Drug Demand Profiles

Around three million people in England and Wales report using drugs each year, putting themselves at risk and driving a violent and exploitative supply chain including through so-called ‘recreational’ drug use. Most ‘recreational’ users are sheltered from the social consequences of the drugs trade – the serious violence, human exploitation, severe addiction and crime – which are often felt by those living in more deprived parts of our country or overseas. This is part of a harmful cycle where drug use is normalised; adults using drugs socially often live relatively typical and otherwise healthy lives and may not recognise their role in fuelling the drugs trade or influencing and damaging the behaviour of others, including children.

Drug use among children and young adults is particularly concerning. Following fifteen years of sustained decline in the use of drugs, since 2012 there has been an increase in the proportion of 16 to 24-year olds reporting use of both cannabis and Class A Drug use by young people risks worse immediate and long-term outcomes, including health, educational attainment and involvement in criminal activity.

In 2021 the UK Government published a 10-year drugs strategy “From harm to hope: A 10 year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives”. As a result of the new strategy, it was required that every local authority have a strong partnership that brings together all the relevant organisations and key individuals, and the West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership (WSDAP) was created with a statutory duty to follow the new national drug strategy: breaking drug supply chains, delivering a world-class treatment and recovery system and achieving a generational shift in the demand for drugs.

The WSDAP understand that to reduce local demand for drugs, it is necessary to work with local partnerships to conduct research activities to create local area profiles of resilience and risk factors of substance misuse for the diverse local geographies across the county, with the ambition to assign partnership leads to the identified priority areas of work resulting from such profiles.

Analysis of the size and scale of the illegal drugs market through partnership data will allow for a deeper and richer understanding of the supply and demand which in turn will provide additional child and adult safeguarding opportunities and present alternative options to tackling drugs supply for the long term.

Drug and Alcohol Partnership Needs Analysis 2024

As a core requirement of the National Combatting Drugs Unit, all Local Authorities are required to undertake a local level Needs Analysis to understand issues relating to reducing the harms of substance use in the community. This then informs local strategic plans and priorities, for local Combatting Drugs Partnerships. In West Sussex, this is named the Drug and Alcohol Partnership (DAP). This collaborative data summary of available partnership data was used in April 2024, by the West Sussex DAP to inform a collaborative discussion and aid in setting partnership priorities for 2024-2027.

West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership – Annual Progress Report

The past decade has seen a rise in overall drug use, a rise in drug and alcohol related deaths, and increased harms from substance use (e.g., polydrug use, homelessness and imprisonment, and changing patterns of socioeconomic deprivation). Dame Carol Black’s two-part review of drugs policy for the UK Government in 2020 showed that progressive funding cuts had been detrimental treatment and recovery services, that commissioning had become fragmented, and partnerships between local authorities, health, housing, employment support and criminal justice agencies had deteriorated.

In response, the Government published its 10-year drug strategy, From Harm to Hope in 2021, and in 2022 mandated Local Authority areas to establish a local Combating Drugs Partnership (CDP). A CDP is a multi-agency forum that provides a single setting for understanding and addressing the shared challenges related to local drug and alcohol-related harms. Our local CDP is called the West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership (WS DAP) and is required to undertake a multi-agency needs analysis, develop local plans, and report on progress to central Government. Below is a progress report for the WS DAP from 2023/24.

Downloads

Drug Demand Profiles

Drug and Alcohol Partnership Needs Analysis 2024

West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Partnership – Annual Progress Report

For other reports relating to substance misuse in West Sussex, please visit our substance misuse page.

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