MEMORANDUM 4
Submitted by ADFAM
1. This memorandum, which has been prepared
specifically for the Committee, is from ADFAM, the UK charity
for the friends and families of drug users.
2. ADFAM was registered as a charity in
1986 to represent and support the needs of families affected by
drug use. ADFAM defines "family" and uses the term here
as the people closest to those who use drugs. ADFAM has helped
thousands of families address drug use, running a national telephone
helpline (which currently receives 10,000 calls per annum), providing
direct support in prison visitor centres in the London area and
more indirect support, training and advice in prisons throughout
the UK. In addition ADFAM has recently started a community consultation
process across the country in order to map both the level of services
currently available for families and the extent of unmet need.
3. As the Police Foundation Report "Drugs
and the Law" highlights, the law is only one aspect of the
entire drugs agenda of which harm reduction must form a large
part. ADFAM's concern is that, whilst it broadly welcomes the
debate on decriminalisation, this debate will serve to overshadow
and detract from the need for coherent and successful policy development
that reduces the harm caused by drug use in society—be they
legal or illegal drugs.
4. You pose the question does existing drugs
policy work? We would amend the question to ask whether it works
for families. Drug use does not happen in a vacuum and for many
of the families we talk to every day drug use can have long term
consequences for family life. Recent work by Alex Copello at the
University of Birmingham demonstrates a clear and damaging link
between poor physical and mental health and the presence of disruptive
drug use in families. We agree with the Government when it describes
families as being "at the heart of society" (Supporting
Families, HMSO 1998) but the implication of this is that current
drug policy can not work effectively unless it also considers
the family. Precious little mention of families is made in current
drug policy.
5. ADFAM would argue that family members
need to be considered as service users in their own right both
to address the impact that drug use can have on family life but
also to recognise the impact that effective family intervention
can have on problem drug use.
6. As the "Drugs & Law" report
indicates the impact of drug use is more important than simply
the number of users and our work with families would support this
view, not all drug use is necessarily problematic. When considering
whether decriminalisation is desirable we would suggest that desirability
needs also to be measured against the impact decriminalisation
would have on families.
7. Current policy criminalises not only
the user but those who are supporting the user and acting as agents
for the reduction of harm being done by the use of drugs. Whilst
the families we work for and with are not a homogenous group the
work which we do with the families of imprisoned drug users demonstrates
that the impact of imprisonment can have many more far-reaching
consequences both for the drug user and the family than the drug
use that may have led to imprisonment in the first instance.
8. In summary, therefore, we welcome the
fact that the Home Affairs Committee is undertaking an inquiry
into drugs policy and the current 10 year strategy. Our belief
is that the focus of the inquiry should be on harm reduction not
simply on drugs policy as a crime issue. However, what is clear
from the work which we do is that for drugs policy to be truly
effective it must also consider the family surrounding the user.
September 2001
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