CRACKING THE CYCLE OF DRUGS AND CRIME

RAIDS ON crack houses and operations against drug dealers have had a
significant impact on crime levels. But law enforcement is not the
only method the police are using to reduce drug-related crime, writes

THE police have known and the public have long suspected a connection
between certain crime and addiction to hard drugs.

In recent times, research has gone some way to proving a
link.

In 2001, a Home Office pilot study in Hackney, east London, revealed
66 per cent of people charged with acquisitive crimes such as theft,
robbery and burglary tested positive for crack cocaine, cocaine or
heroin.

The research was by no means conclusive and some academics argued it
made little more than a casual connection between crime and drugs
while failing to account for other reasons people commit offences such
as social exclusion, poor education and an absence of employment
opportunities.

Nevertheless, even its staunchest critics accepted a significant
percentage of hard drug users resorted to shoplifting, street
robberies and burglaries to fund their addiction.

An independent report published this year gave a much greater insight
into the lives of 100 crack cocaine users.

The On the Rocks study by the Institute of Criminal Justice Policy at
London South Bank University revealed the crack users spent an average
of ?100 per day on the drug. Some spent as much as ?800 on the days
they used the drug. More than 90 per cent reported funding their drug
use through crime. Following the original Hackney pilot, the
Government gave the statutory powers to police in a further 30 areas
with high levels of acquisitive crime to drug test people charged with
such crimes or what was described as "trigger offences".

Three boroughs in South London were included; Lambeth, Southwark and
Wandsworth.

The mandatory drug tests form part of the Government's Criminal
Justice Interventions Programme which aims to guide problem drug users
who commit crime to fund their addiction into treatment.

The programme advocates a "beginning to end" approach to dealing with
such users involving the police, the probation service, the courts,
prisons, drug treatment services and support service providers who
help deal with issues such as housing, benefits and finances,
relationships, education and employment.

In Lambeth, police have been drug testing people charged with trigger
offences for cocaine and heroin since June. To date more than 50 per
cent have tested positive for one or both of the drugs. Figures for
October were sent to the Home Office in the last fortnight. Of the 91
people charged with trigger offences in that month 69 per cent tested
positive for crack cocaine, cocaine or heroin use.

Chief Inspector Steve Osborn, who heads Lambeth police's drug testing
on charge scheme, said he was not surprised by the results.

"I have worked in the borough for more than two years and it is plain
to me the connection between crime and drugs," said the Chief Inspector.

"What it [drug testing] does is formalise the link between crime and
drugs and give some academic basis to it which is very important
because it is only from a greater understanding of the problem that we
actually tackle the root causes of the crime.

"What we are trying to do is get people into drug treatment as a
result of these tests.

"The tests take place in the custody suite. Once the person has been
charged a qualified person will take the drug test.

"It is a small procedure, a little bit of paper work and some
questions.

"The test consists of a mouth swab. The sample is saliva. It is
distilled in the custody suite and put into a machine which reads the
sample through chromatography.

"The tests are sensitive to cocaine or opiates in the system for up to
72 hours so they are actually very accurate and very sensitive.

"Where someone disputes a test their saliva sample will be sent to the
Forensic Science Service for accurate formal analysis and one in 10
samples are sent off as a control sample anyway.

"The accuracy of the machine the Forensic Science Service has has been
likened to being able to recognise a postage stamp in an oil tanker in
terms of the quantity of drugs in someone's saliva sample.

"Most people will know if they have taken drugs or not and
surprisingly few tests are disputed.

"We have even had the situation, incredibly, where people dispute
negative tests! When the test is negative, they're saying 'No, it
should be positive because I have taken drugs'.

"If a test is positive the idea is that a piece of paper work is
completed and left in the case file for the court.

"The Crown Prosecution Service then brings this to the attention of a
judge or magistrate and that person can consider drug treatment
options when it comes to sentencing."

There are several such drug treatment sentences that judges and
magistrates can impose. The Drug Treatment and Testing Order is an
intensive community sentence aimed at the most serious and prolific
drug-misusing offenders aged 16 and over who commit acquisitive crime
to fund their drug habit.

The order includes a requirement to attend treatment, mandatory drug
testing and court reviews of progress.

The Drug Abstinence Order requires offenders to abstain from using
heroin or crack and undergo regular drug testing and the Drug
Abstinence Requirement places the same obligation on the offender and
is attached to a community sentence. The mandatory drugs tests are not
the only way people who might have a drug problem and find themselves
in police custody can get help.

In Lambeth, everyone in police custody can access an arrest referral
worker who can put them in contact with a drugs worker.

"I am looking at all the opportunities in the police stations to get
people into drug treat-ment," said Chief Insp Osborn.

"For example, when someone is booked in and they're made the offer of
an arrest referral worker, it is often not the best time to speak to
them because they may be agitated from the arrest, they may have just
taken drugs.

"All the cells in the borough are sprayed with the slogan 'Are you
sick and tired of feeling sick and tired? Ask to speak to a drugs
worker now.'.

"As they start to feel a bit more comfortable and adjust to their
surroundings, they might actually look at these things and decide that
drugs have led them to sitting in a police cell through committing
crime and this is not the path they want to go down.

"The offer of a drugs worker is there for everyone in police custody
at all times."

The Chief Inspector believes the Criminal Justice Interventions
Programme (CJIP) can help problem drug users and reduce crime.

He said: "It [The CJIP] is unique in that it is a holistic approach to
try to break the link between drugs and crime.

"The community will see the benefit in terms of crime reduction and
the drug user will see the benefit in terms of less drugs usage,
hopefully leading to a better quality of life.

"There is continuity in the help provided. The whole structure of this
programme is a joint partnership initiative. I speak regularly with
the Drug Action Team co-ordinator who provides treatment places.

"I also work closely with the Community Drugs Project which provides
our arrest referral work-ers and drug workers.

"There is still a place for enforcement too and that
continues.

"We have had massive success in reducing street crime and closing
crack houses and this activity with drug testing and getting people
into drug treatment complements that.

"It is attacking the problem at another level in another way with the
same result - a reduction in crime."

* The Government has announced it intends to extend the Criminal
Justice Interventions Programme to 36 other areas in April next year
including Lewisham.