Action plan on drug-related harm prioritises treatment

A detailed action plan setting out how drug-related harm will be tackled on the Isle of Man has been published by the government.

Five objectives have been laid out, chief among them a desire to prioritise treatment over criminalisation.

But the plan comes with a warning that funding for existing support services remains "insecure" and needs urgent attention. The report also points to a lack of data on drug use across the Island, making it harder to target support where it is needed most.

The five-point plan, to be overseen by the Community Safety Partnership, proposes building a central intelligence system drawing on police, health data, and 'third sector' information to track drug use.

The action plan, published on Monday, outlines five key objectives:

• Reducing drug-related harm across all age groups
• Improving how easy it is to access support services
• Changing public attitudes through education
• Prioritising treatment and diversion over criminalisation
• Building more robust systems for gathering, and using, information.

A key issue highlighted in the report was the lack of funding to groups and departments tasked with tackling drug and addiction-related issues.

Among those flagged for lack of funding is Motiv8, a charity which runs numerous schemes on the Island related to drug and addiction harm.

The report said a funding gap of between £30,000 and £50,000 annually is needed to maintain its Drug Arrest Referral Scheme, which offers health assessments to people arrested for drug offences.

The charity's Family Service - which supports relatives affected by substance misuse - requires funds of around £150,000 a year, while its gambling support service needs around £120,000 a year; Motiv8's SOAR project, which supports people at risk of criminal exploitation, requires around £50,000 annually.

As part of its plan to build more robust information systems, the goverment is proposing to introduce a a new drug-death review process.

It also plans to introduce wastewater testing in order to measure community drug consumption and track trends, alongside a public survey looking at children and young people's experiences of drugs and alcohol.

The first in-depth drug use study to be undertaken - described in the plan as a "deep dive" - will focus on cocaine and ketamine, both of which have seen a huge rise in importation in a decade.

The plan's progress will be reported quarterly, with an annual update to Tynwald.

An interim report published in November, previously flagged the prison system as "at full capacity", emphasising the need for alternatives to incarceration for minor drug-related offences.

It cited the Drug Arrest Referral Scheme and the Problem Solving Court as existing routes into treatment, rather than punishment - a theme the new action plan builds on with firmer commitments on funding and legislation.

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