Pass a Drug Test

Drug related crime is costing the country up to £18 billion a year, it accounts for 50% of all criminal offences.

Up to 80% of prisoners are heroin or cocaine users. The impact of drug related crime is being felt in communities across the Midlands.

Figures released earlier this year show drug-related crime in Birmingham is up by 20% with a 47% rise in the possession of heroin and cocaine.

In part the figures reflect Government’s clear sighted strategy of shifting police resources from possession of soft drugs to concentrate on Class A substances.

But they also reveal a disaster escalating out of control.

Drugs readily available

The facts are clear: while the quantity of hard drugs seized by police and customs rises year on year, officials admit that around 90% of drugs still reach their destination.

Wherever you are in Britain, hard drugs are readily available.

So if cutting the supply of hard drugs has failed, what about efforts to break the cycle of drug use by getting addicts to kick the habit?

In Birmingham there are four residential detox beds for the whole city.

Nationwide just £1.2m is spent on residential detox facilities.

Mining community plagued

This week our East Midlands Political Editor John Hess reports from Derby and the mining community of Manton which has been plagued by heroin.

It is estimated that Derby has 3,000 heroin users and around 350 dealers.

According to Home Office figures a typical heroin user commits four offences a day to raise the £400 they need to feed their habit.

The Addiction Clinic in Derby has 1500 clients on its books, but not enough of their clients are successfully able to break the cycle of their addiction.

Waiting lists a problem

Chaotic drug users wanting to kick their habits fall all too easily through the gaps in the system whilst waiting for treatment.

There is no residential detox centre in the area, the nearest beds are 50 miles away.

Support after detox is patchy at best and many addicts relapse into drug use.

Attempts to win the war on drugs by cutting the supply have failed.

The government is now putting more resources into the treatment of drug offenders.

Little wonder. Prison is three times more expensive than residential rehabilitation..

… Also on Politics Show

Party Politics and people power

In Derby there were celebrations last weekend as speed bumps on Boulton Lane in the City were finally removed after two years of campaigning, the election of an anti speed bumps councillor, and 8 months of work.

In the Warwickshire village of Wishaw vandals pulled down a mobile phone mast, the focus of a two year campaign.

Residents, who say that local politicians aren’t interested in their fears over radiation from the masts, have taken direct action to stop it being put back up.

Blockading the entrance to the land, maintaining a night time vigil, and refusing the phone company access to the adjoining land.

But the most potent example of “people power” in the Midlands is in Wyre Forest.

Where concern’s over the local hospital saw independents take control of first the local council and then the Parliamentary seat as Dr Richard Taylor unseated the Labour MP David Lock.

So with declining numbers of people joining mainstream political parties, a falling turnout at local, national and European elections and the influence of single issue pressure groups growing, is the party over for party politics?

The Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield, Andrew Mitchell, and the independent leader of Wyre Forest District Council join Adrian Goldberg in the studio to discuss the rise of people power.