The updated Drug Strategy
Crime:
Drug use may encourage involvement in crime, or may be a consequence of it. Crime is likely to increase with drug dependency, it is not automatic that crime will cease when drug taking stops, but it is likely that it will reduce.
Drug-related crime:
There are three types of drug-related crime;
- crimes of supply;
- crimes committed to obtain money to buy drugs, or where the effects of drugs lead the user to act in a criminal way, for example dangerous driving or acts of aggression; and
- crimes of possession of illegal substances.
As well as these direct connections, drugs have other links to crime. All drug misuse tends to lead to, or flow from, social problems and these in turn may generate further crime.
Offences carried out to pay for drugs are usually dependency on opiates or crack cocaine. Offenders often need to maintain their level of drug consumption and therefore in constant need for money. These crimes commonly involve shoplifting, credit card/cheque book fraud, handling stolen goods, car crime, burglary or prostitution. They less commonly involve street robbery, theft or violence.
Drugs such as crack cocaine also cause dependency. The resulting pattern of dependent behaviour can be short-lived but extremely problematic, including episodes of violence and violent acquisitive crime. Amphetamines can also lead to episodes of aggressive crime.
Other drugs are less likely to cause this type of crime because there is not the same level of dependency, need for regular supply and cost involved.
Tackling drug crime
The updated Drug Strategy, published on 3 December 2002, makes it clear that the cycle of persistent offending and drug misuse must be broken. To break the link, additional resources will be invested in a major programme of interventions for adults and young people, which will move offenders out of the criminal justice system and into treatment. With the aim of 'reducing drug related crime, including as measured by the proportion of offenders testing positive at arrest', the interventions include:
- drug testing − every offender arrested and charged for a drug-related offence being tested for heroin or cocaine use;
- arrest referral − drug misusing offenders being seen by an arrest referral worker and referred to treatment where appropriate; and
- Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOS) which enable courts to make an order requiring offenders to undergo treatment either as part of another community order or as a sentence in its own right.
Effects
The consequences of drug-related activity include:
- serious and organised crime;
- widespread acquisitive crime for drug addicts funding their habit;
- violence generated by drug intoxication and dealers and;
- hidden social problems − in homes, schools the workplace and on the roads.