Mail Weekly Column: 12 December 2021
Last week the Government launched From Harm to Hope, its 10 year plan to reduce drug use, cut crime, and save lives.
The Health Secretary summed up the current situation very well indeed:
“Behind every illicit drug is a human cost: the “county lines” operations that increasingly involve young people, human trafficking and the use of “cuckooing”, where drug dealers target the most vulnerable and use their homes for criminal activity.”
The plan details how the Government plans to break drug supply chains while simultaneously reducing the demand for drugs by getting people suffering from addiction into treatment, and deterring recreational drug use.
This is an issue of huge concern for us locally. We’ve all read the headlines about Egerton Court and County Lines. Some of that is exaggerated reporting, but the problem is also deeper and more complex than that.
Spend any time at The Well, and you see how drugs and addiction affect people’s lives profoundly: young people with their whole lives ahead of them spiralling into addiction and crime; fathers and mothers losing any connection with their families and children due to a single-minded focus on their addition, and frustration that with recovery it is hard to find someone who will take a chance on you.
You may think that casual drug use hurts no one, but you’d be wrong. It directly fuels the county lines drug gangs that import drugs into communities like ours. That line of coke was most likely brought to your dealer by a young, vulnerable person who has been exploited into modern slavery.
The commitment by the government in this strategy is to do three things of real substance: rolling-up over 2,000 county-lines drugs gangs by targeting the organised crime groups behind them and going after their money; investing £780-million in drug treatment and recovery, and exploring how to best deter the use of recreational drugs through targeted action.
Drugs costs society almost £20billion every year - and are directly responsible for nearly half of all burglaries, robberies and other acquisitive crime that we see.
I strongly believe that if we hope to break the cycle of abuse and violence that follows drug crime, then this plan is a very good start indeed.
The Government announced a move to Plan B last week amid concerning data around the Omicron variant. We will be voting on this on Tuesday.
I have no doubt about just how serious this new variant could be for the NHS and for people’s health. The fact that the rate of infection is doubling every 2.5 days is very worrying.
Now, more than ever, vaccinations and boosters are our clearest route to protection and normalcy. The measures announced to further accelerate the booster programme are therefore welcome.
You can book your 1st, 2nd and booster shots quickly and easily here.
As the scientists assess the impact of Omicron, mask wearing in more settings also seems a prudent move to slowing the spread. Similarly, daily lateral flow testing, as opposed to ten days of self-isolation is a sensible step to avoid another ‘pingdemic.’
I cannot, however, support any suggestion that vaccine passports will be brought in. We are not a ‘papers please’ society, and such passports would be an unethical and discriminatory step. I will not be voting for their introduction.
As ever, please make every effort to stay safe and, when you get the opportunity, book your jab!
