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Commentary from Westminster

RODNEY DEITCH

The Losing Battle Against Drug Addiction

NEW official statistics on drug abuse do little more than hintat the rapidly growing abuse of drugs in Britain. The

situation seems to have reached a new dimension of intensity.The number of addicts notified to the Home Office for 1983was 42% more than in the previous year. 2l010 of new addictsare under 21 years old. About 85% of addicts are addicted toheroin. Customs and police investigators seized nearly 250 kgof heroin in 1983, which was 50 kg more than in 1982. 100 kgof cocaine was seized-five times the amount in 1982. Therise in use of these drugs takes place, apparently, against abackground of increasingly free use of drugs of all kinds. Thepatterns are changing. Less LSD is apparently in circulationthan previously, reflecting the slow decline in this drug’s

popularity. In both 1982 and 1983 there were smallreductions in the seizures of dextromoramide, morphine,opium, and pethidine, again continuing a downward trend.Marijuana use, however, continues to rise. In 1973 there were384 convictions for growing cannabis, and in 1983 there were1165. Some 6932 cannabis plants were seized in 1973,compared with 15 714 in 1983 (and 34 654 in 1980).But heroin is the drug which is causing the greatest

concern. All the 1400 new addicts notified to the Home Office

between 1982 and 1983 were heroin addicts, the Home Officereports. Officially there are 5850 addicts-but the police andthe Home Office, as well as the DHSS, accept that the truefigure of addicts is probably about 40 000. According to theHome Office Minister of State, Mr David Mellor, the rising

numbers of arrests and drug seizures prove there have beengrowing police successes. Dealers were being caught andbrought to book in great numbers. "This evil trade in miseryis an abhorrence in our society, and can ruin and destroy itsvictims. Let nobody doubt the strength of our will to stop it,"Mr Mellor declared.The figures do not entirely bear out Mr Mellor’s claims of

police successes. In 1983 there was a continuation of the trendtowards more arrests of people in the street for drugpossession, with 11 300 people caught in possession,compared with 8600 the previous year. But 85% of thosearrests were for possession of cannabis, not heroin.

Meanwhile, according to the Home Office figures, thenumber of seizures from vessels, aircraft, &c in 1983 was onlyhalf the number in 1982. Clearly a lot more drug users,

mainly cannabis users, are being arrested, but the arrests oflarge-scale smugglers seem to have fallen dramatically. If one

feeds into this calculation the probability that only a small andconstant proportion of smuggled drugs are in fact

intercepted, it is hard to credit a claim of major policesuccesses. It would be naive to expect such successes, giventhe ease with which drugs can be smuggled by ingenious andwell-heeled crooks.- It is a policing problem, a social problem, and a medicalproblem. It is in the medical sphere, perhaps, that the least

progress is being made. Addiction is not a great success storyfor doctors. The statistics themselves suggest that relativelyfew addicts are ever fully relieved of their addiction. Drug-

abuse clinics do not claim a particularly impressive rate ofcure. Doctors treating addicts privately suggest that no more

than 8-10% of addicts who accept treatment are permanentlycured. The Government continues to place the greatestemphasis of its treatment programmes on the drug-

dependence clinics. But these are deeply unpopular withmost addicts, being seen as too formal, restrictive, anduncaring. The longer the emphasis continues on clinics, thegreater, probably, will the gap grow between the officialnumbers of addicts and the true numbers.In these circumstances it is to be expected that Opposition

parties at Westminster will do all they can to blame thecallousness and meanness of the Government of the day forthe speed with which drug abuse has increased in recentyears. The Liberal MP, Dr David Alton, whose Merseysideconstituency contains many teenage addicts, blames thesituation on the complacency and smugness of ToryMinisters. The SDP, in their new Charter for Youth, insist:"It should come as no surprise that young people’s alienationfrom society through lack of job opportunities, inadequatetraining, and a deteriorating environment is manifested inincreasing drug abuse." Labour’s social services spokesman,Mr Michael Meacher, complains of the Government’slamentable response. He accuses them of sitting back anddoing nothing, and condoning by default the mountingheroin epidemic. The money spent on anti-drug projects wasrisible. It was abundantly clear to Mr Meacher that localhealth authorities, struggling to make ends meet on everreduced budgets, would be unable to provide anything nearthe level of adequate facilities required for drugrehabilitation. And, worse, there was evidence that a numberof health authorities were reluctant even to recognise theextent of the epidemic in their areas.But in fact some 7 million has been set aside in the past

year by the Government for treating addiction. Mr Meacheris right to claim that such sums make little impression. But itis not easy to be convinced by the argument that spending farlarger sums would bring a solution. If existing drugrehabilitation clinics have largely failed, is there any reason tothink that they would succeed if there were more of them?Perhaps the money would be more effectively spent onfighting drug addiction some other way. Perhaps it would bebetter spent on research into causes and treatment. Perhaps itshould be spent on purely social initiatives, to give thenation’s bored and rootless youth an alternative stimulus to

International Diary1984

2nd international workshop on Computing in Microbiology: Leicester,UK, Dec 13-14 (Dr Andrew Pearson, Public Health Laboratory, Level B,South Block, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton S09 4XY,Hampshire, UK).

1985

6th international congress on Group Medicine: Dallas, Texas, April21-24 (6th International Congress on Group Medicine, Medical GroupManagement Association, American College of Medical GroupAdministrators, 1355 South Colorado Boulevard, Suite 900, Denver, Colorado80222, USA). _

2nd international course on Peritoneal Dialysis: Venice, Italy, May21-24 (Course Secretariat, Department of Nephrology, St Bortolo Hospital,36100 Vicenza, Italy).

International symposium on Metabolic Complications of HumanObesities : Marseille, France, May 30-June 1 (Miss Annick Gaubert, BP No126, 27 rue du Pont, 92202 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France).3rd international workshop on Campylobacter Infections: Ottowa,

Canada, July 7-10 (Dr Andrew Pearson, Public Health Laboratory, Level B,South Block, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton S09 4XY,Hampshire, UK).