• ::Joey Alizio Jr::

• Digg/nolimitdomains
• Flickr/outlaw_legendz
• Myspace/joeyalizio
• Facebook/::Joey Alizio Jr::
• Friendster/::Joey Alizio Jr::
• Virb/nolimitdomains
• Linkedin/nolimitdomains
• Twitter/nolimitdomains
• YouTube/nolimitdomains
• Last.fm/nolimitdomains
• Del.icio.us/nolimitdomains
• Wikipedia/nolimitdomains
• Wishlist/::Joey Alizio Jr::
• coComment/nolimitdomains
• iJigg/nolimitdomains
• PureVolume/nolimitdomains
• Kongregate/nolimitdomains
• Zaadz/nolimitdomains
• Technorati/nolimitdomains
• MyBlogLog/nolimitdomains
• Blog/::Joey Alizio Jr::
• MyYearbook/nolimitdomains
• Get your own Widget

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/27/drugsandalcohol

Thousands of problem drug users will face losing welfare benefit payments for up to six months if they repeatedly fail to participate in drug treatment programmes under "three strikes and you're out" proposals to be announced today.

The move to use the benefits system to encourage drug users to stay in treatment is likely to prove controversial, with some critics warning that cutting benefits could actually fuel crime as those affected steal more to fund their habit.

At present nearly 50,000 people who claim incapacity benefit, income support or jobseekers' allowance have "drug abuse" as their primary diagnosis as to why they cannot work.

The decision to dock benefits for failing to take part in treatment breaks new ground in the government's renewed welfare reform programme, which has already seen ministers float the idea that unemployed council tenants should lose their homes if they fail to look for work. Since the welfare reform legislation was passed last year the payment of benefits can be tied to new conditions about learning skills and seeking work.

The drug treatment plan is expected to affect the 6,000 new benefit claimants each year who are thought to be unemployed and problem users. When they attend their formal interview to discuss the steps they are taking to get back into work they will be told to attend a specialist treatment provider.

Those seeking to claim benefits will be specifically asked if they are off work because their doctor has diagnosed them as a problem drug user.

The Department for Work and Pensions sanctions specify that the first time they fail to turn up will result in a two-week benefit cut, the second time a four-week cut and a third offence will lead to their benefits being stopped for 26 weeks.

Roger Howard of the UK Drug Policy Commission, a drug reform charity, said last night he sympathised with the wish to get more people successfully completing drug treatment but the proposal raised many questions. "We would need solid evidence that this would not produce unintended consequences, particularly if benefits were stopped," he said.

The move is a central feature of the 10-year drug strategy to be unveiled today by three cabinet ministers, Jacqui Smith, Alan Johnson and Ed Balls. It will also include plans to intervene at the earliest possible opportunity to respond to the needs of an estimated 250,000 to 350,000 children who live in families with at least one parent who is a problem drug user.

It will include a new programme to support grandparents to take on caring responsibilities for children whose parents are devastated by drug use.

But the strategy will sweep away many of the previous precise targets for reducing different types of drug use. Critics say a new aim of providing only "minimum standards" of clinical treatment in prisons has been set so low as to prove a damning disclosure of the current situation. Drug education is also to be improved so that more schools are rated by Ofsted as giving effective lessons on dangers of drugs.

Proposals to freeze the assets of drug dealers on arrest rather than conviction have already been trailed by ministers.

But it will not include any announcement to reclassify cannabis from its present class C status. The home secretary is to wait for a recommendation from the government's advisory committee on the misuse of drugs which is expected at the end of April before making a decision.

The new drug strategy is expected to concentrate most effort on class A drug use, including heroin and cocaine.

The government's record since the £1.3bn a year drug strategy was put in place in 1998 is controversial. Ministers claim they have doubled the number of users in treatment with almost 80% remaining in treatment for more than 12 weeks and waiting times for a course down to 2½ weeks. Smith also claims drug-related crime is down 20%.

http://www.jackassworld.com/blog/2008/02/24/hour-11-recap/