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What's New on Cocaine Addiction Treatment
By the end of 2009 Deirdre Boyd* CEO - Addiction Recovery Foundation send a report to the HOME AFFAIRS COMMITTEE - COCAINE on the UK current situation and facts on Cocaine Addiction Treatment.
What follows is a brief selected summary of the report submitted.
1. People can and do recover from using all types of cocaine, and lead drug-free lives.
2. There is no government-approved medication to support cocaine treatment, neither in the UK nor US.
3. Statements from UK treatment centres’ confirm their patients achieve drug-free lives.
4. These statements show that 50-77% of drug patients in UK treatment centres were using cocaine.
5. However, a maximum of 20% used only cocaine; the vast majority are polydrug users, including alcohol.
6. These successful centres do not treat cocaine users differently to users of other drugs.
7. They report success rates for cocaine users as being similar to users of other drugs.
8. Empirical research confirms that the treatment offered, a combination of individual and group counselling with 12 step groups, offers most improvements in patients.
9. Users (UK) of powder cocaine are denied equal access to effective treatment as is given to heroin and crack cocaine users; users of other drugs are similarly discriminated against.
10. This is despite the fact that a significant number of powder cocaine addicts deteriorate to using crack; treating the former is a treatment in itself and prevention of years of harms towards the latter.
* Deirdre Boyd is CEO of the Addiction Recovery Foundation (charity no 328133) and cofounder/organiser of the UK/European Symposia on Addictive Disorders, the largest annual addiction-treatment events in the UK and Europe (www.ukesad.org) offering ‘gold standard’ IC&RC CEUs. She is editor of Addiction Today, the most popular alcohol- and drug-treatment publication in the UK. She is a member of the Centre for Policy Studies’ Prisons and Addictions think-tank, a founder member of the Recovery Group and of the Recovery Academy, and cofounded the Unity Group which pioneered Addictions & Misuse Treatment Weeks. In 2006, ICAA awarded her the Dr Vincent Bakeman memorial award for Outstanding Community Service.
What follows is a brief selected summary of the report submitted.
1. People can and do recover from using all types of cocaine, and lead drug-free lives.
2. There is no government-approved medication to support cocaine treatment, neither in the UK nor US.
3. Statements from UK treatment centres’ confirm their patients achieve drug-free lives.
4. These statements show that 50-77% of drug patients in UK treatment centres were using cocaine.
5. However, a maximum of 20% used only cocaine; the vast majority are polydrug users, including alcohol.
6. These successful centres do not treat cocaine users differently to users of other drugs.
7. They report success rates for cocaine users as being similar to users of other drugs.
8. Empirical research confirms that the treatment offered, a combination of individual and group counselling with 12 step groups, offers most improvements in patients.
9. Users (UK) of powder cocaine are denied equal access to effective treatment as is given to heroin and crack cocaine users; users of other drugs are similarly discriminated against.
10. This is despite the fact that a significant number of powder cocaine addicts deteriorate to using crack; treating the former is a treatment in itself and prevention of years of harms towards the latter.
* Deirdre Boyd is CEO of the Addiction Recovery Foundation (charity no 328133) and cofounder/organiser of the UK/European Symposia on Addictive Disorders, the largest annual addiction-treatment events in the UK and Europe (www.ukesad.org) offering ‘gold standard’ IC&RC CEUs. She is editor of Addiction Today, the most popular alcohol- and drug-treatment publication in the UK. She is a member of the Centre for Policy Studies’ Prisons and Addictions think-tank, a founder member of the Recovery Group and of the Recovery Academy, and cofounded the Unity Group which pioneered Addictions & Misuse Treatment Weeks. In 2006, ICAA awarded her the Dr Vincent Bakeman memorial award for Outstanding Community Service.