UN shows scale of cocaine use / Million users make Briton ‘Coke Capital’

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Title – UN shows scale of cocaine use / Million users make Briton ‘Coke Capital’Source – www.bbc.co.uk / Metro
Date – 24th & 25th June 2009

It never fails to surprise me when I run courses in the

Licensed Retail Sector or in Conflict Management and ask the question ‘who thinks they have a drug problem in their premises / business’; my surprise is that not everyone put their hand up…

Now I know it’s a loaded question, because there is certainly a difference between having a ‘drug problem’ and having ‘problem drug users’ within your premises or business activity.

The point is that most businesses should be considering the impact which illegal drugs will be having on their business activities, because illegal drugs permeate almost every facet of our communities.

With a million cocaine users alone in the UK and a population of somewhere over 57 million people even a crude calculation suggests that 1 in every 50 people use cocaine. Transfer these figures into those demographics where drug use is heavier and we can see that within sectors such as the licensed retail and hospitality sector a premises of any size is going to have many users.

In the hot spots such as London, 1 in every 100 will be a ‘problem drug user’ who bring additional challenges to business operators.

Drug use generates problems for businesses along with the well documented health issues for individuals. Drug use attracts drug dealers and leads to crime and disorder which can have a very negative effect on your business. It leads to potentially serious first aid issues in drug users for which businesses have to make provisions; it leads to violence and violent behaviour both by users and those ‘protecting their drug trade’, this especially dangerous for vulnerable employees such as lone workers in roles as diverse as health workers and community housing officers. If unchecked can also lead to police intervention, legal action and prosecution of business owners who fail to tackle drug use and drug dealing on their premises.

The effect of illegal drug use and dealing is felt by every person in the country, the lucky few may not notice it directly, but their taxes will fund the fight against the drug traffickers. Employees on the front line require training to allow them to deal with problems which arise and to put into place proactive prevention strategies.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector including The National Certificate for Licensees Drug Awareness (NCLDA). For other sectors our bespoke Drug Awareness (DA) courses, which examine illegal drugs, their effects and the drug litter synonymous with their use, are specifically designed to reflect the nature of our clients working environment. Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course complements these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and drug related behaviour.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.