugs purchases.  Another laboratory revealed shocking results that some of the drugs tested contained rat poison, boric acid and lead paint.  As stated by Dr Ian Banks from the British Medical Council:  “You should really think twice before you go down what looks like the easy route rather than going to see your doctor.”

Regulations will be drafted in the month dealing with head shops and the selling of drug paraphernalia and legal substances to include ‘designer drugs’.  Dr Jim McDaid has expressed his views that banning head shops would drive these products into the black market.

As a substitute for heroin for addict recovery, the methadone programme appears to have failed one Scotsman who recently had his state-funded medication cut off 20 years later as a result of failing a drugs test. The supply of methadone to heroin addicts in Scotland cost taxpayers approx. £50 million per year. As the leading expert on substance abuse in Scotland, Professor Neil McKeganey has called for a review of the programme and criticises the Government for failing to reduce the cost.