DRUGS & YOUTH

The Impact of Drugs among Young People in the UK from Functionalist Perspective

Table of Contents

Chapter 3: A Social Issue3

The impact on society3

Drugs related Crime4

Personal & Public Health Problems5

Chapter 4: Government Policy7

Historical Overview of drug control on Britain7

Current Government Policy7

Prevention & Intervention8

Conclusion & Recommendations10

References20

Chapter 3: A Social Issue

The impact on society

The economic recession of the early 1980s, exacerbated by Thatcherist monetarist policies and deindustrialisation, left many working class areas severely blighted by mass unemployment. McGregor (1989) noted badly affected cities like Liverpool and Glasgow that once had a strong manufacturing base, became symbols of economic decline. In the mid 1980's a study of young people and heroin use in the North of England (Pearson et al 1987a) found unemployment rates in excess of 40%. The extent and longevity of unemployment was unprecedented. Pearson suggested unemployment became so 'scandalously high' and access to housing so difficult, that it made it extremely difficult for young working class people to 'fashion meaningful identities' (Pearson 1987).

A study carried out in Sefton, Merseyside (Buchanan & Wyke 1987) to understand the extent and nature of drug use amongst probation 'clients' and make recommendations for drug policy and practice, identified long term unemployment and limited job prospects for young people as key factors. This work also identified that heroin was used by long term unemployed youth to help occupy 'a void in identity, purpose and meaning' (1987). In the early 1990s further research conducted with problem drug users in Bootle, Merseyside (Buchanan & Young:1995) found that limited social and economic opportunities for young people made it difficult for them to move away from drugs. This study highlighted how heroin had become an alternative to employment for a group of young people excluded from a shrinking labour market. The difficult socio-economic climate in industrial based cities across the UK had detrimentally impacted upon young unskilled people who struggled to secure employment (Buchanan & Young 2000).

Drugs related Crime

Over the entire last quarter of the 20th century the British drug problem worsened, despite the implementation of a variety of approaches and commitment of substantial criminal justice and other resources. The link between chronic use of expensive drugs and property crime makes this experience important for understanding trends in crime and justice in Britain. The worsening of the problem can be seen in the growing number of new heroin users each year over almost the entire period 1975-2000, on top of which was layered, starting in the late 1990s, the first major outbreak of chronic cocaine use. This was not the common pattern in Western Europe over that time and by 2000 the UK had Western Europe's most serious drug problem.

In Sefton area of Merseyside Probation in 1986, research not only found connections between unemployment and drug use, but also identified links with crime - 37% of probation clients had a drug problem and 81% were believed to be committing crime as a direct result of their drug dependence (Buchanan & ...