escalating violence in our community Become a member of the Sensible Sentencing Trust

Mouseover links for full page descriptions

Archived Press Releases 2008 11th November 2008

Sensible Sentencing acknowledges Sensible Vision

(11th November 2008)

Sensible Sentencing congratulates the National Committee for Addiction Treatment (NCAT) on the release of their Book, "Investing in Addiction Treatment", a resource for funders, planners, purchasers and policy makers.

SST's Spokesperson on Drug Issues, Christine Davey, welcomes their common sense approach which includes strategies which, if implemented, will save billions of dollars in drug-related cost to NZ society, and reduce immeasurable heartache for affected families.

It acknowledges the need for ambulances at the top of the cliff instead of at the bottom, where they are currently queued up.

Their findings include:

• increasingly research demonstrates that addiction prevention, education and treatment programmes are effective in saving lives, are cost effective and contribute to the reduction of crime and illness;
• (we need) high quality treatment that is responsive to the needs of consumers, their families and the wider community;
• the sooner there is an intervention in the course of the development of a substance-misuse problem, the more likely a positive outcome can be achieved;
• screening and brief intervention can be provided in non-specialist settings by various sectors of the community, and most importantly for families with substance-abusers in their midst:
• Research indicates that coerced treatment is as effective as "voluntary" treatment.

Ms Davey finds it ironic that this Book has been funded by the Ministry of Health, given that the former Government was more interested in telling people how to use illicit drugs 'safely' than stopping them from using them at all.

Too much time has been wasted doing nothing; the new National-led Government must take these findings on board and start implementing them.

It's NOT OK to ignore this issue any longer.

Regards,

Christine Davey
Sensible Sentencing Spokesperson on Drug Issues,
mobile 027 6376166