Vol 26 | Issue 5 | september/OctOber 2011 l Riots DruglinkREPORTING ON DRUGS SINCE 1975 l Naloxone l Housing pull-out l Mexico Behind the paradigm shift SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 DRUGLINK | A L eedsAddictionUnit in collabora t ion wi t h t h e Univer s i t y of Leed s School of Hea lthcare Programmes and modules combining theory, research, policy and practice are BHSc (Hons) available by distance learning or Graduate Diploma attended taught sessions at Leeds Addiction Unit Diploma of Higher Education Modules include: Motivational Interviewing Certificate of Higher Education Research Cognitive Behavioural Coping Skills Harm Reduction Psychopharmacology Community Treatment of Child Bearing Drug Users & Child Protection Substance Misuse Dual Diagnosis Criminal Justice Social Behaviour & Network Therapy Enrolling now for phone 0113 295 1330 or email February 2012 [email protected] www.lau.org.uk/training Short courses, accredited programmes and stand alone modules We also offer courses tailor-made for your group or organisation. Contact us for details Vol 26 | Issue 5 | september/OctOber 2011 News 2 New drugs on block show increase despite falling market 3 Doctors say naloxone hand-outs are a “no-brainer” Druglink 4 News focus: Riot special Youth guru Camila Batmanghelidjh and author Gavin Knight on the links between the August riots and the Making it real drug trade RECOVERY UNCOVERED The Recovery Movement in the UK is in its infancy and like the recovery 6 Love conquers hate journey itself, the way ahead will not necessarily be smooth. William White’s One woman’s struggle to come in seminal paper on the rhetoric of recovery sets out clearly the difficulties of from a cocaine blizzard to the shelter even untangling the lexicon of recovery, let alone seeing tangible results from of recovery. By Harry Shapiro engaging with the wider world on all the manifest issues thrown up by that ‘simple’ word. 9 Land of the free That said, there is nothing new about recovery; preparing service users for Marcus Roberts discusses recent some kind of entry into or back into society has been going on for decades, debates about ‘recovery’ in mental not forgetting those who have travelled the path without any formal service health, and asks whether too much engagement at all. But now we have recovery with a capital R and so it consensus could be at odds with the becomes freighted with more expectations and ambition. concept’s transformative potential I have in mind Bob, a hypothetical user, who is in treatment, receiving a and radical roots. methadone prescription which has brought some semblance of stability to his life. After many years of chaos and mayhem, he needs a lot of TLC, he needs 12 Founding fathers his self-esteem built up and needs to feel he is not alone. So he is very grateful The inspiration for the rising for affirmative messages on Facebook, hugs at every turn and plenty of people recovery movement in Britain has telling him he is doing well. Now he wants to move on – and in a calmer come from four Americans. Mark frame of mind, he notices lots of talk around him about recovery champions, Gilman on the influence of Simpson, recovery communities, social and individual capital and asset-based recovery. De Leon, White and McKnight. Having tried to understand the new landscape, Bob decides he doesn’t want to become a recovery activist or be a volunteer at his local drug agency. 13 4 PAGE PULL-OUT: He really does want to move on. What he wants is a decent place to live, some Housing for recovery – findings gainful employment and to see his daughter again. He is right therefore to ask from a DrugScope survey the question, ‘what does all this stuff mean for me?’ Bob might have to wait a bit for the smoke to clear, but at some point soon , the notion of recovery must 18 Asset recovery move beyond the birth pangs; the handy slogan, the inspirational conference An expanding network of current speech or the tender document with the word ‘recovery’ shoe-horned into and former problem drug users will every sentence. energise the recovery movement in the UK and create social Harry Shapiro, entrepreneurs. By Alistair Sinclair. Drugscope’s Director of Communications 20 A social contract and Information Treatment offers to get the dispossessed and addicted back into mainstream society, but for many DrugScope Drugscope is the uK’s DRUGLINK STAFF Print Holbrooks Printers this offer simply lacks credibility. Prince Consort House leading independent centre Editor Max Daly ltd, Portsmouth Po3 5HX Richard Phillips on how the recovery 109–111 Farringdon Rd of expertise on drugs and Online Jackie Buckle london eC1R 3BW the national membership Director of Communications CONTRIBUTIONS movement can offer people a organisation for those and Information Druglink welcomes letters tangible route out of addiction. Telephone working to reduce drug Harry Shapiro and other contributions. 020 7520 7550 harms. Our aim is to inform Editorial Assistant send direct or contact Email policy development and Ruth Goldsmith Max Daly Also in this issue.... [email protected] reduce drug-related risk. Book Reviews Editor Tel: 020 7520 7562 Web We provide quality drug Blaine stothard email: 22 Under the shadow of the drug lords www.drugscope.org.uk information, promote [email protected] effective responses to drug ADVERTISEMENTS The vibrant Mexican city of Druglink is for all those taking, undertake research, email Material published in Monterrey is the country’s financial with a professional or advise on policy-making, [email protected] Druglink does not necessarily hub. But as with a growing number of occupational interest in drug encourage informed debate The inclusion of an represent the views or problems and responses and speak for our members advertisement, flyer or free policies of DrugScope cities in Mexico, it is ceding control to them – policymakers working on the ground. sample in Druglink does not to the narco-traffickers. ByLeadknife and researchers, health imply any endorsement of a © Drugscope/the author(s). workers, teachers and other SUBSCRIPTIONS particular product or service All rights fully reserved. educators, social workers subscription for the year by Drugscope or Druglink. Requests for permission Regulars and counsellors, probation (six issues): £55 to reproduce material and police officers, and drug To subscribe call Design from Druglink should be 26 Reviews workers. 020 7520 7550 Helen Joubert Design addressed to the editor. helenjoubertdesign.com 28 Drugworld Diaries ISSN 0305-4349 29 Headspace SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 DRUGLINK | 1 NEWS n High heels A London solicitor wore New drugs on block show hollowed-out, foot-long shoes to smuggle a mini ‘drug selling kit’ into prison for an inmate, increase despite falling Blackfriars crown court has heard. Prosecutors said Ritesh Brahmbhatt had a mobile market phone, cannabis, mephedrone and scales in his over-sized shoes, but was caught by sniffer • Mephedrone now as popular dogs. as cocaine with young users • Ketamine use doubles in four n Weed all about it years A journalist has become the • Steady decline on overall drug first professional cannabis critic in America. ‘William Breathes’ use continues tries out and reviews different strains such as Rambo and Moby Ketamine and mephedrone, two Dick for Denver’s Westword relative newcomers to the mainstream newspaper. Colorado has drug scene, have shown the biggest 100,000 people who are legally rises in use among young people in registered to use the drug for England Wales, according to the latest medicinal purposes. government figures. Results from the Home Office’s n In God we trust extensive annual British Crime Survey (BCS) revealed that the use of Parishioners at a Welsh church the hallucinogenic anaesthetic drug have unanimously voted in ketamine, has more than doubled among their new minister – despite young people since being made a Class The steady decline in overall drug the fact he was jailed for 12 C drug in 2006. Use amongst 16-24 year use was reflected in the new figures years for dealing cocaine. Brian olds has increased from 0.8 per cent in published by the NHS Information Morris, a minister at Oakdale 2006/07 to 2.1 per cent in 2010/11. Centre. Key findings from its survey, baptist church in Caerphilly, was Mephedrone, the stimulant which Smoking, drinking and drug use among released from jail after five years attained a rapid rise in popularity over young people in England in 2010, carried and trained to be a pastor. the internet in 2009, now ranks alongside out among young people aged 11 – 15 in cocaine as the second most prevalent England include: n Coca cooler drug amongst 16-24 year olds, being used • 18 per cent of pupils reported that by 4.4 per cent in the last year. they had ever taken drugs. This Peru’s new centre-left Cannabis, while still the most used represents a decline since 2001 from government has suspended drug among all age groups, continues 29 per cent; its US-funded coca eradication to fall from a peak in the early 2000s. • cannabis remains the most widely programme. Prime minister Although there was a blip in the used drug, with 8.2 per cent of pupils Salomon Lerner said he wanted statistics as far as young people were reporting having used it in the last “social exclusion and fighting concerned: 17.1 per cent of 16-24 year year compared with 13.4 per cent in poverty” to become more central olds tried cannabis in the last year 2001; to the strategy. compared to 16.1 per cent in 2009/10. • vulnerable pupils, defined as those The survey showed that almost three who had truanted or been excluded n Shipping lines million people (8.8 per cent of adults) from school, were more likely to take used illicit drugs in the past year, 2.2 drugs at least once a month than A record £300m haul of cocaine million of them using cannabis.