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Communities Against Drugs


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Linking treatment with enforcement

Treatment can shrink the market. It can reduce the numbers of people buying drugs and reduce drug related crime. However, treatment on its own will not remove a drug market and reduce the need for enforcement, because of:

The lack of willingness of all users to seek help
User’s enjoyment of drugs,
Their addiction
The easy availability of drugs
The waiting times sometimes involved for treatment

Treatment schemes which take a more assertive approach can make more inroads into the drug use of key offenders and reduce the levels of drug related offending. However, whilst overall drug related crime may fall, this may not affect the overall size of the drug market. This is because:

A small number of people commit a disproportionate level of crime
Lots of different people – including recreational users without major drug habits buy smaller quantities of drugs
New users are joining all the time and it will take time for these to develop problems and thus cause them to seek treatment

Different models of treatment and the degree to which they reduce market size:

Type of treatment	Scheme précis	Potential for shrinking market	Level of Police involvement	Key points
1. Ordinary voluntary access schemes	Users seek help when they decide to	Considerable but Slow and untargeted – people you want to reach may take tears to reach motivation level	Limited	Dependent on treatment availability and quality
2. Arrest referral	Offenders guided to help when arrested	High contact potential but essentially still dependent on motivation, as above. Dependent on targets being caught first	Happens in police custody	Still depends on quality of treatment
3. Cautioning, Court based and Post sentence schemes	Offenders required to seek help as part of sentence	Persons without motivation compelled to attend – but dependent on them being caught first	Limited	Limited sub-section of offenders on such schemes
4. Prolific offenders schemes	Offenders identified by police before they are caught and encouraged to seek help	Reaches people before they get arrested	High	No compulsion on attendance
5. Proactive service to users in areas of enforcement activity	Special treatment teams go out and offer help to users left without dealers	Directly linked to enforcement	Close liaison	An advance on 1 but has no compulsion

There is no reason that 4 and 5 could not be linked for example, whereby a proactive team targets both prolific offenders and persons about to be left without dealers after enforcement.

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