UK DRUG POLICY COMMISSION

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Reports are only available as downloads and cannot be ordered in hard copy. The views and conclusions of reports commissioned by UKDPC are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Commission.

TACKLING DRUG MARKETS AND DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS IN THE UK
A review of the recent literature

Summary of report findings:

Latest figures (for 2003/04) estimate the size of the UK illicit drug market to be £5.3 billion and is considered to pose the single greatest organised crime threat to the UK.
About one-quarter of the total cost of delivering the drug strategy has been dedicated to reducing supply (£380 million in 2005/06).
Drug markets have proven to be extremely resilient. They are highly fluid and adapt to law enforcement interventions.
While the availability of controlled drugs is restricted by definition, it appears that additional enforcement efforts had had little adverse effect on the availability of illicit drugs in the UK.
The available evidence suggests that street-level drug law enforcement should focus on forging productive local partnerships and not rely solely on police crackdowns.
The authors were unable to locate any comprehensive published UK evidence of the relative effectiveness of different enforcement approaches. They were also not able to identify any published comparative cost-benefit or value-for-money analysis for different interventions within the UK.
Enforcement can have a significant and unintended negative impact on the nature and extent of harms associated with drugs and this should be recognised and minimised.

Tackling Drug Markets and Distribution Networks (executive summary) [PDF 98KB]

Tackling Drug Markets and Distribution Networks (full report) [PDF 632KB]

REDUCING DRUG USE, REDUCING REOFFENDING (MARCH 2008)

Are programmes for problem drug-using offenders in the UK supported by the evidence?

Summary of report findings:

The principle of using CJS-based interventions to encourage engagement with treatment is supported by the evidence.
Following a period of expansion and a focus on quantity, attention should now focus on quality.
"Net-widening" to include additional groups of drug-using offenders in CJS‑based interventions may have negative consequences.
Community punishments are likely to be more appropriate than imprisonment for most problem drug-using offenders.
Prison drug services frequently fall short of even minimum standards.
Given the sizeable investment in CJS interventions for drug-dependent offenders, we know remarkably little about what works and for whom.

There is reasonable evidence to support:
drug courts; community sentences such as DTTOs and DRRs; prison-based therapeutic communities; opioid detoxification and methadone maintenance within prisons and the community; and the RAPt 12-step abstinence-based programme.

There are no evaluations of the effectiveness of:
CARAT interventions; drug-free wings; programmes based on cognitive behavioural therapy, such as short-duration programmes and ASRO (Addressing Substance Related Offending) programmes; conditional cautions; diversion from prosecution schemes; and Intervention Orders.

There is mixed evidence for:
Criminal Justice Integrated Teams; Restrictions on Bail; and the added value of drug testing as part of a community order.

Reducing Drug Use, Reducing Reoffending (summary) [PDF 116KB]

Reducing Drug Use, Reducing Reoffending (full report) [PDF 532KB]

BACKGROUND PAPERS TO INFORM 'REDUCING DRUG USE, REDUCING REOFFENDING'

To help inform our report we commissioned the Institute for Criminal Policy Research (ICPR) at King’s College London to review the international evidence and their peer-reviewed report is available below. We also consulted with a range of stakeholders including policymakers, practitioners and service users and a summary of their feedback has been compiled into a short paper.

A review of the evidence by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research [PDF 560KB]

Consultations with key stakeholders [PDF 125KB]

AN ANALYSIS OF UK DRUG POLICY (APRIL 2007)

Summary of report findings:

Britain has an unusually severe drug problem compared with its European neighbours - it has the highest prevalence rates of problem drug use (although use appears to have broadly stabilised), rates which are double those found across Europe.
However the international evidence suggests that drug policy appears to have very limited impact on the overall level of drug use. The authors argue that this is more influenced by wider social, economic and cultural factors.
The government has successfully increased the number of dependent drug users entering treatment. Research suggests that this will have led to substantial reductions in drug use, crime and health problems at the individual level.
Where drug policy makes its most valuable contribution is in reducing the damage and harms to individuals and communities which result from problem drug use. Here UK policy has scored some significant successes, including a level of HIV among injecting drug users lower than in most of Europe. However, there is now emerging evidence which indicates that this area of policy could benefit from re-examination and reinvigoration.
General drug education and prevention efforts in schools and through campaigns appear to make little difference to risk behaviour among the young.
We know very little about the effectiveness and impact of most enforcement efforts either in reducing supply or demand.
There is little transparency in the allocation of resources although it is clear that the lion's share goes to enforcement.
The UK invests very little in independent evaluation of the impact of drug policies (especially enforcement). Unsurprisingly, therefore, the evidence base in the UK is remarkably underdeveloped.

An Analysis of UK Drug Policy (executive summary) [PDF 93KB]

An Analysis of UK Drug Policy (full report) [PDF 1.6MB]

Photo collage: UK drug policy - a complex issue