CRIME PAYS FOR DRUG USERS DESPERATE FOR ACCESS TO TREATMENT

Chronic drug users are committing crimes to get themselves arrested and
imprisoned simply to get access to treatment in some parts of Britain,
according to research published today.

The study, by the social care charity Turning Point, says that the
development of drug treatment and testing orders (DTTOs) has proved so
effective in parts of the country that they are seen by desperate drug
users as the only way to get treatment.

Almost a third of drug-using offenders interviewed in areas where community
drug treatment services were poor said they had committed a crime to get help.

The study, Routes into Treatment: Drugs and Crime, says that the Home
Office has been successful in enabling the police and the courts to develop
a fast track into treatment services for drug abusers convicted of crime.

But it points out that for the first time the government is now spending
more money on treatment ordered by the courts and the police than on
treatment services in the community for all drug abusers.

The research is to be presented at a conference today to be addressed by
the home secretary, David Blunkett.

"I needed to get arrested and imprisoned, as I would eventually have been
found dead in a gutter if I had not had the chance of a DTTO," said one
drug abuser quoted in the research.

The study claims that almost three quarters of those interviewed had tried
to get help before being arrested, with an average of three attempts each.
"In areas with strong community treatment services this could have a
knock-on effect, improving access to treatment across the board," said a
Turning Point spokesman.

"But where community treatment is poor, with excessive waiting times, the
police, courts and even a prison sentence can be seen as the only way to
get help."

The report finds that DTTOs are effective at getting con victed offenders
into treatment and can have significant benefits at reducing reoffending,
with 38% fewer being reconvicted compared with other offenders.

But the benefits only apply to those who complete the treatment and testing
orders and the research shows that fewer than a third of those sentenced to
a DTTO finish it.

Turning Point says that the study shows that fundamental changes are needed
in the way that the treatment and testing orders are organised, such as
more flexibility to cope with those with mental health problems, and
lifting the threat of a prison sentence from those who relapse but have
made a serious effort to comply with the order.

"This is not a moral argument about how we should or shouldn't treat drug
users," said Lord Adebowale, the chief executive of Turning Point. "There
is a strong business case for getting this right. We know that for every
UKP1 spent on treatment we save UKP3 in other costs to society.

"By improving DTTOs and cutting reoffending we could increase that saving
to UKP4 or even UKP5 and make huge inroads into tackling drug-related crime."