Coke, Columbia and drug courts

First up, Alex james, he of Blur fame was on the telly last night reporting for Panorama (BBC 1 1/2 hour current affairs programme) on the mess the cocaine trade has made of Columbia. Well not just the trade but the efforts being made to combat it. This was the front line of the 'War on Drugs'. James did a comendably good and brave job as far as this viewer could tell. A good job because he demonstrated the huge structural damage cocaine is doing to Columbia and brave because he found himself in very frightening situations - a coca farm raid; with a dealer - where lots of guns were being waved around by scared and scary people. No flak jacket for him either, just his gentleman farmer's chino's, check shirt and a Panama hat. He even met the President of Columbia. Actually the pres had invited him over to do the programme as a way of trying to inform the drug's consumers in Europe and the States that the trade is doing terrible harm to Columbia and Columbians. As a former consumer of Bolivian marching powder of heroic proportions; James reportedly got through a million pounds in coke and champagne, the president obviously felt that James was the man for the job. And you know what? He was.

If you haven't seen the programme and want to make your own mind up about it try the fabby BBC iPlayer www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer which allows you to watch any BBC programme from the last 7 days online.

Now on to our latest initiative in the War on Drugs. By the way, how long is the war going to go on for? When will we know we've won it? No-one seems to know. Yesterday the government announced the introduction of a pilot drugs court in London. Now, the model in the States as I understand it simply provides for a specialist court in which to try people with addictions who have broken the law, the idea being that the combination of legal coercion and treatment gets results. It's a bit different here in London where the focus is primarily on working with drug-using parents. The principle behind it is that if at all possible drug using parents should be helped to stop and to retain care of their children. This is a good idea in that being put in to care is a fairly sure-fire way of increasing a child's risk of becoming a drug user themselves. Plus, most addicted parents can and do want to look after their kids and to deal with their habit.

I've only heard one authoritative interview on the introduction of these courts which came from the judge who'll be presiding over the court, which did cause a pang of anxiety in me. He was quick to admit that the vast majority of punters brought before him will be women. He then went on to say that the court would use coercion and treatment to get the women to change their ways. So far so good (ish). But then he went on to say - and I paraphrase 'and if these women can't or won't leave violent men then they'll be forced to'. Oh. dear. I do hope his Honour gets on a domestic violence course quickly because on the evidence of that interview he needs to. Any one who comes across domestic violence in their professional lives and has thought about it for a bit, knows that it can be incredibly difficult for women to extract themselves and their children safely from a violent man. Not only is there the obvious risk of injury or death but there are economic and social ties and yes, sometimes even love. Given such violent men's abilities to ignore injunctions and all sorts of other ploys to keep them away from their victims I think the judge was wrong to place the emphasis on women being made to leave. It's the men who should be made to go.

It's a bit of a Blur

Sorry about the dreadful title here. Blur's bassist and now gentleman farmer in Gloucestshire, Alex James is off to Columbia with Panorama tonight to take a look at the cocaine business. This is mildly ironic as he is also famous for having - by his own guestimate, got through a £1m worth of the Bolivian marching powder and champagne during Blur's peak years. The programme is on tonight (BBC1 8.30p.m.) and to his credit, at least in interviews I've heard earlier, he makes the point that cocaine is not a victimless drug and that in the war-zone that is Columbia it's the farmers and the poor who get it in the neck. They are abused and exploited by the cartels keen to spoon larger amounts of the white stuff in to the ever eager mouths of US and European punters.

Health Warning: The last time I watched a Panorama on a subject I knew a bit about - Methadone, it was complete. inaccurate. rubbish. Just wrong. So this is not an endorsement, but I think James sounds articulate and thoughtful. We shall see.

Girlfriend in a Coma

The title of this blog post refers to a book of the same name by Douglas Coupland, not my girlfriend who is in fact my wife. I've been meaning to read some of his stuff for years. Finally got round to it after marching in to Waterstones waving my Christmas book token and snaffling a load of books including this one. Why mention it here? Well apart from the fact that it is absolutely excellent it does have an awful lot of drugs 'n' alcohol in it and clearly Coupland knows his stuff or has done his reseach because it's pretty accurate too. I won't go in to the details of the book because you can read the reviews on Amazon or elsewhere but it's a millenium book (published in 1998) which plays on the end of times fears we all experienced to a greater or lesser extent at the time. Remember the millenium bug? End of the world as computers, medical equipment, anything with a silicon chip in it really, was predicted to go in to terminal meltdown. What was that about then?

Anyway I can't recommend the book highly enough.

Elsewhere in drugland it's business as usual. The usual madness with the beauracracy of the NTA, DAAT's and so on. BUT - an interesting development with the release of the new 'Orange Book'. Or rather the new Dept of Health, NICE, NTA Drug Treatment Guidelines. (It seems to be book review week on this blog). http://www.nta.nhs.uk/areas/Clinical_guidance/clinical_guidelines/docs/clinical_guidelines_2007.pdf

This latest version of the guidleines - last updated in 1999 shows marked developments. These include a much more positive view on, amongst other things methadone maintenance. The book argues that there is now plenty of evidence showing the efficacy of maintenance and I couldn't agree more. For those of us who've knocked around the field for a while and are interested in treatment that actually works and has research evidence to show this, it's a real vindication. If you are working in the field, in one where you might come across drug users or just interested have a read.