VICTOR ADEBOWALE: SHOCK TACTICS WON'T STOP THE DRUGS DEATHS

We must spend more on educating youngsters about substance abuse

We live in the age of the image. Just how important the image and its
impact can be was aptly illustrated by the harrowing pictures of Rachel
Whitear that appeared last week. Rachel was a 21-year-old student who
became addicted to heroin and died of an overdose in a grotty bedsit. Her
parents released photographs of her body, which was found three days after
her death.

They were horrifying. They depicted Rachel as she was discovered: in a
crouching position, a syringe still gripped by her stiffening fingers. As
readers looked at their morning papers, the messages came through loud and
clear: Say no to drugs! This could happen to anyone! Just because you're a
nice, middle-class girl doesn't mean you too couldn't end up in the grip of
drugs!

To decide to share that final, ghastly image of your child with the nation,
in the hope that it might save another person's life, seems the bravest act
of any family in such circumstances. It's a hope that I, as someone who
works with drug users, share. The charity I head, Turning Point, provides
drug misuse services to more than 64,000 individuals around the country.

But hope is not enough in the age of the image. People are not changed by
what they see or even by what they feel. We are bombarded by so many images
all the time that reactions and feelings are reduced, and we turn numb.

What affects us can no longer be predicted. The image of Cathy Come Home
led to the establishment of Shelter and inspired the creation of the
Homelessness Acts. But the image of Leah Betts in a coma after taking
ecstasy - another photograph given to the press by grieving parents - did
nothing to stop the continued consumption of half a million ecstasy tablets
every weekend by people who might know the risks but are still willing to
take a chance.

Young people may well look at pictures of Rachel or Leah and think, "Yeah,
I need to stop" or even "I had better not start". But one thought lasts a
fleeting moment. Contrast that with the hundreds of drug-culture magazines,
television, and the talk of more "fashionable" friends, and one realises
how little lasting impact shocking pictures have.

The images of Rachel and Leah tell one shocking story, and that is that we
fail to be shocked enough to understand that the answers to the drug misuse
problem cannot be based on outrage, sorrow or regret. It has to be based on
clear thinking and the facts. First, we need to be clear about how big the
problem of drugs has become. The Government's own figures suggest that,
apart from ecstasy takers, there are another 244,000 illegal drug misusers
spread across heroin, cannabis, cocaine and crack. My own work makes me
believe that the figure is even higher than that.

Problematic drug use has risen inexorably over the last 40 years, including
the use of heroin. Cannabis has been tried by up to 40 per cent of people
aged between 16 and 25, and cocaine is now taken by people on council
estates as well as "fashionable" people. Drug acceptability among the
young, educated middle-classes has reached the point where the writer Toby
Young openly admitted his use of the drug without fear for his livelihood
or reputation. The journalist Decca Aitkenhead has just published a book in
which she tells of her search for the perfect "E". "It" Girls appear on
prime-time television fashionably wasted before and (some say) after
treatment. Cannabis is now smoked by members of the Royal Family whose
futures will not be blighted by a criminal record. Ecstasy, a class-A drug,
is now taken by too many people to arrest even in the most draconian of
police-state clampdowns.

We need more direct ways of reaching drug abusers. In the same week as the
pictures of Rachel Whitear were printed, the Audit Commission published a
report into the management of drug treatment services. It was one of the
best argued and clearest reviews of drug treatment I have read in a long
time. It might have had few images, but it is truly shocking reading. The
commission estimates that this country spends UKP3.5bn on drugs. Of this
amount 20 per cent goes on treatment and education and UKP7m is spent on
prevention. The difficulty is not that the Government fails to spend money
on the drugs challenge. (In fact the amount spent on treatment services has
gone up by 71 per cent). The problem is how it spends its money. The
drugs-spend cake is indeed a big cake; it's just not cut the right way.

The national treatment agency has shown that for every UKP1 spent on
treatment, UKP3 is saved on criminal justice. The answer is indeed
treatment, but treatment is also the problem. If someone addicted to
heroin, crack, cocaine or (as is more often the case these days) all three
has to wait a month for treatment they just will not go. If an addict gets
pushed from service to service because they have complex mental health,
housing and skills problems, they will simply not turn up. If the response
to a drug misuser's cry for help is moral indignation, there is an
alternative in oblivion. If treatment is to work, then drug users have to
given speedy access to it.

The Audit Commission report could not be clearer. People are taking drugs,
some of them need help, the help is often not available or well planned and
we pay little attention to prevention and meaningful education. The
solution is even clearer. Treatment is required in as many forms as
necessary to meet individual need. We need that treatment to be safe and
accessible when and where it is needed, because not only does treatment
save money, it saves lives. Those of us who work in treatment and support
services for drug users must be clear and focused in our approach. And that
means we have to get the Government to wake up to the reality. Drugs misuse
is growing, and treatment needs to be freed from the red tape which limits
its effectiveness.

There is another issue that must be addressed urgently, and that is
alcohol. We hear plenty about the dangers of substance abuse. But too
little is heard about drink and the risks to young people. Last week
Alcohol Concern published the results of findings that indicated that we
spend another UKP3bn on alcohol misuse. For every Rachel or Leah there are
a dozen lives lost to alcohol in accidents or excessive consumption. Or
just plain, self-destructive addiction.

Little attention is paid to alcohol abuse, but the same problems apply to
it as to drug abuse. People who need help the most often have to wait the
longest for not very good treatment. Yet we as a nation could take
effective action. The NHS needs to train nurses and doctors to identify
alcohol abusers and work with them.

It also needs to develop working relationships with organisations that
provide the treatment that is often not available at hospitals and clinics.
The images of Rachel Whitear were used to tell a story about illegal
heroin. Plenty of other parents could have produced equally harrowing
pictures of their dead offspring. And even more will do so unless we
reconsider our approach not only to illegal drugs but to the socially
acceptable drug of alcohol as well.