Drug rehab - a waste of public money?

Nov 4 2007

Despite millions being spent on drug rehabilitation programmes in the UK it seems success stories are few and far between.

Last year the National Treatment Agency (NTA) was given a cash boost of £131m but that appears to have done little to dent the numbers emerging from treatment free of addiction.

Three years ago the figure was 5,759 and last year it was 5,829 - an improvement of a mere 70 successes.

This has proved to be a costly exercise and equates to £1.85m for each addict to get clean.

According to the Department of Health (DOH) this is a distortion of the figures and does not present a true picture.

The DOH says it is unrealistic to expect immediate results as successful treatment can take from five to seven years and drug treatment does work, saves lives and saves money.

According to the government department every £1 spent on drug treatment saves £9.50 to the rest of society.

The DOH says more than 195,000 people were now accessing drug treatment programmes, which is 130% more than in 1998, and is a record high.

However other analysts suggest the proportion of users emerging drug-free after treatment is actually falling, from 3.5% three years ago to less than 3% now, despite a 50% increase in funding, from £253m in 2004-05 to £384m last year.

The new statistics suggest to many that while more money is being thrown at drug treatment programmes, the number of people leaving them free of their addiction has barely increased.

Critics say the government's current policy on treating those with drug addictions is flawed, and public money is being misspent.

More than 5,000 people each year are given the opportunity of a drug-free life due to the drug-addiction programmes which benefit the economy and society.

But there are calls for a radical policy change as there is a belief that it is the drug prohibition itself which is the prime cause of drug-related harm to both the individual users and society as a whole.

Many believe appropriate government regulation would eliminate criminal involvement in drugs, as well as decriminalising thousands of users.

Experts say becoming totally drug-free is a real possible for just a tiny minority of drug users of any type and only around 5 per cent will be able to completely stop using drugs.

They say drug treatment should not be about making people drug-free but about public health.