Drug strategy
Drug strategy overview
The ten-year drug strategy (2008-2018) aims to restrict the supply of illegal drugs and reduce the demand for them. It focuses on protecting families and strengthening communities.
The four strands of work within the strategy are:
-
protecting communities through tackling drug supply, drug-related crime and anti-social behaviour
-
preventing harm to children, young people and families affected by drug misuse
-
delivering new approaches to drug treatment and social re-integration
-
public information campaigns, communications and community engagement
Key documents
Key policies
These include:
-
embedding action to tackle drugs within the neighbourhood policing approach, to gather community intelligence and to increase community confidence
-
targeting the drug-misusing offenders causing the highest level of crime, improving prison treatment programmes and increasing the use of community sentences with a drug rehabilitation requirement
-
strengthening and extending international agreements to intercept drugs being trafficked to the UK
-
extending powers to seize the cash and assets of drug dealers, to demonstrate to communities that dealing doesn't pay
-
focusing on the families where parents misuse drugs, intervening early to prevent harm to children, prioritising parents' access to treatment where children are at risk, providing intensive parenting guidance and supporting family members, such as grandparents, who take on caring responsibilities
-
developing a package of support to help people in drug treatment to complete treatment to to re-establish their lives, including ensuring local arrangements are in place to refer people from Jobcentres to sources of housing advice and advocacy and appropriate treatment
-
using opportunities presented by the benefits system to support people in re-integrating into society and gaining employment, with a commitment to examine further how claimants can be incentivised to engage with treatment and other services
-
piloting new approaches which allow a more flexible and effective use of resources, including individual budgets to meet treatment and wider support needs
Developing the strategy
The strategy was informed by several pieces of research:
Delivering the strategy
The strategy covers a ten-year period to 2018. Its delivery is underpinned by a series of three-year action plans, which run concurrently with the spending review cycles.
Partnerships with other government departments
The drug strategy is delivered as a cross-government initiative. While the Home Office has overall responsibility for delivery, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, Department of Health and many other government departments are also key.
For more information see UK Government section
