National Tackling Drugs Week: The carrot and stick approach to addicts

Jun 13 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

In the last of a series of features to mark National Tackling Drugs Week, reporter SAM CASEY finds out about the Kirklees Drug Interventions Programme

THE aim of the Kirklees Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) is simple: Get offending addicts out of crime and into treatment.

“It’s a carrot and stick approach,” says joint commissioning manager Mohammed Sidat.

“The carrot is that you will get support and help if you are willing to engage with us. The stick is that you will be arrested and brought back into custody if you carry on offending.”

DIP is a key part of the Government’s strategy for tackling drugs and reducing crime.

Introduced in 2003, the programme aims to get criminals with a drug problem out of the cycle of offending to fund their habit and into treatment for the problem and to give them help to rebuild their lives.

As soon as someone is arrested for what is called a ‘trigger offence’ – an acquisitive crime like theft – they are tested for class A drug use.

Failing to take part in the test is an offence in itself.

Anyone who tests positive is obliged to have an appointment with a drugs engagement worker from the DIP team who tries to determine their level of dependency.

“It is a fact that engaging with someone at the earliest point in the criminal justice system is the most effective way to deal with them,” says Mr Sidat.

The DIP team works with the courts so that, if given bail for the trigger offence, the defendant has to attend DIP appointments.

Mr Sidat says: “We want to ensure that they have as little opportunity as possible to offend again.

“If the individual fails to attend the appointments, they are taken back to court.”