Head of Substance Misuse Programme at Public Health Wales, Josie Smith, has given evidence to a House of Commons inquiry in Westminster.
Josie attended a meeting of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee on Drug Policy on 11 June to talk about harms and effective interventions for illicit drug use.
Josie said: “It was a privilege to be able to contribute to this inquiry. The Substance Misuse Programme has developed and maintains a pragmatic and evidence-based public health approach with innovative and effective interventions to underpin this focus at a strategic level both nationally and at a UK level. I look forward to the report and recommendations from the Inquiry”
The remit and questioning of the Health and Social Care Select Committee on Drug Policy included:
- What is the extent of health harms resulting from drug use?
- What are the reasons for both the initial and the continued, sustained use of drugs? This refers to the wide spectrum of use, from high-risk use to the normalisation of recreational use
- How effective and evidence-based are strategies for prevention and early intervention in managing and countering the drivers of use? This includes whether a whole-system approach is taken
- How effective and evidence-based is treatment provision? This refers to both healthcare services and wider agencies, and the extent to which joined-up care pathways operate.
- Is policy sufficiently geared towards treatment? This includes the extent to which health is prioritised, in the context of the Government’s criminal justice-led approach.
- What would a high-quality, evidence-based response to drugs look like?
- What responses to drugs internationally stand out as particularly innovative and / or relevant, and what evidence is there of impact in these cases?
The evidence provided can be viewed on the UK Parliament website,including a video of the evidence session.