Today the Government has pledged £300m to rehabilitate people addicted to illegal drugs in an effort to reduce crime without sending more people to prison.
The Government has today released it’s “From harm to hope: A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives”. The report identifies three priorities to be dealt with by different government departments:
- Break drug supply chains
- Deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system
- Achieve a generational shift in demand for drugs
Responsibility for delivering on these aims is shared across several government departments including the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Care with Kit Malthouse MP having overarching accountability as Combating Drugs Minister.
The Prime Minister today said of a supposed 300,000 problem drug users “you can’t simply arrest them time after time and put them back into prison again and again”.
Perhaps most eye catching is an extra £780 million over three years to deliver a treatment and recovery system for drug users. This commitment seems to have been made in response to Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs policy carried out for the Government.
