Hampshire County Council renews drug and alcohol rehab plan

This comes as ketamine use in young adults appears to be spiking.

Under its responsibility to commission drug and alcohol treatment services and due to the present contract expiring on June 30, 2025, Hampshire County Council has renewed its contract for the exact sum of £78,108,000.

This binds the council to continue providing these services between July 1, 2025 and March 31, 2032.

READ MORE: Four arrested after large quantity of drugs found at Winchester house

Alcohol-related harm costs an estimated £21.5bn nationally (Image: Beer)

The programme will be funded by the public health grant and other available national grant funding and will continue providing four key services.

These include specialist services for children and young people up to 25-years-old, adult treatment services, including psychosocial and medical interventions delivered at physical treatment hubs, and support for people who are impacted by someone else’s drug and alcohol use.

The contract will also include pharmacy drug treatment services, such as the issuing of naloxone, an opiate reversal medication that prevents drug overdoses for people who are injecting drugs, and the provision of opiate substitute therapy to people using heroin and want to come off the heroin so they’ll prescribe methadone as a replacement.

Alcohol and drugs cause some of the leading risk factors for the overall burden of disease in the UK and are associated with cardiovascular disease, some cancers and liver disease.

SEE MORE: Two men charged with supplying drugs after Winchester arrest

It is estimated every year that the social and economic costs of alcohol-related harm amount to £21.5bn, while harm from illicit drug use costs £19.3bn.

These include costs associated with deaths, the NHS, crime and, in the case of alcohol, lost productivity.

As well as the impact on health outcomes, drug and alcohol use is often associated with acquisitive crime, violent crime, domestic abuse, unemployment, and homelessness.

In Hampshire, an estimated 4,023 people are using illicit opiates or crack cocaine and 11,625 adults are dependent on alcohol.

It is estimated that 52 per cent of people using opiates or crack are currently not accessing treatment in Hampshire.

Approximately 800 children and young people access treatment and support.

Hampshire County Council officers indicated that these young people are consuming mainly alcohol and cannabis, but there is a “worrying” increase in the use of ketamine.

HCC officers said: “What we are seeing, which is a little bit worrying, is the increased use of other drugs such as ketamine, which is quite concerning because of the physical health side effects of using that drug.

“We are working quite hard on how we can support people better.”