There has been some talk about the news that the Government is cutting spending on drug rehabilitation by £50 million over the next 3 years.
The story first appeared in the Telegraph here.
The fact is though that this is not a £50 million saving, it involves a net £400 million cost.
Studies have shown that for every £1 spent on drug rehabilitation £9 is saved. So removing £50 million from the budget will cost £450 million elsewhere, leaving a net cost of £400 million. Mind you not all the £450 million will be costs to the tax payer, quite a lot of it is the cost of crime.
Iain Dale also has this.
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4 comments:
ConHom highlighted this article in the Scotsman last week.
This is something which should be highlighted and used by CCHQ who have got to go after Brown on this.
We will not ever be able to tackle crime in this country seriously until we tackle our drug problem because they are intertwined. Annabel Goldie realised just how important the issue was and attached a figure £100 million to the fight against drug addiction in Scotland. This is a serious mistake by Brown on par with the slashing of the flood defence budget last year. If you know anyone from CCHQ, get them to realise it ASAP.
Oops, forgot the link.
ConHom diary
How nuts is this. Surely we should be spending more...
,,,, and legalising and taxing drugs so that we have even more money to help the addicts. Just like tobacco; I say use tested methods.
ChrisD, Yes indeed, and also Ian Duncan Smith has been going on about this too, In fact drug rehab was in our last manifesto as well. It saves money.
The story got to the Telegraph via a front bencher according to Iain Dale so hopefully they will press home on this.
City unslicker, interesting idea. I'd have to think about that though.
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