11 - Social and Political Implications

Abstract

It is clear from the international documentation in particular that there is an argument for the “demonization of drugs.” If drugs were legalized then governments could not be trusted not to collude surreptitiously in their promotion. It is also clear that without the link with crime, there would be much less concern about drug abuse. It hardly gets a mention in the UK National Service Frameworks (NSF) for children. This chapter attempts to examine, from a clinician's perspective, the influence of political factors on international and UK policy concerning youth substance use and misuse. It argues that governments are influenced by the concepts, guidance and data provided by supranational bodies such as the United Nations, European Community or World Bank and their subsidiary organizations such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the European Commission or European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). However, these bodies address issues that have become politically salient to national governments. Consequently, supranational bodies express the consensus emerging from dialogue between national governments. Perhaps especially because of its link with crime, substance misuse has become a major focus of their attention. It is hard to evade the view that the Royal Society of Art's notion of “strange alliances” is not to be deprecated, but that they are at the heart of successful enterprise in relation to drug abuse. Field workers need to embrace strange alliances, with policy formers, statutory and nonstatutory sectors, multiple agencies, with politicians, the “evidence,” with families and with drug users themselves. Indeed, the last task may be the simplest.