The partnership approach to drug misuse

Collaboration and partnership is central to this government's philosophy of modernisation and it is arguable that nowhere is it more apparent than in the strategic response to drug misuse. The need to build service capacity to meet the target of increasing the number of drug users in 'treatment' by 100% over the ten year period 1998-2008 has resulted in a plethora of partnership arrangements between public, private and voluntary sectors. Indeed the government views the third sector agencies as key players in relation to criminal justice responsibilities, 'playing a full role in supporting the effective management of offenders'. Historically, agencies within the National Health Service (NHS) and the voluntary sector have voice their unease in relation to allying themselves to the coercive treatment of drug misusing offenders, believing that it is an ethically inappropriate approach. Yet despite moral misgivings, the coalition between health services and criminal justice agencies is now a strategic imperative. Given such and unlikely marriage it is worth exploring how such a 'collaborative' arrangements have come into existence.