British-Irish Council:  Misuse of Substances

Ministerial Statements – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 1:00 pm on 8 September 2014.

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Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP 1:00, 8 September 2014

I wish to make the following statement on the ninth British-Irish Council misuse of substances ministerial meeting that took place in Dublin Castle on Friday 27 June 2014.

I apologise for the delay in making the statement to the Assembly.  Unfortunately, the timing of the meeting and the start of recess meant that this is the earliest opportunity to make the statement to the Assembly.  Junior Minister Jennifer McCann MLA and I represented the Northern Ireland Executive at the meeting.  This statement has been agreed with junior Minister McCann and I am making it on behalf of us both.

(Mr Deputy Speaker [Mr Dallat] in the Chair)

The Minister of State with responsibility for primary care, Alex White TD, represented the Irish Government and chaired the meeting.  Norman Baker, Minister of State for Crime Prevention, represented the UK Government.  Roseanna Cunningham, Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, represented the Scottish Government.  The Welsh Government were represented by Dr Mark Drakeford, Minister for Health and Social Services.  Jersey was represented by the Health and Social Services Minister, Deputy Anne Pryke.  Guernsey was represented by the Minister for the Home Department, Deputy Peter Gillson, and the Isle of Man was represented by the Minister for Home Affairs, Juan Watterson.

The main thematic discussion at the meeting focused on "Changing Trends in Drug Use — Current Patterns and Responses" with a particular emphasis on cannabis, new psychoactive substances and the misuse of prescribed and illicit medicines.  We noted the importance of addressing the supply of such substances and agreed on the value of national and international collaboration to intercept these and prevent the trafficking of illicit and illegal drugs, medicines, new psychoactive substances and the materials used to make these substances, which are known as drug precursors.  We identified the need to respond quickly and effectively on the emergence of new psychoactive substances and the need to promptly and proactively control and ban these substances when there is evidence of harm.

The issue of cannabis farms was discussed and Ministers shared information about innovative approaches to detecting cannabis production, including cannabis factories in residential areas, such as sharing information between energy companies, landlords, fire services and awareness campaigns.  We also discussed ways to tackle the misuse and diversion of prescribed medicines.  This is a particular issue in Northern Ireland and it was very useful to discuss the work we are undertaking on this issue and hear the experience of other jurisdictions.  In particular, we highlighted the role of good prescribing practices combined with enforcement and raising awareness of the dangers of misusing prescribed medicines.

We shared information on the trends in drug misuse in each jurisdiction, and all Ministers noted the importance of the media — and social media in particular — in engaging with people about the dangers of substance misuse and promoting harm reduction messages, as well as signposting people to prevention, early intervention, and treatment and support services.  The need to reach out to and educate and inform young people was noted as being particularly important in preventing harm and stopping misuse at an early stage.

In addition to discussing drug misuse, we also shared information on alcohol misuse policies.  Each jurisdiction recognised the impact alcohol misuse has and highlighted the need to raise awareness and prioritise tackling this issue.  We discussed prevention, education, early intervention and treatment and support as well as the importance of using licensing laws to reduce the accessibility, availability, and affordability of alcohol.  In particular, we discussed the potential public benefits of an approach such as minimum unit pricing.

At the meeting we also reviewed the good work that has been carried out by this sectoral group over the last year.  This work has focused on prevention and education, tackling the impact of parental substance misuse on children, which is also known as hidden harm, and the role of online support services and telephone helplines.  We agreed that this work stream provided a very useful forum for sharing the detailed expertise and knowledge of those involved in the drugs sector across the British-Irish Council area.  It was also noted that, in addition to exploring specific themes in depth, each meeting has facilitated the exchange of information on wider policy developments and initiatives.

We therefore agreed the work programme for the group going forward over the next year, which will include addressing the issue of alcohol and drug misuse in an ageing cohort and the development and implementation of Naloxone programmes to reduce deaths from opioid overdoses.  The next official level meeting of the group will be held in Scotland in September 2014 and the next ministerial meeting will be held in mid-2015.  The group will continue to link and share information informally between meetings to the benefit of the effort against drug and alcohol misuse in all jurisdictions.

Photo of Maeve McLaughlin Maeve McLaughlin Sinn Féin

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle.  I thank the Minister for his statement on what is a hugely important issue.  Specifically, Minister, I request your thoughts on an issue around which there has been much debate, namely the recent tragedies connected with legal highs and, particularly, the drug being referred to as Speckled Red or Cherry Red, and some of the very positive work that Belfast City Council carried out in the removal of these substances from the shops.  I ask the Minister specifically to intervene and use his office to ensure that local authorities pick up on the existing power to make sure that these are taken off our shelves.

I also specifically refer to the ongoing debate around detoxification and rehab.  The Minister will be all too aware of some of the debates in and around the Western Trust area.  Given that this is a British-Irish Council paper and that there has been recent discussion at the North/South parliamentary forum on developing all-Ireland approaches to this, I ask specifically for his intervention on the detox facility in Muff, County Donegal, which has effectively been a storeroom because there is no service-level agreement with the health authorities in the North.

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

I will deal with detoxification first.   Certainly, that is a discussion that can be had with the Department of Health and my counterpart.  Indeed, I am aware that we also have an excellent facility in Newry that is being run by the voluntary sector.  We can look at how best we can progress these things.  We had an all-Ireland conference on alcohol and the problems arising from that, which was the first of its kind, in Armagh some time ago.  That was a very successful conference.  I am happy to continue to engage in the discussions on all of that.

There have been quite a number of deaths as a result of Speckled Red, Green Rolex and all of that, and that has been quite well publicised.  Regrettably, many of those drugs are still out there and still on the market.  It is important to get out the message of just how dangerous they are and how dangerous to a community the people who supply those drugs are.  We must always drive that message home, because many of these people do not come from outside a community, they come from within a community and are supplying poison to the children of those communities.  That poison has caused the death of many people, in particular young people, who have taken those drugs.

The psychoactive substances are termed by some "legal highs", We need to get away from the notion that they are in some way legal.  Psychoactive substances have a danger.  Calling them "legal highs" perhaps gives people a notion that they are in some way less dangerous.  We need to be very clear that psychoactive substances can cause very traumatic reactions in people, including causing death.  We need to discourage people from using them.  I am happy to take up and carry out the suggestion that we correspond with councils to indicate to them the success of the Belfast City Council work on head shops.

Photo of Jim Wells Jim Wells DUP

The Minister is acutely aware of the problems caused to our community by cheap alcohol.  Many of us in the House believe that the only solution is some form of minimum pricing.  Can he give us an update on the situation regarding that suggestion?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

Thankfully, it is not just many in this House but many in the Houses in Scotland and Wales and in Dáil Éireann who think that that is the case.  Each of those areas is considering moving forward on the minimum pricing of alcohol.  Unfortunately, England is somewhat falling behind, still deciding what it should do and perhaps procrastinating.  We are keen to move ahead.  We have had the work carried out by Sheffield.  That is now with the Department, and the indications are that we should move ahead.  The Scottish Government have been taken to court.  They won their case in Scotland, and they are now being taken to the European courts as a means of delaying this.  That should not prevent us starting work that would, in the first instance, engage in a consultation process with the public.

I recall very well having to attend the emergency department with my learning-disabled brother a number of years ago, and we sat until 3.00 am before he got his bed.  I spoke to the sister later in the evening when things had quietened down, and I said, "I make the observation that there seem to be a lot of people here who have drink on them".  She said, "Yes, over half of them would have drink on them".  I said, "But this is the middle of the week.  This is Wednesday night".  She said, "It is the same every night of the week, because drink is so cheap".  The message sank in with me way back then that it was something that we needed to act on.  The price of drink encourages an awful lot of the social problems that we have and causes an awful lot of the problems in our health service, and people are destroying themselves with it.  It is an area that we will have to act on, and I thank the Member for raising that important issue.

Photo of Fearghal McKinney Fearghal McKinney Social Democratic and Labour Party 1:15, 8 September 2014

I thank the Minister.  He is relaying valuable discussions to the Floor.  Can I concentrate on prescription drugs?  Given the wider financial and health pressures, there is a financial as well as a health imperative in terms of prescription drugs.  So, in terms of best practice, can the Minister point to robust action that is being taken so that those who are meant to get the drugs get the value of them, the taxpayer gets the best value for money and the potential is at least limited for those who are getting them to abuse them?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

The Member mentions a very difficult problem, particularly for the GPs who are on the front line.  People very often come to a primary care practice needing help, and they receive drugs, and that helps them.  In some instances, they are given pain relief, and people can become addicted to painkillers.  In some instances, people who have been going through mental health trauma receive benzodiazepines, and they very often become addicted to them.  Doctors are trying, in many instances, to take people off drugs, and I am getting letters from some MLAs expressing concern about that because individuals have gone to them.  We need to ensure that GPs are encouraged to stay the course in the work that they are engaging in, because it is not in the long-term interests of the individual to stay on a drug that they have become reliant on.  It is important that we work together on those issues. 

There is another problem in that many people buy drugs over the Internet.  Those may be similar drugs, but we do not know the quality of them.  They have not gone through all of our licensing procedures.  We have a problem with people who take prescription drugs.  Twenty-one per cent of people report having used sedatives and tranquilisers, and 22% have used antidepressants, with around one in 10 having used them last year.  That is the scale of people's drug use.  Not all of them need to be using those drugs, but not all of them understand that they do not need to use the drugs.

Photo of Jo-Anne Dobson Jo-Anne Dobson UUP

I also thank the Minister for his statement.  Unfortunately, Minister, as we know, despite many campaigns, there remains a damaging stigma attached to substance misuse, and no one can have failed to be moved by the recent steps taken by a brave mother to show, through the media, the last photos of her dying son.  Minister, what are you doing to highlight the grave dangers of substance abuse, especially among our young people?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

I join Ms Dobson in paying tribute to that mother.  It is absolutely harrowing to see a fine-looking young man and see what he was left with at the end of it.  It was absolutely appalling and heart-wrenching that anyone should go through that.

In terms of our Department's response, we have the new strategic direction (NSD) phase 2, and that is a five-year strategic plan set out to address the harm related to alcohol and drug misuse in Northern Ireland.  We have allocated approximately £8 million to its implementation for each year.  That involves, in some instances, public information campaigns, and we are looking at prices and promotions and at access and availability. Indeed, I was down in Mrs Dobson's constituency last Monday at the invitation of the local Member of Parliament, David Simpson, and met REACT.  Absolutely fantastic work is being carried out by that organisation, which works with young people.  The organisation raised the issue of education and of getting into schools.  We and the Department of Education need to do some work on that, and there needs to be a discussion on how we can ensure that we are absolutely working as closely together as we should be to fight this scourge. 

There is no doubt that the messages to people on drugs are ever more important.  Some people always refer to it as being about young people; we have actually a bigger problem with 25- to 34-year-olds than we have with 18- to 25-year-olds.  Of course, that has happened because those people have got themselves hooked on drugs at a younger age.  There is a real problem amongst that age group.  These are not youngsters who are going out there and sampling for the first time; these are long-term users.  We have had people in their forties who have died recently from the misuse of drugs.  One of the problems with psychoactive substances is that people take them in large quantities, they do not get the kick that they expect and they find that, by the time that it does kick in, their bodies have started to overheat.  They cannot stop it as they have taken the drugs at that stage and the damage has been done.  It is really frightening that those people are overheating and that they are dying awful deaths from overheating.  The public need to know that that is the score.  Young people and those who use those drugs need to know the dangers of them.

Photo of Kieran McCarthy Kieran McCarthy Alliance

Like others, I welcome the statement this afternoon, particularly the commitment to prevention, early intervention and treatment, not only for drug users but for alcohol abusers.  We pay tribute to all the groups in Northern Ireland that work diligently and consistently in this field.  It is not an easy task, and they work day and night to overcome it.  Can the Minister assure the House that, despite all the financial pressures at this time, funding will continue to all those groups engaged in trying to overcome this scourge for all our communities?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

The truthful answer is "No, I can't".  That is one of the issues that I raised.  It is certainly an area where I do not want to see cuts taking place.  I do not think that it is appropriate for cuts to take place in that area, but that is one of the things that is currently being given consideration.  We will look to the October monitoring round to see whether we can ensure that the cuts are less critical than they currently would be, but, at this moment, we do not have holy grails in the Department where those cuts do not extent to.  We need to ensure that, as far as possible, we can mitigate the cuts.  I hope that the parties in the Executive will assist me in coming to an agreement that will ensure that that will be the case.

Photo of Pam Cameron Pam Cameron DUP

I welcome the Minister's statement to the House this afternoon.  I also welcome the information sharing that is going on about the important subject of substance misuse.  Could the Department have done more to raise awareness of substances such as Speckled Cherries?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

Speckled Cherries, Green Rolex and so forth have been a very significant issue.  Last year in east Belfast alone, we witnessed how, over a couple of months, nine young people, I think it was, lost their life.  As soon as the Department became aware of this substance being available in Northern Ireland and its potential links to the number of deaths, the Chief Medical Officer issued an alert to all key stakeholders, including alcohol and drug services, on the same day.  In addition, the Public Health Agency issued a range of information to the media and the public and appeared on a number of programmes.  It should be noted that it goes across a wide range of socio-economic groups.  The majority of those who lost their life in that instance were over the age of 25.

Given the nature of drugs, the only safe option is not to take any substance.  When you take a substance, you cannot know what its effects on you will be.  So it is important that people avoid taking drugs in the first instance. 

There are people out there who profit from drugs.  We need to ensure that those people are exposed and that communities report them to the police so that they go through due process for engaging in that behaviour.  We must always make it clear that drug use is unacceptable, damaging and harmful.  Particularly when taken with alcohol, the dangers of drugs spike.  We will continue to put those messages out there and to take on those who seek to profiteer through drugs. 

I am often critical of the media, but they have been very helpful in getting a lot of these messages out, and I encourage them to continue to take an interest in these subjects.  Getting the messages out there on key programmes and key news programme etc and having people made aware of the risks that they are putting themselves at is critical.

Photo of Mickey Brady Mickey Brady Sinn Féin

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle.  I thank the Minister for his statement and pay tribute to the Cuan Mhuire centre in my constituency, which does so much to help people deal with alcohol and drug-related issues. 

Minister, you mentioned prescription drugs, which have become an increasing problem.  These prescription drugs are readily available online and, without proper medical supervision, can be extremely dangerous.  We have already had fatalities in the North related to these prescription drugs.  Minister, do you think that enough is being done to counteract that particular avenue of access to prescription drugs?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

My Department does not look after the regulation of importing drugs, which is largely done through the Internet, but we work very closely with the authorities that do, and a remarkable amount of drugs are found and taken away from the end user as a result.  However, one can only imagine that there is a far greater amount of drugs coming through, and that makes it quite frightening in terms of its scale and the amount of drugs that are being imported illegally.  Those are prescription drugs or are similar to prescription drugs, but individuals may be taking drugs that are not properly licensed and that may contain things not in the prescription drug that they would like to use but that is not available to them.  They may contain other things that can cause them harm.  I encourage the public to desist from using such drugs. 

If someone has the problem of being addicted to prescription drugs, I would encourage them to talk to their primary care provider, pharmacist or doctor to try to work out a programme to wean them off.  The truth is that, unless you need a drug and it has been prescribed to you by a doctor, you should not take it.

Photo of Thomas Buchanan Thomas Buchanan DUP

I thank the Minister for his statement to the House today, especially in relation to psychoactive substances, which are a scourge on society.  Does the Minister feel that his Department is doing enough to identify new substances or trends in drug use?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

I think that more could be done and the Department will want to be active in that.  We have been corresponding with the Home Office on various courses of work that have happened in other countries and locations and are encouraging the Home Office to take actions that will help us to clamp down on a lot of these drugs.  We were to have a report in the springtime, but we were then told that it would come in September this year, and I hope that it will, because obviously we are in September now.  On the back of that, the national Government will be able to take strong actions to ensure that we can move much more quickly on removing these drugs from the market and take action against the people who are supplying those drugs.

Photo of Roy Beggs Roy Beggs UUP 1:30, 8 September 2014

The misuse of drugs, whether prescribed, over the counter or illegal, can adversely affect the health and mental well-being of those taking them.  The Minister's statement highlighted the particular problem in Northern Ireland of the "misuse and diversion of prescribed" drugs.  As well as looking at the drugs available over the Internet, will the Minister highlight what action his Department, GPs and pharmacists are taking to try to identify where prescribed drugs are being diverted to others at a cost to individuals' health and to our limited budget?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

Many legal and prescription drugs contain opiates, for example.  Individuals buy prescription drugs from people who indicated that they were unwell and had their doctor prescribe those drugs, which are broken up and used to supply the market.  Indeed, when there was a problem with drug dealers getting heroin, they were quick to do that.  We need to be aware that drug dealers are very sharp and are right up there when it comes to innovative ways to get their hands on product to sell.  We also need to be very innovative in how we challenge them.  Our primary care providers — GPs — have to be conscious of all that goes on when they prescribe some of these drugs.  They must seek to ensure that such drugs will be properly utilised and will not be used by individuals who will cause harm to others.  We are aware of these problems, and people are seeking to address them.  Those courses of work will continue.

Photo of George Robinson George Robinson DUP

I thank the Minister for his statement.  How can parents become more informed and aware of the illegal drugs that young people and others can avail themselves of?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

It is absolutely critical that parents keep themselves informed of drugs, alcohol misuse or the misuse of the Internet and that they provide support to their children.  Despite repeated warnings from the Public Health Agency (PHA), the PSNI and the Chief Medical Officer, it is clear that people continue to take these substances, risking their health and well-being.  Information on alcohol and drug misuse is included in the school curriculum as part of a broader life skills approach, and evidence shows that this is the best way to address the issue in schools.

I appreciate that some believe that we should have a hard-hitting media campaign to highlight the dangers of drug misuse, similar to those undertaken on road safety.  However, evidence shows that, at best, campaigns on substance misuse are ineffective.  Often, those who take drugs feel that such campaigns do not match their experience, and they therefore disregard them.  At worst, there is some evidence that such campaigns can increase awareness of available substances and lead to increased risk-taking and drug-seeking behaviours.  Therefore, we need to be very careful.  Our mantra must be:  do no harm.

I will ask the Public Health Agency to revisit the evidence base and look at how best it can continue to get the messages out there, particularly to young people, to ensure that they never start to take drugs and, therefore, do not become hooked on this scourge.

Photo of Jim Allister Jim Allister Traditional Unionist Voice

I return to the scourge of legal highs; I appreciate the misnomer that the Minister made a point about.  He may have answered my question because, in responding to Mr Buchanan, he turned his back on the House, and it was difficult to hear what he said.  Will he update the House on whether there has been any specific indication from the Westminster Government as to how and when they propose to update the Misuse of Drugs Act so that it might deal with today's situation as it pertains to legal highs?

I cannot resist asking, since I notice that the next meeting is in mid-2015:  does the Minister expect to be in office at that date?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

I do not know.  That is something for others to decide and I am happy to do the job when I am asked to do it.  In any event, the job in hand indicates that we have an issue and a problem now that we need to address.  We had corresponded with Westminster, which indicated that it was carrying out an investigation into all of this, with the intention of looking at whether legislation is appropriate.  That was to be concluded in the spring of this year; it is now to be concluded in September, so it should be weeks away at the latest.  Hopefully, we will get information very soon from Westminster on what the next steps are.  We have looked at actions that have taken place in New Zealand, the United States of America and the Republic of Ireland, where there has been greater success.  We encourage our Government to ensure that they are well placed to combat the supply of drugs and the individuals doing that so that we can act against them.

Photo of Gordon Dunne Gordon Dunne DUP

I thank the Minister for his statement on what is a very important issue.  I also take the opportunity to commend the work of the Forum for Action on Substance Abuse (FASA), which does an excellent job in north Down and the Ards area.  Will the Minister elaborate on what approaches have been taken elsewhere in the UK and in the Republic of Ireland to address the real scourge of legal highs?

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

Many head-shop products became illegal in the Republic of Ireland when its Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 was introduced.  That empowered gardaí to seek court orders to close shops suspected of selling drug-like products, with the onus on owners to prove that they are not doing so.  The United States of America has what is known as analogue legislation, which means that any new drug that acts in the same way as an already banned substance is automatically considered to be banned under the existing legislation.

New Zealand's plans were to regulate and license the new psychoactive substances (NPS) market.  However, it is reported that some of the first legal highs to be sold under licence in New Zealand were urgently pulled off the shelves after users reported adverse health effects.  Previously, they had been assessed by the Ministry of Health and, in August 2013, were judged to be of low enough risk to be sold to the public.  There are now 42 legal high products being sold in New Zealand under interim licences.  Suppliers paid £10,000 to register each product with the authorities, which evaluated calls to the National Poisons Centre and other reports of harm before granting approval. 

All these options are being considered by the Home Office's expert panel, although it is clear from discussions at the meeting that none of these approaches is a complete solution on its own.  Belfast City Council has led the way in being innovative in the United Kingdom by using existing legislation to remove materials from shops' premises.  I very much welcome the fact that the courts supported the council when that was challenged by the shops.

Photo of Barry McElduff Barry McElduff Sinn Féin

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle.  What direct or specific advice would the Minister or his Department give an MLA to pass on to a very distressed mother who contacted me on Friday evening to say that she had just found evidence of the wrongly named legal highs in her 17-year-old son's bedroom?  She has since found out that it was Magic Dragon, three grams of which cost £24.

Photo of Edwin Poots Edwin Poots DUP

I encourage her to speak to the legitimate authorities to pass on the name of whoever is supplying the drugs in the first instance.  If there is any concern that some of the drugs have been ingested, I encourage a health check.  I encourage her to engage with organisations that provide support and help to people who are using drugs or considering using drugs.

In all of this, we need to approach our young people, and others who are considering or are taking drugs, in a very sensitive way that sets out to try to help them.  It is not always about badgering and barking at people; it is about outlining to them what the risks and dangers are and perhaps other ways that they can enjoy themselves without taking drugs.  Quite a number of organisations available across Northern Ireland can provide support.  Mr Dunne commended one of them.  I commend that organisation and the others working very closely with communities to get positive messages out there and encourage people not to take drugs in the first instance.