News: the big debate

Our high death toll from drugs is prompting some big questions. Frank le Duc reports

We’re dying for a fix in Brighton and Hove. Fifty of us – mostly under 40 – lose our lives each year after taking drugs. We are consistently found to be the drug death capital of Britain. No wonder some of our leading public figures want to fix this problem and the tangle of related problems in its trail.

Drug-taking is rife and, while the prices of different drugs fluctuate with availability, it often starts out seeming reasonably cheap. And despite the best efforts of police and other enforcement agencies, the supply of illegal drugs rarely seems to suffer more than the occasional temporary blip. As with the prohibition of alcohol in America in the 1920s, it’s big business.

In our tolerant city, a growing number of people regard drugs and drug taking as increasingly socially acceptable. And of course many people take recreational drugs and suffer few if any serious ill effects – certainly in the short term. Some will tell you that drinking is a bigger risk. Although, of course, we can be fairly sure about what we’re buying in a bottle or a bar and the same can’t be said about illegal drugs.

But an average of one person every week dies a drug-related death in Brighton and Hove. Many of them are on the margins of society – drifters, dropouts and street drinkers. At inquests, the addresses given are often hostels for the homeless, peopled by those who struggle in some of the squalid and sordid corners of our city.

Occasionally, someone dies when their life seemed full of promise, reminding us of an unpredictability surrounding the quality and quantity of drugs. Someone like Hester Stewart, 21, a talented medical student at Sussex University, who took meow meow at a party in Brighton. At the time meow meow, or mephedrone, had not been outlawed. It has now. But the arguments for and against banning each drug designed to get round existing rules proved to be heated and long lasting. It coincided with a row about the medical evidence about cannabis use. Alan Johnson, who was Home Secretary at the time, sacked his chief adviser, Professor David Nutt.

The cannabis row demonstrated how difficult politicians and public figures have found it to speak openly and straightforwardly about the scourge of drugs. This is becoming less true though in Brighton which, with its “party town” image, is a magnet for dealers and users. Some claim the impressive treatment options here also provide a pull for addicts. And it’s hard not to believe that some of our tens of thousands of students don’t contribute towards the demand.

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, caused ripples with her contributon to the debate earlier in the summer. She called for the government to decriminalise personal drug use and treat people rather than criminalise them. She wants an evidence-based approach to drug policy. She persuaded the city’s police commander Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett to back her call for a rational debate.

Mr Bartlett said: “My officers will continue to enforce the law as it stands. However, my personal view is that while production, supply and trafficking are and should remain crimes, the use of drugs is not well addressed through punitive measures.

“Providing people with treatment not only resolves their addiction – thereby minimising risk of overdose, drug-related health issues, anti-social behaviour and dependence on the state, for example – but cuts the cost to the community by reduced offending.”

At the same time Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove, was putting together a seminar intended to contribute to just such a debate. And he’s holding it in public.

It takes place at Hove Town Hall on Friday (30 September). It’s free. And he wants us to turn up, listen and share our experiences and views with around 20 local and national experts.

He hopes to address the question: “Are drug deaths avoidable?” Legalisation will be one topic along with some key social and practical aspects of the way we deal with the whole issue. He is honest about what a complex subject it is but his eyes were opened by a supporter who took him to see addicts being treated.

Both Caroline Lucas and Mike Weatherley are members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform. They bring different views to the debate. But they are agreed on the importance of not ducking an issue that is a matter of life and death every week in the city they represent.

Opinion: Andy Winter Chief Executive of Brighton Housing Trust

Brighton and Hove has one of the most serious drug problems in the country, one that threatens not just the wellbeing and lives of individuals, but also the economic prosperity of the city. Since 1996, when I first carried out original research into drug-related deaths, there have been more than 500 drug deaths locally, mainly of men and women under the age of 40.

But in that period, through Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) Detox Support and Recovery Projects (which along with CRI’s St Thomas Fund are the only services locally that have abstinence as their primary focus) a similar number have become abstinent and gone on to achieve ongoing recovery from addiction. Locally, just 9 per cent leave drug services drug free, compared to a national average of 14 per cent.

What saddens me is that there has been a Government-led lack of ambition regarding recovery from addiction. However, the Coalition Government’s strategy is for a “treatment revolution” and that abstinence should be championed. I welcome this wholeheartedly.

If we don’t champion abstinence, we will see more drug users, more children being looked after by the local authority, increased domestic violence, an inevitable increase in drug-related deaths, an increase in crime, increase demands on health services, and damage to the reputation of the city and, consequentially, its economic health.

BHT originally adopted an abstinence approach in response to demands from clients, a message that has become stronger. Some of those who come into our service have said that originally they were either not made aware of our service or abstinence was never presented as an option. In fact, some clients have said they were actively discouraged from seeking abstinence.

Unless we collectively overcome this lack of ambition, and until we stop justifying drug use as a ‘lifestyle choice’, we will continue to fail drug users and our city.

What would you want for your son or your daughter if they had an addiction? An ongoing prescription of a heroin substitute or achieving a healthy and drug-free life? Recovery from addiction is possible.

Mike Weatherley Conservative MP for Hove & Portslade
The drugs debate on Friday is important because it gives our community an opportunity to engage with experts in what is a huge problem for all of us in Hove and Portslade. Our local drug problem has concerned me since I got involved in local politics many years back and even more so since I was elected as Member of Parliament for Hove and Portslade last year.

I am proud to have organised this meeting because nothing that I know of has been done like it before. As the drug death capital of Britain, drug issues affect almost everyone locally at some point. I want to get the issues out in the open. Drug addiction and drug-related crime can break up families. Drug pushers pray on the vulnerable. Drug-related litter is left where our children play. Drug addicts break into our elderly parents’ homes.

Current drug policy has been totally ineffective in stopping the problem but it has also created a number of unintended consequences. For example, when somebody is imprisoned for a minor drug offence, they leave behind a struggling family. Sussex Police has piloted a new system which has helped many people find a new life via treatment rather than imprisonment. We’ll hear more about this and other issues at the debate.

More often than not, national drug policy is created from a perspective of punishing addicts. Higher on the agenda though should be stopping those who deal drugs. These organised gangs are responsible for many other crimes and need to be stopped. I have no doubt that the issue of decriminalisation will come out on the day and it will be fascinating to hear the arguments from both sides. The point that I will continue to make though is that the current system doesn’t work.

Past debates have been very much closed away from the eyes of those most affected. I set up this debate as a public meeting so that my constituents can be involved throughout. I look forward to a lively discussion – with some robust opinions that I can take to Westminster so that we can really get stuck in to ridding our wonderful city of this dreadful scourge.

Caroline Lucas Green MP for Brighton Pavilion
As the local MP, I am determined to help tackle our city’s deeply sad reputation as the UK’s drugs death capital. In order to do that, we need to recognise the reality that the so-called “war on drugs” approach favoured by our Government has failed. There is now growing support within the scientific and political communities, in the police and the legal professions for a move away from the prohibition of personal drug use towards an evidence-based, public health approach to addiction.
Here in Brighton and Hove, we understand more than most the consequences of a national drugs policy that is failing our citizens and communities. And given the commitment here to pioneering treatment and support programmes, we are well placed to set a positive example for other cities through new measures to reduce drug-related harms.

As a member of the All Party Group for Drug Policy Reform in Parliament, I’m working with colleagues and local stakeholders to explore what this might mean in practice. I recently hosted a three-hour roundtable discussion in Brighton focusing on the effectiveness of current treatment, alternative methods – and what might be done locally, drawing on best practice in other parts of the UK and overseas.

It was a very positive debate, with representatives from Brighton and Hove City Council, Sussex Primary Care Trust, MIND, Transform, Sussex Partnership, the RIOTT project, Brighton Housing Trust, Release and a number of academics and practitioners – along with the divisional commander of police in Brighton and Hove Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett – coming together to express a strong commitment to reducing drug-related deaths.

The discussion touched on a number of ideas that might make a difference, providing greater social support alongside medical attention for those coming off drugs, for example. And the potential for rolling out treatment programmes and increasing the availability of tried-and-tested solutions, such as naloxone, to prevent the deaths associated with heroin overdose.

Looking ahead, I’ll be taking the debate forward through close work with key agencies, healthcare professionals and community groups, to further explore what can be done. It won’t be easy. Dealing with drugs differently will represent a real shift in thinking – any changes should be introduced with great care and support from those in the field. But in the long term, I believe a more evidence-based policy will help to prevent crime, save lives and protect communities from the worst effects of drug misuse.