Government Offices are working with regional partners to deliver the Government’s ‘National Drug Strategy’, via both Drugs Action Teams and the Drugs Intervention Programme.
More information on the national picture
Drugs
In all areas of drug prevention we work to identify and promote best practice and advise local partnerships on how to work more effectively. These local partnerships have performance targets in each of our region's main area of work and we review these, together with the National Treatment Agency, quarterly.
Drug Action Teams
There are 19 multi-agency DATs in our region. They are encourage to work closely with Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP) who are responsible for delivering the Government's Crime Reduction Strategy.
Drug Interventions Programme (DIP)
The aim of this programme is to get offenders who commit crime to fund their drug habit out of crime and into treatment. In April 2003, DIP began an intensive programme including drug testing on arrest in areas where acquisitive crime is highest. Reading and Slough operate intensive DIPs and Oxford will operate an intensive programme from April 2005.
Alcohol
In 2004 the Government published the 'Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy'. This resulted in a Summer Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign targeting alcohol-related disorder and underage drinking.
The Campaign's Message was:
'Those who encourage alcohol related violence and underage drinking will not be tolerated'.
To Raise Awareness of Alcohol Abuse We Have Successfully:
- promoted this campaign to the police forces in the South East, and successfully encouraged them to take part
- worked with local organisations and partners and encouraged them to include a statement on alcohol misuse in their 2005-2006 Community Safety strategies
- organised a conference, in December 2004, on Alcohol and the Night Time Economy bringing together crime, health and drugs professional to discuss ways forward
Alcohol Related Violence:
- is a significant public health challenge
- in 2001/02 there were 1.2 million incidents of alcohol related violence
- many non-domestic alcohol-related assaults occur in the context of the night-time economy
- alcohol related crime is estimated to cost up to £7.3 billion a year
- alcohol treatment costs the NHS £1.7 billion a year
A consultation document ' Drinking Responsibly - The Government's proposals' was published in January, the closing date for responses was the end of February.
