03-04-2007

Local authorities are a logical partner in dealing with drug-related problems. They are in the frontline in the fight against drug-related crime and in dealing with the social repercussions of drug use. Local decision-makers and professionals are thus much needed when it comes to fine-tuning drug policies.

Local authorities have to deal with an apparent conflict. On the one hand they are expected to help drug users, guiding them into treatment and making sure they have a certain quality of life. On the other hand, they need to protect the wider community against crime and public nuisance. From this perspective, local authorities always have to find the best compromise between law enforcement and social and healthcare interventions.

One challenge for local authorities that I see emerging is in the field of treatment. Treatment of drug addicts is pre-eminently the terrain of local authorities. Most of the time it is both managed and financed at local level. Treatment centres are now predominantly well-equipped and used to treating opioid use. However, currently the trend is that more users of cannabis and cocaine are seeking treatment. This will lead, and has already led to, extra pressure on treatment centres.

The most important element of European action in addressing the drugs issue is the EU drugs strategy 2005–2012 which has been unanimously endorsed by all EU Member States. The strategy follows a balanced approach, bestowing equal importance on demand reduction and supply reduction. On the basis of this strategy, the Council decided on an action plan for the period 2005–2008.

The EMCDDA is an important player when it comes to dealing with drug problems. We provide guidelines on different types of intervention and give advice to Member States on their implementation and evaluation.

Perhaps more importantly, we offer tools to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of approaches. In this way we can demonstrate what works well. Based on our evaluations, we have discovered many examples of best practice. These are available on the EMCDDA website (see link below).

Well, you can, of course, always do more. Resources are still limited. However, the human and financial resources for dealing with drug-related issues have increased tremendously over the last 25 years. This is a very positive development.

Some of the new Member States, however, have to catch up. They have not yet allocated sufficient resources. At the same time, the new Member States are confronted with increasing requests on their drug treatment and harm-reduction services.

For the rest of Europe it is not so much a question of more resources, but improving the ways in which these resources are used. This can be done by making knowledge, scientific evaluation and best practice a leading concern. This means that the debate on how to deal with drugs and drug addiction should not be ideological or dogmatic, but based upon scientific evaluation of what works best.

This of course depends on the local context, though there are some general remarks to be made. In the first place it will logically lead to more people in treatment. Local governments are typically charged with managing and financing treatment centres. The second development is new treatment demands. More and more problem users of cannabis and cocaine find their way to treatment. The centres are not yet well equipped to deal with all these requests.

Another consequence of the trend towards treatment is that there is an even bigger need for better coordination between the judicial, crime fighting approaches aimed at protecting society, on the one hand, and treatment approaches aiming at social rehabilitation of drug users, on the other. Social integration is key. After treatment, drug users must have a chance to fully participate in society again.

What local initiatives, either implemented in isolation or in cooperation with other cities, do you think are very interesting when it comes to dealing with drug problems? 

I personally see many interesting things happening in the field of prevention policy. For example in selective prevention. For certain risk groups, for example young people, certain ethnic groups or specific subcultures, special prevention strategies are developed and implemented.

There is also more attention being given to environmental prevention techniques, such as opening hours of bars, banning drinking and smoking in public. This creates an environment in which drug users feel less comfortable. In several countries, for example in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, fighting nuisance caused by drug users is now prevalent. Environmental prevention techniques offer good opportunities to do so.

The distribution of syringes is now widespread through out Europe. This shows that in Europe there is a shift from the dogmatic to the pragmatic.

On the EMCDDA website you can find many concrete examples of projects that practically implement the new insights on drug problems.

The European drug policies are most definitely converging — they have been over the last ten years, and still are. Every country has a national drug strategy and a national drug action plan. Syringe- exchange and substitution treatment are now widely accepted as very successful practices. Evaluating drug policies is very common nowadays throughout Europe.

For now, however, a binding European drug policy is not realistic. The competence of the European Union in the fields of health, social affairs and law enforcement is very limited — even if the European Constitution would be ratified and implemented. Furthermore, different European areas are confronted with different problems and therefore might need different solutions and approaches.

Converging, yet different, approaches can prove to be a strength. It turns Europe into some sort of laboratory in which different approaches are tested. The principles underlying these different approaches are compatible with each other, because of the trend towards convergence. This offers the possibility of effectively exchanging practices. It creates an optimal setting for selection and competition of successful approaches to dealing with drug issues.

I am sometimes asked if I think the drug problem will ever disappear. This is of course not realistic. But I do see much improvement, for society and for drug users. There is the trend towards recognising drug addicts as sick people who should be treated and not punished. The number of addicts injecting substances is on the decline. The annual number of drug-related deaths is relatively stable. On the other hand, there are negative developments as well. The production of cocaine and heroin is at the highest level ever, for example. So no, I do not think the drug problem will disappear. But that does not mean that we should give up. Persevering should be our objective.