TONGUE TRIAL
A new £1m addiction recovery clinic in
Lambeth, south London, is to launch a
three-year opiate treatment trial, the
South London and Maudsley NHS
Foundation Trust (SLaM) has announced.
Six hundred people will be prescribed a
buprenorphine-naloxone combination
therapy, delivered in a small film to be
dissolved under the tongue, alongside a
range of psychological therapies.
Research at SLaM also played a key role
in the Department of Health’s
acknowledgement that injectable opioid
treatment was a ‘clinically effective
second line treatment’.
HERTS AND MINDS
Westminster Drug Project (WDP) and
domestic abuse charity Safer Places have
been awarded £900,000 Big Lottery
funding over three years for One Herts –
One Family, a Hertfordshire-based project
to provide early interventions to children
under 11 and ensure joined-up support
for families. ‘We know when different
service providers all come together to
support a family in a coordinated and
integrated way, it measurably improves
the life chances for those children,’ said
WDP chief executive Yasmin Batliwala.
OVERDOSE APP
A new smartphone app that gives
information and emergency advice about
what to do in an overdose situation has
been launched by U-Turn.
Available to
download at www.u-turntraining.com/apps
REPORT A CUT
Voluntary or community groups that
have been told their statutory funding
will be reduced are invited to share their
story by filling in a simple form
voluntarysectorcuts.org.uk
, a collaborative
project designed to map the cuts and
their impact across the country. Contact
details will not be made public.
ACCESS ALL AREAS
A new ‘one-stop shop’ for people with drug
and alcohol issues has been opened in
Edinburgh. The South East Recovery Hub
brings together services provided by
Edinburgh council, NHS Lothian and the
voluntary sector in a single point of access.
‘This new way of working also removes
waiting times for appointments and makes
the services much easier to access,’ said
Edinburgh Alcohol and Drug Partnership
chair, Peter Gabbitas.
People coerced into drug smuggling by organised criminals
are likely to face shorter prison terms under new guidelines
issued by the Sentencing Council.
The ‘starting point’ for sentences for drug mules, however,
will still be six years, as opposed to the previously-
recommended ten. People guilty of ‘large-scale production’,
meanwhile, are likely to face longer sentences.
The guidelines are designed to help ensure ‘consistent
and proportionate’ sentencing in English and Welsh courts –
both magistrates’ and Crown Court – and follow a major
public consultation launched last year (
DDN
, April 2011,
page 4). The council also carried out separate research into
public attitudes, which found ‘little support’ for custodial
sentences for possession or for ‘substantial’ sentencing for
small-scale supply.
Under the guidelines, an offender’s culpability should be
determined by whether their role was ‘leading’ – defined as
organising buying and selling on a commercial scale;
‘significant’, meaning an ‘operational or management
function within a chain’, or ‘lesser’, meaning someone who
was intimidated or naïve. The guidelines also set out four
categories of harm, depending on the drug and the amount,
and introduce an aggravating factor for supply offences so
that those found guilty of dealing to people under 18 are
treated more severely. The council was forced to issue a
statement clarifying the definition of ‘drug mule’ after some
newspapers ran ‘drug dealers to escape jail’ stories (
see news
focus, page 6
).
‘Where an offender profits from selling drugs, a prison
sentence can be expected’, the guidelines state. In terms of
supply, however, they do make provision for drug users who
may buy small amounts to share with friends – ‘for
example joint purchase for no profit, or sharing minimal
quantity between peers on non-commercial basis’ – in
which case a community order could potentially apply. The
council cites an example of two students who split the cost
of 20 ecstasy tablets to share, and also recommends that
medical use of cannabis for serious conditions should be a
mitigating factor.
‘Drug offending has to be taken seriously,’ said the
council’s deputy chairman Lord Justice Hughes. ‘Offending
and offenders vary widely so we have developed this
guideline to ensure there is effective guidance for sentencers
and clear information for victims, witnesses and the public on
how drug offenders are sentenced.’
DrugScope, which has campaigned for a review of
sentencing for drug mules, said that while it remained
concerned that sentences could still be lengthy, the guidelines
were a ‘positive step forward’. ‘DrugScope has long had
concerns about the numbers of women involved in low level
supply and other offences as a result of violence and
intimidation: far too many end up in the courts and in our
prisons,’ said chief executive Martin Barnes, adding that the
organisation hoped that more judges would feel able to refer
people for treatment. ‘Good quality treatment is instrumental
to breaking the cycle of drugs and crime which blight the lives
of many individuals and communities.’
Release, meanwhile, stressed that the range of sentences
available for non-violent drug offences remained
‘disproportionately harsh’. ‘The starting point for an
importation offence for a medium amount of class A drugs is
11 years under these new guidelines, yet the offence of rape
carries a starting point of five years and grievous bodily harm
three years,’ said executive director Niamh Eastwood. ‘It is
outrageous that a rapist will receive a significantly shorter
sentence than someone who is a mid-level drug dealer.’
Full guidelines at sentencingcouncil.judiciary.gov.uk/
guidelines/forthcoming-guidelines.htm
See page 18 for a profile of Release executive director
Niamh Eastwood.
February 2012 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 5
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
News |
Round-up
More lenience for ‘drug mules’ in
sentencing guidelines overhaul
News in Brief
Potential export earnings from Afghan opium could be
worth around US $2.4bn, equivalent to 15 per cent of
Afghanistan’s GDP, according to a report from the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The full version of the
Afghan opium survey for 2011
shows a 133 per cent increase in the ‘farm gate’ value of
opium, compared to the previous year. Sixty per cent of the
farmers surveyed said their main motivation was the high
value of poppy cultivation, with the gross income from
opium now 11 times more than that from wheat.
A preliminary version of the report released last year
showed a 7 per cent increase in cultivation compared to 2010
(
DDN
, November 2011, page 4). Much of the 2010 yield was
wiped out by plant disease (
DDN
, 11 October 2010, page 4),
and although higher prices were expected in 2011, the values
‘far exceeded expectations’, says UNODC. Around 90 per cent
of the world’s opium comes from Afghanistan. ‘Opium is a
significant part of the Afghan economy and provides
considerable funding to the insurgency,’ said UNODC
executive director Yury Fedotov.
Afghan opium exports ‘15 per cent of GDP’
Poppy field in Kandahar: Opium poppy cultivation in
Afghanistan increased by seven per cent and prices by
133 per cent, according to UNODC.
KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features