An idea whose time has come

This year’s Druglink survey of street drug trends found that a drop in the quality of drugs could be accelerating a longer term trend towards poly drug use – taking a variety of different substances in combination or at different times – as users look to ‘top up’ on low quality drugs or experiment with alternatives. In turn, some survey respondents suggested that the shift towards people using a more varied menu of drugs means users are less concerned about the quality of each individual substance.

In some areas older teens and younger adult recreational users are swapping or combining substances including cocaine, ketamine, GHB/GBL, ecstasy, cannabis and alcohol. At the same time, some areas reported an increase in young users turning their back on crack and heroin. Problem drug users in most areas are often using heroin and crack cocaine alongside cheap, strong alcohol, skunk-like cannabis, tranquillisers and, in some cases, ketamine.

The trend is a reminder of one of the issues that came out of our Drug Treatment at the Crossroads report. If we persist with too narrow a definition of ‘problem drug use’ that focuses on heroin and crack cocaine we are unlikely to be equipped to meet new challenges as drug trends change.

Recent discussions we’ve had with young service users, drug education and drug treatment professionals as part of our forthcoming Young People at the Crossroads work have reinforced the fact that the next generation of ‘problem drug users’ appear to be developing issues linked to cheap alcohol cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and tranquilisers. To what extent are services equipped for this and how flexible can they be?



Survey respondents expressed concerns that the low quality of stimulants such as cocaine, crack, speed and ecstasy pills could be contributing to a growing interest in other substances. Ketamine, the hallucinogenic anaesthetic, was reported as being used by a growing number of older teens and young adults in 18 out of 20 areas surveyed. For the first time in the survey’s five year history, some drug services raised concerns about the use of the so-called ‘legal highs’ GBL and mephedrone.

Although still low on the radar, ‘legal highs’ are set to play a far bigger role in complicating the picture of drug use that frontline treatment workers will be dealing with. And it won’t just be a potential problem for health. A recent EU-funded survey revealed over 300 compounds which mimic the effects of illegal drugs, so the control of Spice, BZP and GBL could just be the start of a very busy time for the ACMD. But with the prospect of many more new drugs appearing quickly on the market, the example of Spice serves to emphasise the need for a review of the Misuse of Drugs Act, promised but not delivered by the government in 2006.

The ACMD concluded that primarily on the basis of the potential harm from the synthetic cannabinoids found in some samples, Spice should be a controlled drug. But they deliberately did not recommend a classification. Why? Because against ACMD advice, cannabis had been reclassified to B. The ACMD clearly did not think that Spice warranted Class B penalties any more than cannabis did – but kept quiet on the matter. Inevitably (and within the logic of the Act) Spice will be made a Class B drug so now we have the bizarre situation where Spice is legally deemed more harmful than the addictive and lethal GBL, not to mention tranquillisers and anabolic steroids.

But it isn’t simply a question of where any particular drug sits in the ABC grading. In the light of an ever-increasingly complex drug landscape coupled with questions over the capacity of the police to enforce the laws and what constitutes a threshold of ‘harm’, we need a root and branch review of the Act.

http://www.drugscope.org.uk/ourwork/pressoffice/pressreleases/Street_drug_trends_2009.htm

http://www.drugscope.org.uk/Documents/PDF/SepOct09DSDaily.pdf