This report by Dr Marcus Roberts, DrugScope Director of Policy, is called Drug treatment at the crossroads - what it's for, where it's at and how to make it even better.  

Following controversy and debate on the abstinence record of English drug treatment services, the Consortium together with DrugScope organised a series of half day seminars entitled: ‘Drug Treatment, the Great Debate’ for people working in the field to debate the issues raised. The seminars were held in April 2008 in Edinburgh, Manchester and London.

The debate on drug treatment was given fresh impetus when in October 2007 the BBC challenged the government over the abstinence record of English treatment services and at the same time in Scotland results from a national study created a similar controversy.

The polarisation of the debate prompted Mike Ashton to embark on a review of the available evidence which might support or otherwise the various positions. His work on this was published by DrugScope, in the January 2008 issue of DrugLink magazine, under the title ‘The New Abstentionists’. The published version is on the DrugScope website at: http://www.drugscope.org.uk/Documents/PDF/Good%20Practice/Ashton_M_30.pdf   

Click here to download the report (PDF, 1.3MB)