Home Office, United Kingdom Country Resources Substance Abuse Strategies and Plans United Kingdom 8 December 2010 Policy document

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This Drug Strategy is structured around three themes:

1) Reducing demand – creating an environment where the vast majority of people who have never taken drugs continue to resist any pressures to do so, and making it easier for those that do to stop. This is key to reducing the huge societal costs, particularly the lost ambition and potential of young drug users. The UK demand for illicit drugs is contributing directly to bloodshed, corruption and instability in source and transit countries, which we have a shared international responsibility to tackle;

2) Restricting supply - drugs cost the UK £15.4 billion each year. The Government must make the UK an unattractive destination for drug traffickers by attacking their profits and driving up their risks; and

3) Building recovery in communities - this Government will work with people who want to take the necessary steps to tackle their dependency on drugs and alcohol, and will offer a route out of dependence by putting the goal of recovery at the heart of all that we do. We will build on the huge investment that has been made in treatment to ensure more people are tackling their dependency and recovering fully. Approximately 400,000 benefit claimants (around 8% of all working age benefit claimants) in England are dependent on drugs or alcohol and generate benefit expenditure costs of approximately £1.6 billion per year. If these individuals are supported to recover and contribute to society, the change could be huge.

The scale of the reforms being brought forward is unprecedented. We need to be clear about how success will be measured. This strategy has two overarching aims to:
• Reduce illicit and other harmful drug use; and
• Increase the numbers recovering from their dependence.

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