UK Focal Point on Drugs Annual Report to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
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20 12 United Kingdom Drug Situation 2012 EDITION 2012 Situation Drug Kingdom United United Kingdom Drug Situation 2012 EDITION UK Focal Point On Drugs Annual Report to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) UK Focal Point On Drugs Further copies are available from: Drugs On Point Focal UK UK Focal Point on Drugs Centre for Public Health Research Directorate Faculty of Health and Applied Social Sciences Liverpool John Moores University 2nd Floor Henry Cotton Campus 15-21 Webster Street Liverpool L3 2ET ISBN: 978-1-??????-??-? (Printed version) ISBN: 978-1-??????-??-? (Web version) United Kingdom drug situation: annual report to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) 2012 Editors Charlotte Davies*, Layla English$, Claire Stewart*, Mark Edginton*, Jim McVeigh$, Mark A. Bellis$ *United Kingdom Focal Point at the Department of Health 7th floor, Wellington House, 133 -155 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8UG, UK $United Kingdom Focal Point at the North West Public Health Observatory The Centre for Public Health, Research Directorate, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, 2nd Floor Henry Cotton Campus, 15-21 Webster Street, Liverpool, L3 2ET, UK Report submitted to the EMCDDA: Wednesday 31st October 2012 The United Kingdom Focal Point on Drugs The United Kingdom (UK) Focal Point on Drugs is based at the Department of Health and the North West Public Health Observatory at the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University. It is the national partner of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and provides comprehensive information to the Centre on the drug situation in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Focal Point works closely with the Home Office, other government departments and the devolved administrations. In addition to this annual report, it collates an extensive range of data in the form of standard tables and responses to structured questionnaires, which are submitted regularly to the EMCDDA. It also contributes to other elements of the EMCDDA’s work such as the development and implementation of its five key epidemiological indicators, the Exchange on Drug Demand Reduction Action (EDDRA) and the implementation of the Council Decision on New Psychoactive Substances. Further information about the United Kingdom Focal Point, including previous annual reports and data submitted to the EMCDDA, can be found on the Focal Point website at www.ukfocalpoint.org.uk The EMCDDA’s website is www.emcdda.europa.eu The Head of the United Kingdom Focal Point on Drugs is Mark Edginton at the Department of Health ([email protected]). The structure and content of this report The structure and content of this annual report are pre-determined by the EMCDDA to facilitate comparison with similar reports produced by the other European Focal Points. Ten chapters cover the same subjects each year, and three further chapters provide in-depth information on selected issues which change from year to year. Each of the first ten chapters begins with anIntroduction . This sets the context for the remainder of the chapter, describing the main features of the topic under consideration within the United Kingdom. This may include information about the main legislative and organisational frameworks, sources of data and definitions used, the broad picture shown by the data and recent trends. The remainder of each chapter is concerned with New Developments and Trends that have not been included in previous annual reports. Generally, this covers developments that have occurred in the second half of 2011 or the first half of 2012. Relevant data that have become available during this period will also be discussed although these will often refer to earlier time periods. This report, and the reports from the other European countries, will be used in the compilation of the EMCDDA’s annual report of the drug situation in the European Union and Norway to be published in 2013. United Kingdom Drug Situation 2012 edition Page 5 National Contributors – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Welsh Government Gareth Hewitt Public Health Wales Josie Smith Department of Health, Mervyn Wilson Social Services and Public Safety, Caroline Hickey Northern Ireland Scottish Government Nicola Paterson Julie Carr Information Services Division, Diane Stockton National Health Service, Cheryl Denny Scotland Experts on the EMCDDA Key Epidemiological Indicators Population prevalence Nicola Singleton United Kingdom Drug Policy Commission Problem prevalence Gordon Hay Liverpool John Moores University Treatment demand Michael Donmall National Drug Evidence Centre, University of Manchester Drug-related deaths John Corkery University of Hertfordshire Infectious diseases Vivian Hope Health Protection Agency & Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Other Focal Point Experts and Partners Home Office Frances Hardy, Anna Richardson New Psychoactive Amanda Atkinson, Substances Simon Brandt, LJMU Page 6 United Kingdom Drug Situation 2012 edition Main Contributors for Individual Chapters Chapter One Charlotte Davies UK Focal Point Cyrille Marcel Home Office Angela Scrutton Home Office Chapter Two Layla English UK Focal Point Nicola Singleton UKDPC Chapter Three Layla English UK Focal Point Chapter Four Charlotte Davies UK Focal Point Layla English UK Focal Point Gordon Hay Liverpool John Moores University Chapter Five Charlotte Davies UK Focal Point Claire Stewart UK Focal Point Chapter Six Layla English UK Focal Point John Corkery International Centre for Drug Policy, St George’s, University of London, & Department of Pharmacy, University of Hertfordshire Vivian Hope Health Protection Agency & Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Chapter Seven Layla English UK Focal Point Vivian Hope Health Protection Agency & Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Chapter Eight Claire Stewart UK Focal Point Chapter Nine Charlotte Davies UK Focal Point Chapter Ten Charlotte Davies UK Focal Point Chapter Eleven Claire Stewart UK Focal Point Chapter Twelve Charlotte Davies UK Focal Point United Kingdom Drug Situation 2012 edition Page 7 Acknowledgements In addition to those already mentioned thanks are extended to: Kobie Mulligan; Aphrodite Spanou, John McCracken, Clive Pritchard and Mark Prunty at the Department of Health; Jonathan Knight, Alex Fleming, Jez Stannard and Martin White at the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse; the large number of staff who contributed to this report at the Home Office including Holly Clark, Philip Hall, Sheila Hardwick, William Mackenzie, Cyrille Marcel and Angela Scrutton, in addition to those mentioned overleaf; Beverley Powis and Robert Stanbury at the National Offender Management Service; Tristan McAlpine and Anna Starling at the Ministry of Justice; Graeme Inglis, Steve Reddick and Tony Saggers of SOCA; Kenny Simpson from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency; Sharon Thandi from the Information Centre for Health and Social Care; staff who contributed from the Scottish Government including Kathleen Glazik and John Somers in addition to those mentioned overleaf; staff at the Welsh Government including Rhian Hills; staff at Public Health Wales and NHS Wales Informatics Services including Elizabeth Walsh; Gary Maxwell from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland; Richard White from the Department for Education; Anthony Billinghurst at DWP; Andrew Jones, Donal Cairns and Stefan Jahr from the National Drugs Evidence Centre; Mark Robinson, Lisa Jones, Harry Sumnall and David Seddon at the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University. Page 8 United Kingdom Drug Situation 2012 edition Table of contents Summary 13 Trends by Individual Drug 19 Overview of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) 25 Part A: New Developments and Trends 1. Drug policy: legislation, strategies and economic analysis 45 1.1 Introduction 45 1.2 Legal Framework 46 1.3 National action plan, strategy, evaluation and coordination 49 1.4 Economic Analysis 52 2. Drug use in the general population and specific groups 54 2.1 Introduction 54 2.2 Drug use in the general population 55 2.3 Drug use amongst young adults 62 2.4 Drug use in the school and youth population 66 2.5 Drug use amongst specific groups in the adult population 72 2.6 Drug use amongst specific groups in the school age population 75 2.7 Research 75 3. Prevention 76 3.1 Introduction 76 3.2 Environmental Prevention 77 3.3 Universal prevention 79 3.4 Selective prevention in at-risk groups and settings 81 3.5 National and local media campaigns 83 4. Problem drug use 84 4.1 Introduction 84 4.2 Prevalence estimates of problem drug use 84 4.3 Data on PDUs from non-treatment sources 87 4.4 Intensive, frequent, long-term and other problematic forms of use 88 4.5 Other opioid indicators 88 5. Drug-related treatment: treatment demand and treatment availability 91 5.1 Introduction 91 5.2 Strategy and policy 92 5.3 Treatment systems 93 5.4 Characteristics of treated clients (TDI) 96 5.5 Clients in treatment 103 6. Health correlates and consequences 107 6.1 Introduction 107 6.2 Drug-related infectious diseases 107 6.3 Other drug-related health correlates and consequences 114 6.4 Drug-related deaths and mortality of drug users 120 United Kingdom Drug Situation 2012 edition Page