From crime to recovery: the reframing of British drugs policy?

During the last five years, there has been an important shift in the policy discourse around drugs issues. This article reviews the key changes and continuities in British drugs policy since the mid 1990s. It examines the crime reduction focus of the previous Labour government and the processes by which the recovery discourse came to dominate the current policy framework under the coalition government in 2010. The shifts in policy and practice will be explored in relation to how the drugs problem was framed and re-framed over time and how shifts within the wider social, political and economic contexts have impacted upon these developments. It is argued that although the moves towards a recovery-based policy represent significant changes, there are powerful continuities and remnants of previous policies and structures, which have endured and set the parameters for the current policy framework, particularly in relation to crime reduction priorities.