I promise not to arrest anyone
Continuing on my current theme about police blogging. I'm beginning to get a bit obsessed by it/them. Some of them really are very funny as are some of the comments they generate. But when they stray in to commenting on my area of expertise they are often free and easy with inaccurate views and information. A particular hobby horse is the oft-held police view that all drug users are 'slags, chavs, hopeless-criminals-for-whom-treatment-is-a-soft-option-and-anyway-it-doesn't-work' and so on.
I don't pretend to be an expert on the law or even on the police and their work. But I do know a great deal about drugs and drug treatment and I know that treatment works and that there is a huge amount of evidence to show that's the case. I also know that enforcement has by and large failed to reduce drug use despite the huge disparity between what gets spent on drug enforcement (A LOT) and what gets spent on treatment (not very much in comparison) . Yes, we can understand the police's frustration when they arrest yet another person who is using drugs and thieving to support their habit who claims to be in treatment. But this doesn't mean the treatment can't or won't work given the right treatment and the right circumstances. It's just that the police mostly don't know enough about how treatment works or how to get people in to it, this despite the advent of arrest referral schemes, DTTO's (Drug Treatment and Testing Orders) etc.
And this brings me to the nub of my concerns over police commenting on treatment. They're not qualified to do so, but their comments still carry the authority that goes with the uniform and gullible people reading their blogs will believe them without challenge.
So, if I promise not arrest anyone will they hold back on comments about drug treatment and its efficacy? Doubt it but you never know.
posted by Drugsblogger @ 3:44 AM
4 Comments:
I have just found this blog from your comment on my mate inspector gadgets blog.
As a serving police officer on the front line I come accros drug users almost every day, especially as the town I work has more drug treatment centres than most other areas, well all other towns to be exact.
You are right, treatment is important and should be encouraged, but the problem is that there are so many cowboys in the treatment game.
Drug abuse affects people from all walks of life too. We have to assume that experts know to deal with this, I certainly have no idea myself.
I've got to be honest, I'll never go for posting a druggie blog. i'm neither qualified or concerned enough to care about them.
That, Unfortunately is your job. I prefer to concentrate or the victims that these hopeless individuals leave behind.
I've been refering the same people to the Drugs workers for a few years now, with very little effect other than repetative Syndrome.
if you can save some of them from themselves, then well done you. I'm gonna add you to my list for ease, cos I suspect you have many interesting things to say.... glad to find you my friend. Good luck!
Thanks Totally. I suppose I'm trying to say in my own haphazrd way that drug addicts (if you will) can be treated and the harm they do reduced. I think the problem with many drug treatment agencies and indeed workers is that they concentrate on the drug user alone. I believe that we as drug workers or treatment agencies or whatever also have a duty to the wider community too. So that means if a drug user is thieving/robbing their way around a community then it's up to us to treat them in a way that helps to cut the damage caused to other people. So bleeding heart nonsense about the user as victim doesn't help Mrs Bloggs who's just been mugged. That's why I'm up for DTTO's and other co-ercive interventions. The thing is with these though is that they need to be done properly and enforced properly. Oooh, I can feel a post coming on.
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