The International journal on drug policy
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Int. J. Drug Policy · Nov 2011
Partnerships and communities in English drug policy: the challenge of deprivation.
From the mid-1990s, UK governments developed partnerships to tackle drugs nationally and locally. Over time, increased resources focused on communities and localities in greatest need. This reflected growing awareness of the concentration of problems in deprived areas, with social and spatial segregation being a feature of post-industrial urban areas. ⋯ There is local variation in the pattern of problems and in implementation of national policies. In UK after 1997, New Labour policy aimed to promote a fair and cost-effective distribution of resources and improved availability and quality of treatment services and local policing. Tensions appeared between the drive to meet national targets and local perceptions of need. Ideas of localism, promoting market solutions and flexibility in provision, are now gaining ground in English social policy with the arrival of a Coalition (Conservative/Liberal Democrat) Government. These, together with an emphasis on abstinence and recovery, raise questions about the future adequacy of (a) attention to marginalised problems and stigmatised groups and (b) the distribution of resources in a context of severe fiscal restraint.