Investing a further £5.65 million in drugs education will boost efforts to drive down substance misuse, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said today as she launched the country’s largest ever public consultation on tackling drugs.
The current Drug Strategy, which has delivered a 24 per cent fall in drug use among young people since 1998, is due to end in March 2008. Ministers now want to take a look at updating the Government’s approach of tackling drugs through tough enforcement against dealers, education for young people and treatment for drug users.
Drugs: Our Community, Your Say [link opens in new window] aims to stimulate fresh and constructive ideas on how best to reduce the harm caused by drugs.
Responding to the launch, Graham Robb, interim Chair of the YJB, said:
“Substance misuse by young people is a priority issue for the YJB, which today welcomes the launch, by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, of the consultation period for the next stage of the Home Office drugs strategy.
“The YJB has worked closely with core partners, including the National Treatment Agency, Home Office, former-Department for Education and Skills, Department of Health and the Prisons Service to deliver on the current drugs strategy and has achieved much in addressing the causes and effects of substance misuse by the young.
“This work has brought a programme of successful interventions for use with young people supervised in the community, those in custody and those being released and resettled in our communities.
“Youth offending teams now refer the highest number of young people to substance misuse services, an indication of the leading role youth justice services take in reducing the harm caused by substance misuse.
“The YJB will be taking part in the consultation, and will also encourage stakeholders across the youth justice system to respond, in order to develop effective future policies which will help young people stay away from the dangers of substance misuse, and to help those with problems to address them.”