In this issue

Citation

Klein, A. (2012), "In this issue", Drugs and Alcohol Today, Vol. 12 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dat.2012.54412caa.002

In this issue

Article Type: In this issue From: Drugs and Alcohol Today, Volume 12, Issue 3

Drug policy even in straitened times continues along a topsy turvy, unpredictable trajectory. In Greece economic turmoil is increasing the pressure on drug treatment providers who are as much affected by budget cuts as any other government service. There is also an opportunity for substantial savings by easing up the policing of minor drug offences, as Charalampos Poulopoulos director of KETHEA (Therapy Centre for Dependent Individuals) explains in his paper “Economic crisis in Greece: risks and challenges for drug policy and strategy”. But the resurgent right wing parties have dug in their heels against any liberalisation. Reducing budget deficits by cancelling wasteful policies may be in the general interest, but the opportunity of building up a new scapegoat for popular wrath is simply too tempting for populists. With new elections unlikely to deliver a majority government Greek drug policy is likely to muddle along without clear direction.

If in Greece drugs are lost under the pile of domestic problems they have risen to the top of the agenda in the Americas. Now into its third decade the war on drugs has spread from the Andean producer countries along the Central American isthmus and into Mexico. With drug related crime and corruption the major factor behind government instability a number of otherwise socially conservative leaders are calling for a major rethink in the direction of drug policy. Pien Metaal, a Latin America specialist and drug policy expert at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam suggests in her paper “Drug policy in the Americas – a new set of Latin American policy proposals ” that drugs were not meant to be discussed at all. At the annual gathering of heads of governments from the Organisation of American States, including President Obama, proceedings are usually stage managed to avoid embarrassment. But the problems are so pressing that the discussion of alternatives that begun with the Global Drug Policy Commission (see Legal eye, 2011, issue 3) are gaining ever more urgency.

While Latin American leaders would like to roll back the problems created by overzealous intervention policy makers and practitioners in Scotland are working hard at increasing theirs. As Colin Martin et al. explain in “Exploring the consequences of how Scotland interprets the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971” there is a striking discrepancy in the prosecution rates of petty drug offenders between England and Wales and Scotland. In previous observations on alcohol policy we have noted an activist tendency among government officers and civil servants across the border. Is this a reflection of greater need, or a compensatory zealousness to make up for the strict limits set on devolved decision making? Would independence lead to an excited flurry of interventions just because one can, or a more confident laissez-faire approach when so many other opportunities for governing beckon?

The policy discussion is matched with three papers on treatment practice, beginning with a timely paper on working with service users who are over 50-years-old. The fact that there is a growing cohort of ageing service users poses several therapeutic, methodological and conceptual challenges. Raja Badrakalimuthu et al. in “Maintenance treatment programme for opioid dependence: characteristics of 50+ age group” confine themselves to descriptive observations about the complex needs of this challenging cohort. There is a high incidence of psychiatric disorders as well as high levels of social deprivation like homelessness.

Harry Man Xiong Lai cuts out complexity to look merely at the coincidence of substance use disorders and mental health disorders in “A six-year study of substance use and mental health disorders: ascertaining the prevalence of comorbidity”. Examining large statistical data sets from Australia he documents a simple but significant point – that people with problematic patters of substance use often have mental health issues. This strengthens the argument that problem use is like gambling or food abuse an issue of individual vulnerability, and not a drug problem.

Yet the effects of repeat, habitual or chronic use of new pharmaceutical substances provide an ongoing challenge. John Stirling et al. provide a valuable insight into habits and consequence of ketamine user in their modestly titled “Psychological effects of ketamine: a research note”. Using several research sample and employing more sophisticated data analysis methods they sketch out the breadth of effects associated with ketamine intoxication.

Axel Klein