The proposed cuts, phased over the next three years, would hit the “Pooled Treatment Budget” (PTB), the Government’s main funding stream for drug treatment, which for this year is £398 million.

Alison Keating, the acting regional manager for the Government’s National Treatment Agency in the South East, disclosed the scale of the proposed cuts in an email sent to colleagues across the country.

Admitting that there have been “some understandable concerns” about future levels of funding, she adds: “Initial indications have been that there will be a £50 million cut over the three years.”

The period involved is 2008 to 2011, the years covered by the Comprehensive Spending Review of government funding to be announced in the autumn by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor.

The PTB receives its funding from the Home Office and the Department of Health. Any cuts will awaken fears that overall expenditure on health and crime will suffer in what is already expected to be a tough public spending round.

The PTB channels money to locally based Drug Action Teams which make funding decisions partly based on deprivation levels. The teams, of which there are 150 in England, then commission services in their area.

Spending on drug treatment programmes is seen as politically sensitive because of the links between drug-taking and crime. Mr Brown this month signalled a clear about-turn from the Blair era, as well as making a strong appeal to Middle Britain, by announcing a review of the contentious decision taken by David Blunkett, the former home secretary, three years ago to downgrade cannabis from Class B to Class C.

Labour government sources made it clear that Mr Blunkett’s decision was likely to be reversed. The announcement was quickly followed by a string of cabinet ministers including Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, admitting that they had tried cannabis in their youth.

Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said last night: “When he was chancellor, Gordon Brown always used to hide the bad news in the small print. Now he’s Prime Minister, we’re finding the same thing.

“He’s been making high profile announcements, like his war on cannabis, but the reality is very different. This reeks of hypocrisy.”

Martin Barnes, the chief executive of the charity DrugScope, said: “It is extremely concerning that the expectation among officials is of cuts in funding. The Prime Minister has spoken of the need to improve drug treatment, but this is difficult to reconcile with behind-the-scenes discussion of cuts being on the table.”

From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/29/nbrown129.xml

On Aug 02, 06 Heath Direct posted- Risks of taking drugs compared- Scientific review of dangers of drugtaking- Drugs, the real deal

Health Direct reproduced the first ranking based upon scientific evidence of harm to both individuals and society. It was devised by labour government advisers – then ignored by labour ministers because of its controversial findings.

The analysis was carried out by David Nutt, a senior member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, and Colin Blakemore, the chief executive of the Medical Research Council. Copies of the report have been submitted to the Home Office, which has failed to act on the conclusions.

The rankings concluded that Alcohol (Legal) was ranked at number Five, Tobacco (Legal) at number Nine and Cannabis (Class C) at Number 11.