Drug strategy
Communities
Drug-related offending, violence and anti-social behaviour have the greatest visible impact on communities. Builiding on our successes and knowledge of what works, we will work with local and regional partners to ensure that a co-ordinated approach is taken to address drug-related offending and anti-social behaviour.
The approach will consist of four key measures.
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Identify and manage drug-misusing offenders
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Maximise the effectiveness of prison and community sentences
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Engage and empower communities with stronger, locally responsive law enforcement
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Reduce the supply of drugs into and within the country
Identity and manage drug misusing offenders
To ensure that those who cause the most harm are identified, properly managed and receive appropriate and timely interventions, the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, prosecutors, police and partners will:
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continue to present drug-misusing offenders with tough choices to change their behaviour;
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ensure that the Drug Intervention Programme based powers, such as drug testing, required assessment and restriction on bail, are effectively applied at a local level; and
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keep those powers under review, for example by considering the range of substances for which anm offender is tested.
Maximise the effectiveness of prison and community sentences
The Ministry of Justice will lead on the above aim in conjunction with the Department of health and other partners and will:
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maximise the use of community sentences with Drug Rehabilitation Requirements;
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ensure prisoners have access to a minimum standard of clinical drug treatment
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explore the scope of streamlining funding and commissioning arrangements for the National Offender Management Service, Primary Care Trust and Joint Commissioning Groups through commissioning and delivery pilots;
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extend the use of successful interventions throughout the criminal justice system, including further rolling out of the Integrated Drug Treatment System;
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pilot the introduction of the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System into prisons and ensure community based treatment services are notified when a drug user is released from prison.
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raise the quality of interventions in the prisons estate and develop the skills of workforce in prisons and probations services, so that they can deliver quality drug services.
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examine the potential of offering sentencers additional community-based options for substance misusers within the intensive alternative to custody programme
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extend the successful Dedicated Drug Court pilots, in which courts look to address drug misuse as a cause of offending, to up to four further areas, subject to evaluation of the Leeds and West London pilots; and
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improve measures to control the supply of drugs into prisons
Engage and empower communities with stronger, locally-responsive law enforcement
The Neighbourhood Policing approach means the police and other enforcement agencies will lesten and respond to community concerns about drugs, act on intelligence supplued, provide information on results and seek feedback. All relevant agencies will ensuer that action to prevent and tackle drugs sits at the heart of this policing starategy and that all available powers, levers and sanctions will beused to:
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maximise the use of intelligence gathered from the community
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disrupt and dismantle drug markets
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seize the cash and assets of drug dealers; and
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make greater use of post-conviction Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) to prevent those convicted of drug dealing from re-establishing their business.
Prevent harm to communities by reducing the supply of drugs into and within the country
Our approach to tackling the supply of drugs will focus on five key elements:
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tackling the drugs which cause the greatest harm
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maintain strong UK borders
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expand international co-operation to further reduce trafficking into the UK
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ensure closer working between agencies involved in tackling drug supply
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targeting criminal assets
