Britain's new strategy for tackling drugs misuse

BMJ 1998;316:1399-1400 ( 9 May )

Editorials

Britain's new strategy for tackling drugs misuse

Shows a welcome emphasis on evidence

News p 1411

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The UK government is to be congratulated on the launch of its new drug strategy,¹ but probably not for the reasons it mightexpect. The greatest praise is due not so much for any specificpolicy proposal $---$ these are rather predictable $---$ but for the disciplineand integrity the government has shown in preparing a nationaldrug strategy that is more seriously committed to evidence thanto rhetoric. With such a principle established the governmentis now well positioned to revise the strategy as new evidencebecomes available and to advance drug policy in a manner similarto the advancement of evidenced based medicine. In this we hopethat the government will establish the same requirements acrossall sectors $---$ in prevention and enforcement as well as in treatment.

In 1997-8 the total government drug related expenditure was estimated at £1.4 billion ($2.2 billion), 62% of it spent on enforcementactivity.¹ Yet the . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Statistics on misuse of drugs have been misused: Gerry V Stimson, Matt Hickman, and Paul J Turnbull
BMJ 1998 317: 1388. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Grann, M., Fazel, S. (2004). Substance misuse and violent crime: Swedish population study. BMJ 328: 1233-1234 [Full text]
Stimson, G. V, Hickman, M., Turnbull, P. J (1998). Statistics on misuse of drugs have been misused. BMJ 317: 1388-1388 [Full text]