Citation
Klein, A. (2014), "More conferences please", Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. 14 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/DAT-07-2014-0028
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
More conferences please
Article Type: Editorial From: Drugs and Alcohol Today, Volume 14, Issue 3
The CRI conference in London on 9th of June was a welcome reminder of the importance of regular gatherings for as diverse and fragmented a field as drugs and alcohol workers. It brought together a good mix of policy makers, academics and practitioners to offer perspectives and provide a fresh update on developments. With a title like “Driving Innovation, Delivering Excellence” the organisers could be faulted neither for false modesty nor lack of ambition and covered a range of relevant topics.
Kate Davies provided a comprehensive account of the commissioning pathways leading through the new landscape of Public Health England. There were contributions on medical marijuana in Canada, an update on Novel Psychoactive Substances and a discussion on medication diversion, ending on the conclusion that “there is no diversion proof substance, they will always find a way.”
Particularly interesting to me was the summary of the new European drug report presented by Paul Griffith, the Scientific Director at the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction. Right across the continent, drug users are inclining more and more towards chemically engineered substances rather than plant based drugs. Policy makers may fret, law enforcement reallocates resources, and treatment providers look for new modalities, but the wider social debate on this significant shift remains muted. A salient point for policy reformers is how little this patently unintended consequence has been factored into a review of the repression based policy paradigm.
Instead, the instinctive response is to crack down harder as production is shifting increasingly into the European heartland. In recent years we learnt that the development of precursor control had yielded some successes but it is hard to stay apace with the sheer ingenuity of underground chemists. In Europe the producers of recreational pharma-products can shelter amid the many legitimate companies. They can for instance use front companies to import complex chemicals that are then reengineered to extract the precursor chemicals. After years of falling quality MDMA powder is back on the market and rising in popularity in many different countries. Reallocating resources to cross-border law enforcement within the EU will further undermine importation controls from third countries.
Interesting were also the variations within and between countries. Greece and Romania, for instance are witnessing a sharp increase in the number of new injectors, while in northern European countries with historically entrenched heroin problems that client group is contracting and ageing. Another trend with distinct patterns and clear geographical fault lines is the rise of crystal meth smoking in parts of Southeast Europe and Turkey. What the focus on particular drug use phenomena tends to obscure is that in every country drug markets appear to be expanding, with a wider and ever more quickly changing range of products catering for a growing and more disparate clientele.
Yet, while there is a rising need to follow trends and study impact on users and society, the agency is being slimmed down. Strangely, at the very point where the various changes in drug production and drug supply are leading to exponential increases in consumption policy is giving up.
Perhaps the 5 per cent cut in the EMCDDA budget, just like the changes in the UK drug strategy, are part of a wider a reaction to years of alarmism over “crack epidemics” and hysterical scare stories. But the fact that none of the apocalyptic predictions have materialised should not divert from the need to engage closely with this important and risk laden social phenomenon. Conferences like “Driving Innovation, Delivering Excellence” are needed to raise the capacity and the morale of those working in the field, and provide an excellent vehicle for raising awareness to a wider audience. We strongly encourage CRI to keep them coming.
Axel Klein