DOCTORS WANT MORE DRUG EDUCATION CASH

DOCTORS' leaders have called on the Government to change its policies for
tackling the country's growing drugs problem and provide more money for
effective education, prevention and treatment.

A report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of
Physicians says that too much of the UKP1.4 billion anti-drug expenditure
goes on enforcement with little evidence that the money is well spent. The
book, Drugs, Dilemmas and Choices says that there is little evidence that
the Government drugs strategies will work. It comes two days after an
independent inquiry recommended abolishing jail terms for possessing
ecstasy, cannabis and LSD which was rejected by the Government yesterday.

The new study says that Government targets to reduce young people's heroin
and cocaine abuse by 25 per cent in five years and 50 per cent in eight
were "very ambitious". It adds: "But the modest initiatives outlined in the
plan are unlikely to work on their own to reverse the steadily rising
consumption of the last three decades."

The doctors' study which has taken two years to produce says that no drug,
including cannabis, is harmless but suggests that imprisonment of convicted
users is not the best solution. It wants to see the availability of
treatment increased by 50 per cent, provision of adolescent addicts, more
research and more consultants and general practitioners trained in treating
addiction.

The doctors say that methadone substitute programmes are effective in
treating heroin addiction and that another 25,000 places for addicts are
needed. At present an addict can wait three to nine months for a National
Health Service place on a programme. Drugs, Dilemmas and Choices is
published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UKP9.