A follow-up study of drug misusers who received an intervention from a local arrest referral scheme

In the United Kingdom the election of the 1997-2001 Labour government led to rapid development of drug treatment interventions in the criminal justice sector. One type of drug treatment intervention is arrest referral and this is the most developed and researched form of intervention within the United Kingdom (Arrest referral: emerging lessons from research, paper 23. London: Home Office; 1998). However, much of the published literature reports upon evaluations of working styles and practices of individual arrest referral schemes (ARS). This paper reports a follow-up study on the impact that intervention by an ARS had upon a group of drug-misusing arrestees, 18 months after their initial contact with the ARS. The findings from the follow-up study demonstrate that the intervention had had a positive impact on both drug misuse and offending among the sample. Sixty-four per cent had entered treatment and remained 'clean' following an intervention by the ARS. Analysis of the police national computer records for the sample demonstrated that 88% of those who remained 'clean' also ceased criminal activity. Additionally, the study highlighted other factors relevant to the treatment of drug misusers. Most of the sample had been in contact with health professionals during their misusing careers but the perceived negative attitude on the part of health professionals towards drug misusers and the lack of proactive, health-led interventions indicated that mainstream health care provision had failed this sample of problematic drug misusers. Another key factor to emerge from the study was the relevance of aftercare to the recovery process, which was needed to offer wide-ranging support to drug misusers in recovery, such as help with accommodation, learning basic life skills and constructing a new lifestyle without drugs. The study therefore has a dual outcome in demonstrating the positive impact of the ARS and in turn the rationale for the Government's 10-year anti-drugs strategy but it also highlights the weakness as aftercare is not a prominent feature of the strategy (Tackling drugs to build a better Britain, the government's ten year strategy for tackling drugs. London: The Stationery Office; 1998).