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Contents
editor’s letter
ON THE COVER
‘With yet more evidence, can
we justify standing still?’
PCCs call for change p6
4
H
NEWS
Increase hep C testing say MPs; Trump calls for death penalty for drug dealers.
6 STRONG ARM OF THE LAW
8 CLIMATE CHANGE
PCCs lead the way in call for drug policy reform.
It’s time to bring a DCR to Belfast, says Chris Rintoul.
10 LETTERS
Unwanted interventions; Commissioning controversies.
11 CLINICAL EYE
Don’t neglect yourself, says Ishbel Straker.
11 MEDIA SAVVY
The news, and the skews, in the national media.
12 ALL OR NOTHING
Is 12-step setting some people up to fail, asks Alex Boyt.
14 MAKING PATHWAYS
How do commissioners tackle increasingly complex issues with less money?
16 A NEW FRONTIER
Treatment needs to reach out to different groups, argues Paul North.
ow far do you have to go to show that something’s a good
idea, it’s cost effective, and that it works? We know that
safe spaces, such as DCRs, save lives and that supporting
instead of punishing is the only humane approach to drug policy.
When leaders on the frontline of law enforcement raise their
voices to tell us our current approach to drug policy is not only
failing, but a ‘crazy waste of money’, surely politicians must listen
(page 6). These are not isolated voices: the Royal Society for Public
Health is among many organisations to back harm reduction
initiatives such as consumption rooms and heroin-assisted
treatment as a move towards evidence-based policy.
Police officers were among the stakeholders to come together at
a recent conference In Belfast on injecting drug use (page 8), and
talked about the damage that law enforcement approaches can do
to vulnerable people. If the support of the local police force is a
critical factor in being able to establish DCRs in the UK, then surely
we can’t be far off making them a reality in local areas.
We’re all too familiar with the upward trends in drug-related
deaths, so when we’re presented with yet more evidence that a
policy change would be cost-effective as well as health-effective,
how can we justify standing still? And with police, local government
and the health and social care fields calling for a move from
evidence to action, surely it’s time for every region to be clear and
purposeful in getting on with it.
Claire Brown, editor
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