Scottish Drugs Forum
Skip to Content | Skip to Main Navigation
SDF clearly acknowledges that the government is facing tight budget arrangements following the latest spending review. Nevertheless, a relatively static drug treatment budget - increasing by just over £8 million over the next three years - presents major ‘wraparound’ challenges if we are serious about offering real employability, housing and family services aimed at addressing Scotland’s drug problems.
But are we being short sighted here? Should we not be looking at other budgets to play their part in addressing future wraparound challenges? Such as the housing and regeneration budget which over the next three years will top £1.6 billion?
A significant amount of this regeneration money will be spent in areas of Scotland that contain economically destructive drug markets. Yet most new planning partnerships - which are still finding their feet - may not have a good working grasp of these local drug markets which can seriously hamper any health, community safety, regeneration and also wraparound progress.
Yet a 2005 Joseph Rowntree study – carried out in England – paints a vivid picture of these complex drug markets. Despite their destructive qualities, the study noted that some communities had an ambivalent relationship towards a local drug market that could bring 'benefits' such as trading in stolen goods, which may otherwise be unaffordable, topping up low income or even offering 'job' opportunities.
Therefore, we need to move beyond a traditional enforcement response, if we are serious about undermining these destructive drug markets, it is vital that we fully understand their complex social and economic drivers.
This will include acknowledging the sensitive issue of community ambivalence towards this form of "criminal" activity. It will also mean developing early interventions which make life more enjoyable and hopeful at a family and community level. That should ensure young people do not automatically look at (or look up to) drug markets as a future consumer or 'job' pathway.
Other planning structures can also play an important role here. For instance, avoiding housing allocation policies which continue to create a concentration of multiple social problems within deprived areas could also help seriously undermine these destructive drug markets.
And regeneration policies that move beyond a 'bricks and mortar' approach - linking up with the Department of Work and Pensions - could provide real and meaningful employability opportunities that make the local drug market look like a deeply unattractive consumer or ‘career’ choice for existing and potential drug users.
Faced with these challenges, it is hard to see how important "wraparound" ambitions can be realised over the next three years with an extra £8 million. But it’s not so hard to imagine (with some creative and open-minded policy thinking towards drug markets and regeneration) that these ambitions could easily be met within our £1.6 billion housing and regeneration budget.