Pubdate: Sun, 03 Mar 2002
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: Victor Adebowale, chief executive of Turning Point, the drink and 
drugs charity

VICTOR ADEBOWALE: SHOCK TACTICS WON'T STOP THE DRUGS DEATHS

We must spend more on educating youngsters about substance abuse

We live in the age of the image. Just how important the image and its 
impact can be was aptly illustrated by the harrowing pictures of Rachel 
Whitear that appeared last week. Rachel was a 21-year-old student who 
became addicted to heroin and died of an overdose in a grotty bedsit. Her 
parents released photographs of her body, which was found three days after 
her death.

They were horrifying. They depicted Rachel as she was discovered: in a 
crouching position, a syringe still gripped by her stiffening fingers. As 
readers looked at their morning papers, the messages came through loud and 
clear: Say no to drugs! This could happen to anyone! Just because you're a 
nice, middle-class girl doesn't mean you too couldn't end up in the grip of 
drugs!

To decide to share that final, ghastly image of your child with the nation, 
in the hope that it might save another person's life, seems the bravest act 
of any family in such circumstances. It's a hope that I, as someone who 
works with drug users, share. The charity I head, Turning Point, provides 
drug misuse services to more than 64,000 individuals around the country.

But hope is not enough in the age of the image. People are not changed by 
what they see or even by what they feel. We are bombarded by so many images 
all the time that reactions and feelings are reduced, and we turn numb.

What affects us can no longer be predicted. The image of Cathy Come Home 
led to the establishment of Shelter and inspired the creation of the 
Homelessness Acts. But the image of Leah Betts in a coma after taking 
ecstasy - another photograph given to the press by grieving parents - did 
nothing to stop the continued consumption of half a million ecstasy tablets 
every weekend by people who might know the risks but are still willing to 
take a chance.

Young people may well look at pictures of Rachel or Leah and think, "Yeah, 
I need to stop" or even "I had better not start". But one thought lasts a 
fleeting moment. Contrast that with the hundreds of drug-culture magazines, 
television, and the talk of more "fashionable" friends, and one realises 
how little lasting impact shocking pictures have.

The images of Rachel and Leah tell one shocking story, and that is that we 
fail to be shocked enough to understand that the answers to the drug misuse 
problem cannot be based on outrage, sorrow or regret. It has to be based on 
clear thinking and the facts. First, we need to be clear about how big the 
problem of drugs has become. The Government's own figures suggest that, 
apart from ecstasy takers, there are another 244,000 illegal drug misusers 
spread across heroin, cannabis, cocaine and crack. My own work makes me 
believe that the figure is even higher than that.

Problematic drug use has risen inexorably over the last 40 years, including 
the use of heroin. Cannabis has been tried by up to 40 per cent of people 
aged between 16 and 25, and cocaine is now taken by people on council 
estates as well as "fashionable" people. Drug acceptability among the 
young, educated middle-classes has reached the point where the writer Toby 
Young openly admitted his use of the drug without fear for his livelihood 
or reputation. The journalist Decca Aitkenhead has just published a book in 
which she tells of her search for the perfect "E". "It" Girls appear on 
prime-time television fashionably wasted before and (some say) after 
treatment. Cannabis is now smoked by members of the Royal Family whose 
futures will not be blighted by a criminal record. Ecstasy, a class-A drug, 
is now taken by too many people to arrest even in the most draconian of 
police-state clampdowns.

We need more direct ways of reaching drug abusers. In the same week as the 
pictures of Rachel Whitear were printed, the Audit Commission published a 
report into the management of drug treatment services. It was one of the 
best argued and clearest reviews of drug treatment I have read in a long 
time. It might have had few images, but it is truly shocking reading. The 
commission estimates that this country spends UKP3.5bn on drugs. Of this 
amount 20 per cent goes on treatment and education and UKP7m is spent on 
prevention. The difficulty is not that the Government fails to spend money 
on the drugs challenge. (In fact the amount spent on treatment services has 
gone up by 71 per cent). The problem is how it spends its money. The 
drugs-spend cake is indeed a big cake; it's just not cut the right way.

The national treatment agency has shown that for every UKP1 spent on 
treatment, UKP3 is saved on criminal justice. The answer is indeed 
treatment, but treatment is also the problem. If someone addicted to 
heroin, crack, cocaine or (as is more often the case these days) all three 
has to wait a month for treatment they just will not go. If an addict gets 
pushed from service to service because they have complex mental health, 
housing and skills problems, they will simply not turn up. If the response 
to a drug misuser's cry for help is moral indignation, there is an 
alternative in oblivion. If treatment is to work, then drug users have to 
given speedy access to it.

The Audit Commission report could not be clearer. People are taking drugs, 
some of them need help, the help is often not available or well planned and 
we pay little attention to prevention and meaningful education. The 
solution is even clearer. Treatment is required in as many forms as 
necessary to meet individual need. We need that treatment to be safe and 
accessible when and where it is needed, because not only does treatment 
save money, it saves lives. Those of us who work in treatment and support 
services for drug users must be clear and focused in our approach. And that 
means we have to get the Government to wake up to the reality. Drugs misuse 
is growing, and treatment needs to be freed from the red tape which limits 
its effectiveness.

There is another issue that must be addressed urgently, and that is 
alcohol. We hear plenty about the dangers of substance abuse. But too 
little is heard about drink and the risks to young people. Last week 
Alcohol Concern published the results of findings that indicated that we 
spend another UKP3bn on alcohol misuse. For every Rachel or Leah there are 
a dozen lives lost to alcohol in accidents or excessive consumption. Or 
just plain, self-destructive addiction.

Little attention is paid to alcohol abuse, but the same problems apply to 
it as to drug abuse. People who need help the most often have to wait the 
longest for not very good treatment. Yet we as a nation could take 
effective action. The NHS needs to train nurses and doctors to identify 
alcohol abusers and work with them.

It also needs to develop working relationships with organisations that 
provide the treatment that is often not available at hospitals and clinics. 
The images of Rachel Whitear were used to tell a story about illegal 
heroin. Plenty of other parents could have produced equally harrowing 
pictures of their dead offspring. And even more will do so unless we 
reconsider our approach not only to illegal drugs but to the socially 
acceptable drug of alcohol as well.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom