How should we respond to a Community Drugs Problem?
The responses we develop to tackle community drugs problems must be holistic, integrated and partnership based. They need to be community based, involve the people most affected by the problem in finding solutions that work for their communities, and they need to be adequately resourced.
Community responses are not just about the front line services that provide innovative and wide ranging services to drug users. If we understand that community drugs problems develop because of an array of co-existing factors then the responses to these problems must also work to strengthen community resources and cohesion. It is imperative that the problems in local areas are responded to by the involvement of those most affected - drug users, their families and their communities.
National Importance
The responses developed over the last 15 years are some of the most imaginative and even unique on a global level. Following the Rabbitte Report in 1996 an innovative way of responding to the heroin crisis was piloted:
- A Fulltime Minister was appointed to take responsibility for the National Drug Strategy,
- A cross-sectoral team including community representatives was established to oversee the Drugs Strategy nationally.
- Local Drug Task Forces were set up in areas of most need,
- Regional Drug Task Forces were established in 2002.
Working collectively to tackle local problems
The core of all these approaches was partnership between state agencies, voluntary organisations and the communities most affected by the problem. This partnership approach has since been seriously undermined and by extension the community response to the drug crisis has been damaged
The vision that saw the establishment of Local Drug Task Forces (LDTF's) in 1997 must be built on ..."the LDTF's were set up to ensure a fully integrated response to the drug problem in the worst hit areas which takes account of specific needs of those areas. Of equal importance, the Task Force process allows local communities - the people most affected by the problem - to work with the State Agencies and voluntary organisations in designing and delivering that response" (Introduction to LDTF handbook)
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