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DAILY UPDATE
DAY FOUR
Thursday 29 April 2010
UNDERSTANDING OF TREATMENT
has grown
over the last 25 years, but now the system’s
creaking somewhat, said Steve Hamer of
Compass (left), chairing a much-anticipated
debate in the Dialogue Space yesterday afternoon.
‘The debate gets polarised as if harm reduction
and abstinence can’t co-exist,’ he commented,
inviting three speakers to debate the future of
harm reduction in a recovery oriented climate.
‘Are we experiencing a policy crisis at the
moment?,’ asked Roger Howard (second left) of
the UKDPC. There were many different crises
being suggested – a crisis about people being
‘parked’ on methadone, a crisis of ideology, a
crisis that ‘recovery’ is gaining centre stage.
‘Personally I don’t think drug treatment or the
treatment system are in crisis – it’s just a natural
stage of the cycle,’ he said. ‘We had to face up to
the reality of there being less money around, so
ministers would be looking very closely at the
treatment system.
‘The trouble with public health gains is that
they’re long term. Crime reduction pushes
ministers’ buttons,’ he said. With relapse rates
‘worryingly high’, the UKDPC had been pressing
the need for wraparound services.
The notion of recovery ‘as a new organising
paradigm’ had been gaining momentum, driven by
the user self-help movement.
‘We have to make sure that recovery doesn’t
just mean abstinence,’ he said.
Nick Barton, chief executive of Action on
Addiction (second right), commented that if you wor-
ked in the harm reduction field it was often assumed
you have ‘no truck’ with recovery and abstinence-
based treatment. But he came to the debate from ‘a
passionate and dispassionate viewpoint’ as his
organisation ran a diverse range of services.
What he did find depressing, he said, was that
an article he wrote years ago, calling for an end to
polarisation in favour of the common goal of
helping build healthy and fulfilling lives, was still
relevant today.
‘This won’t happen until each party looks at its
own deficiencies instead of pointing the finger
excitedly at the failings of the other,’ he said. ‘The
aspirations of the client can be overlooked.’
‘The answer is in
Can our treatment system
survive a ‘policy crisis’?
HIGHLIGHTS
Thursday 29 April
MAJOR SESSIONS
9.00 – 10.30
Harm reduction for producer
nations? Farmers' perspectives on
the war on drugs.
This session is
IHRA's first ever session dedicated to
the needs of producer communities
and the harms of the war on drugs
to them. Policy experts from the
Transnational Institute, Pien Metaal
and Tom Kramer, will present on
Bolivia and Afghanistan. Ja Hla from
Burma will talk about production in
his country. Pedro Arenas, mayor of
San Jose De Guaviare, will discuss
the impacts of aerial fumigation of
coca in his region.
Ageing substance users in the
developed world.
This session takes
a look at risk behaviours among
older adult drug users and explores
the obstacles to treatment faced by
older drug users in Bristol, UK.
Policies and developments in Asia
and the Pacific.
Presentations on
policies, resources and services for
injecting drug users in Asia, and a
situational assessment of drug and
alcohol trends in sixteen Pacific
countries and territories.
CLOSING SESSION
There will be a keynote address by
Mandeep Dhaliwal, from the United
Nations Development Programme
on
The next generation of harm
reduction: addressing the
development dimensions.
Professor Gerry Stimson and Paddy
Costall will thank delegates, and
hand over to Elie Aaraj, Director of
SIDC Lebanon, who will introduce
Beirut as the host city of IHRA’s
2011 international conference.
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