The reports published as part of your investigation into cocaine lay bare the widespread harms linked to the drug that people are experiencing (Cocaine-linked crimes on the rise in Britain as consumption surges, 25 October; ‘He was like 10 men after taking cocaine‘: how Britain’s drug habit is fuelling domestic abuse, 26 October).
Similar concerns can be identified in relation to other drugs – including alcohol – and the situation could not be more urgent. Deaths related to drug use have been rising for over a decade to unprecedented levels, and the emergence of synthetic opioids in the UK has prompted the National Crime Agency to warn that “there has never been a more dangerous time to take drugs”. The latest figures on drug-related deaths will be published on 4 November, and are likely to confirm a stubbornly shocking and tragic level of harm.
Fortunately, there is clear evidence that substance use treatment and recovery services, as provided by a range of charities across the country, are an effective and efficient way to help people turn their lives around, with knock-on positive effects on families, communities and public services.
Treatment and recovery services will have a crucial role to play if the government is to achieve its aims on policy issues such as violence against women and girls, the crisis in the criminal justice system, homelessness and young people’s employment and mental health.
Yet for over two years, the government has been largely silent on addiction. What we need now is a new drugs strategy with clear priorities. The 2021 drugs strategy provided investment and set specific ambitions for drug and alcohol treatment. This was transformational for our field, which is now supporting the highest number of adults in treatment since reporting began.
To achieve his own ambitions, the prime minister must show comparable focus and leadership. If we get our response to alcohol and other drugs right, we can save and improve hundreds of thousands of lives.
Dr Will Haydock
Chief executive, Collective Voice (national alliance of drug and alcohol treatment and recovery charities)
Your article on cocaine use in Britain treats it as a domestic social problem and fails to mention the most important consequences. Every time a user purchases cocaine, they are actively contributing to the murderous activities of transnational organised crime networks.
Here in Ecuador, cocaine trafficking sustains these networks, whose presence contaminates every aspect of our lives: through their “ownership” of key players in politics, business, the police and the judiciary, and assassinations of those who refuse to play the game; through the frequent deaths of innocent people caught up in the crossfire of wars between rival gangs; and through the devastating effects on small businesses, crippled or driven out of business by protection rackets.
Cocaine users in Britain should reflect on the fact that their “recreational” activity is helping to finance these crimes. Law enforcers should consider that every time they let someone off with a caution for a first offence, or turn a blind eye to cocaine use at social events, they are equally culpable.
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