Attitudes, discrimination, rights and responsibilities

One of the biggest barriers people can confront when they seek to address drug problems can be negative attitudes to people in drug treatment or who have been through drug treatment (and, some times, their families too). Sometimes these concerns have a serious basis. At worst, they are stigmatising and discriminatory in ways that deny people opportunities to get their lives on track, and that are based on myths and misperceptions about drug services and the people who use them.

A related issue is the extend to which drug services deal with service users in a way that strikes the correct balance between rights and responsibilities, and the extent to which drug services are responsive to the full range of equality, diversity and human rights issues - such as race and ethnicity, religious and cultural differences, gender, sexuality and disability (including mental health).

DrugScope is currently supporting the Race for Justice campaign that is being led by Clinks