Residents urged to take part in national drugs strategy (September 12, 2007)

Suffolk Coastal’s residents are being urged to take part in a national consultation exercise that will help the creation of future strategies to deal with and prevent drug abuse.

The Government has launched a consultation paper, Drugs: Our Community, Our Say, which aims to give everyone across the country their say in tackling the problem of drug abuse.

“This is being offered by the Government as an opportunity for everyone to help draw up a new strategy to deal with the drugs problem in this country. Time will tell whether the Government will listen to the results but I would urge our residents to take part as their views will be useful locally,” said Cllr Sherrie Green of the Suffolk Coastal Local Strategic Partnership.

“The information will be collected nationally but we have been promised that it will then be passed on to our Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership which will help us plan what needs to be done in our district.

“This could therefore be a chance to have your say at a national level, but more importantly help affect the way that things are being done locally by bodies like the police, the County Council and other key local organisations,” added Cllr Green.

A recent Ipsos MORI survey of residents in Suffolk Coastal reported that dealing or using of drugs is seen as a far smaller problem in this district than in the rest of Suffolk, and that there had been a big drop in concern about drugs use in the district compared to 2003.
  
The Government is offering two different ways for people to give their views. There is a 10 page summary leaflet which has only seven questions that people are asked to give their views on, while there is also a 58 page version with 52 questions.
 
Full details of the consultation can be found by going to:
drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk and the closing date for responses is October 19.