Conservatives pledge 20,000 drug rehab places
The Conservative Party has continued its campaign to win over inner city voters with new pledges on rehabilitation for drug addicts.
Both Iain Duncan Smith and Oliver Letwin are campaigning in Leeds to promote their policy ambitions for crime reduction through drug rehabilitation.
At present there are around 2000 abstinence-based rehab places available for people addicted to hard drugs, and the Conservative Party has promised to boost this number to 20,000. This would provide places for young people convicted of crimes linked to drug abuse, who would be expected to seek rehabilitation.
The Conservatives has previously costed this expansion at a little under half a billion pounds a year, and has discussed taking this money out of other health services to pay for it. The opposition leader is focusing on reduced crime and disorder as the main benefit of reducing drug abuse, but he is unlikely to take the money from police services after pledging new 40,000 police officers for the UK.
Lord Victor Adebowale, chief executive of Turning Point, a social care charity and the country’s largest substance misuse treatment agency, has welcomed the Conservative Party’s recognition of the value of treatment, though he has warned that good intentions and money do not always get results, and particularly warned about troubles with compulsion.
The pledge on new police comes as the party attempts to top the rise in police numbers seen under the present government, and as they attempt to capitalise on the fear of crime, particularly in the cities.
The Government continues to argue that crime as a whole has fallen, but high profile crimes such as shootings have risen, and have added to concerns that the country is becoming more violent.
Oliver Letwin, who recently gave a speech about creating a more neighbourly society, is promoting American style zero tolerance policing so as to empower local communities to improve their own affairs.
Zero tolerance would see a higher focus on smaller crimes such as vandalism and antisocial behaviour. This would mean reversing a trend in policing that has recently seen police chiefs claim that they are less concerned with enforcing minor crimes such as possession of cannabis.
