Citation

Sumnall HR. Int. J. Drug Policy 2022; 109: e103841.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103841

PMID

36041288

Abstract

The UK Government's recent 10-year Drug Strategy, From Harm to Hope (the Strategy), presents an ambition to "achieve a generational shift in the country's relationship with drugs and to reduce overall drug use towards a historic 30-year low" through "bold steps to change attitudes in society around the perceived acceptability of illegal drug use" (H.M. Government, 2021a). In this commentary, I focus on the potential impacts of drug prevention activity outlined in the Strategy and consider the feasibility of achieving this headline outcome considering constraints on UK prevention systems. Here, drug prevention is defined as those policies, programmes and practices intended to reduce the initiation, continuation, and escalation of drug use (Sloboda & Petras, 2014). Whilst prevention is relevant across the life course and different profiles of substance use (ACMD, 2015), this commentary primarily focuses on young (aged < 25) "non-dependent, so-called recreational drug users" who report the highest rates of drug use (H.M. Government, 2021a, p. 4)...

Language: en