BREAKTHROUGH IN BRITAIN'S WAR ON DRUGS AND CRIME

The long battle to break the link between drug addiction and criminal
behaviour is being won, a ground-breaking study into the long-term
success rates of treatment programmes suggests. Nearly a half of all
addicts who participated in drug courses in 2005 have been found to
be free from addiction and no longer committing crime four years
after leaving treatment. For those with cannabis or cocaine habits
the success rates are as high as 69 per cent and 64 per cent respectively.

The success rate among the 41,000 drug users involved in the National
Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and Home Office study is higher
than previous government figures for reoffending rates for addicts on
court rehabilitation orders.

These findings, to be considered by the National Treatment Agency
(NTA) board meeting today, will add to the pressure on ministers to
pull back from cutting millions of pounds of funding for drug
treatment. They will also influence the Coalition's drug strategy due
to be launched at the end of the year.

Paul Hayes, chief executive of the NTA, said: "These findings are
very exciting because they help us define more accurately what
success looks like for drug treatment. Typically, a user coming into
treatment is heavily addicted, in poor health and has low
self-esteem. They are often at their peak of criminal activity and
the prospects for long-term recovery can seem bleak."

In an international first, the NTA tracked the post-treatment outcome
of drug users over a four-year period, discovering that almost half
of those discharged in one year subsequently demonstrated sustained
recovery from addiction. Of the remainder discharged in 2005-6, about
half directly returned to treatment, and a further one-third were
redirected back into treatment through contact with the criminal
justice system. Of those who left treatment but subsequently
reoffended using drugs, 65 per cent went back into treatment.

The NTA matched four years' worth of National Drug Treatment
Monitoring System (NDTMS) data with drug test records and the Drug
Interventions Programme to evaluate the long-term outcomes of drug
treatment for 41,475 people who left drug treatment in England in 2005-06.

Mr Hayes said: "Experts agree that heroin and crack cocaine users
take several years to overcome addiction, and need repeated attempts
before they do. This means annual statistical reports of numbers in
drug treatment can present a distorted picture of a system that is
subject to a steady ebb and flow of people coming and going over a
longer time frame."

He added: "Now, thanks to our extensive NDTMS database, we can follow
the treatment journey of individuals over successive years and
demonstrate that positive change and recovery from addiction is possible."

Although, there is no international equivalent study, the NTA results
compare favourably with long-running studies about the prospects of
recovery. They also compare favourably with figures for the
short-term outcomes of prisoners on drug rehabilitation and
supervision orders, which show that two thirds go on to reoffend.

Mike Trace, the former deputy "drug tsar" under Labour, said that
these success rates would be even greater if the Government could
find a way to devote more funding to intensive drug-treatment
programmes in prison.

Commenting on the study, Martin Barnes, the chief executive of
DrugScope, said: "There is no silver bullet to overcoming addiction -
drug dependency is a relapsing condition and it can take several
attempts at treatment before a sustained recovery is possible. This
study is helpful in building a clearer picture of what the treatment
system has achieved, but we need to be even more ambitious."

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said: "The Government is
committed to tackling the problem of drugs and to introducing a
rehabilitation revolution that will ensure that sentencing for drug
use helps offenders come off drugs, and explore alternative forms of
secure, treatment-based accommodation for drug offenders."