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Study says UK's drug problem is worst in Europe

Wednesday, April 18 : LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has the worst level of drug abuse in Europe and the second-highest rate of drug-related deaths, according to a study published on Wednesday.

Despite years of anti-drug campaigns, government policy has had "minimal" impact on the level of drug abuse in Britain, the report said.

The government insists however that its strategy to tackle drug abuse has been a success, with record numbers of people entering and staying in treatment.

Dame Ruth Runciman, who chairs the UK Drug Policy Commission, the new think-tank behind the research, said there were signs of progress but not enough had been done to see what policies were working well and why.

She said Britain was "doing badly" when compared to the rest of Europe and more research was needed to tackle the problem.

"The commission does not start from the position that all UK drug policy has failed, but rather that we do no know enough about which elements of policy work, why they work and where they work well," she said.

The study found little evidence that longer jail sentences, more arrests, education and treatment had cut the number of addicts or the availability of drugs.

The number of heroin users in England alone is estimated at 281,000, compared to just 5,000 in 1975, the study found. A fifth of all people arrested are heroin addicts.

A quarter of those born between 1976 and 1980 have tried a Class A drug, a category that includes heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Nearly half of young people have smoked cannabis.

The price of drugs has fallen, despite a rise in arrests of dealers and increased seizures. A gram of heroin typically cost 54 pounds in 2005, compared to 70 pounds in 2000.

In 2005, there were 1,644 drug-related deaths. An estimated four out of 10 people who inject drugs have hepatitis C.

The Home Office said last month that drug misuse had been reduced by 21 percent over the past nine years with a 7.5 billion pound programme of enforcement, education and treatment.

But the headmaster of a leading public school said there was an "epidemic" of drug abuse among British schoolchildren.

Speaking before a school anti-drugs conference, Dr Anthony Sheldon, master of Wellington College in Berkshire, said: "We in schools need to be tougher and stronger than ever about drugs. Drug use is now an epidemic amongst young people and there isn't a school in the country that doesn't have a problem with drugs."

An ICM poll last year found three in four people saw drugs as a problem in their area. More than half said the police should be doing more to tackle drugs.

The UK Drug Policy Commission was set up with a three-year grant from the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, a charity with a history of funding social policy research.

Source: Reuters

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