The CPS’ Prison and Addiction forum (PANDA) was set up in 2008. It provides an independent forum of debate about drugs policy for academics, practitioners, psychiatrists, and specialist commentators.
Its membership shares a common concern about the urgent need for policy reform. Despite unprecedented investment in the Labour Government’s ‘treatment works’ policy the last ten years has seen the number of hard addicts rise threefold.
For a detailed critique of Government drugs policy, click here.
PANDA’s purpose is to examine and compare both drug policy and addiction treatment here and in Europe. Our aim is to identify the reforms required in the UK to get our drug problem under control, to prevent drug use and to offer substance abusers the help and necessary care to combat their abuse. Countries like Sweden and Holland, whose drug problems are of a substantially lower order than the UK’s, demonstrate more straightforward and more balanced policies which focus on containing drug use and in which addiction care for recovery is encompassed in broader programmes of prevention, enforcement and public health.
PANDA Meetings:
Recent guest speakers include Professor Judith Harwin (currently advising on the Family Drug Courts Experiment) Edward Garnier MP and Professor Neil McKeganey. Meetings are attended by a range of practitioners and experts. PANDA members attend a range of All Party Parliamentary Groups, open ACMD and NTA meetings and NICE consultations, national and international conferences.
Recent Publications:
- The Phoney War on Drugs by Kathy Gyngell, 2009
- Inside Out: How to get drugs out of prison by Huseyin Djemil CPS, 2008
- Kathy Gyngell has been widely quoted in the recent media coverage of 'legal highs' and the ongoing debate about drugs policy in the UK - including The Times, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph. Her comment article for the Guardian's Comment is Free was 'Editor's Pick' and was also highlighted by Melanie Phillips on The Spectator blog. In addition, the Public Accounts Committee's recent criticisms of the Home Office's drugs policy echoes those put forward in Kathy's Gyngell's CPS report The Phoney War on Drugs.
- Kathy Gyngell was quoted in a prominent news feature in The Times on the dangers of prescribing methadone to heroin addicts. The issue was also covered in a leading article in the newspaper.
- Kathy Gyngell on The Guardian’s Comment is Free site on the closure of the UK’s only residential rehab centre for young people.
- Kathy Gyngell’s research on methadone addiction featured in The Observer
Read Kathy Gyngell's blog on drugs policy here.