The drugs (policy) don't work - Randerson

3.22.38pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 13th May 2008

Jenny Randerson believes more needs to be done to get people off drugs

Speaking ahead of today's debate on the Government's Substance Misuse Strategy, Jenny Randerson, Welsh Liberal Democrats spokesperson on Health, called on the Government to rethink its substance misuse strategy and to treat the problem as a public health issue rather than as purely a criminal justice matter.

Jenny Randerson, Cardiff Central AM, said:

"Given the increasing number of people taking class A drugs over recent years, we need to rethink the substance misuse strategy for Wales. Whilst the growing availability of these kinds of drugs in Wales alarms me, I am even more concerned that we do not have the adequate services to rehabilitate people who misuse substances.

"Crime and drugs are often linked but we need to break the habit of drug use to cut crime. This can be achieved by treating substance misuse as a public health issue as much as a criminal matter.  

"I firmly believe that treating substance misuse as wholly or primarily a criminal matter may mollify the media, but it does little to address the problem. Labour in Westminster and Cardiff have failed  to recognise that  the best way to tackle crime committed by people who are addicted to drugs is to break their addiction. Putting them in prison is not working. The UK has the highest re-offending rates in Europe. 

"I would like to see an active working relationship between the Criminal Justice System and the health services to be able to deal with the growing number of people who misuse drugs.

"We have to try and help these people with addictions to drugs like we help people with psychological problems and not let the Criminal Justice System deal with them.  Let's move to a sensible, evidence-based public health approach to break the drug-crime vicious cycle." 

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