Drugs and Substance Misuse
Relevant Regulations
Related guidance
- Smoking
- New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) Resource Pack for Informal Educators and Practitioners (Home Office)
Amendment
In March 2025, information was added to reflect the reclassification of nitrous oxide as a Class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (as amended).
- In the management of any drug related incident the safety and welfare of the young person is the primary consideration;
- We have a duty to provide safe environments for all young people and to safeguard and promote their welfare;
- The safety and wellbeing of young people involved in taking drugs is best promoted by staff and carers working in partnership with other professionals and those with parental responsibility;
- Taking action to deter or prevent on-going drug taking is an act of care aimed at providing help, advice and support to young people;
- Following an incident of drug misuse equal attention should be paid to the provision of help and support as to the imposition of consequences, as punitive responses often create more problems than they solve;
- Experimentation with drugs is not unusual among adolescents and may have no long-term ill effects, but dependent and problematic drug misuse is usually a response to significant social and emotional problems;
- Different young people with different levels of vulnerability and involvement with drug taking will require different levels of response from their carers. The level of response should be based on an assessment of the young person’s needs;
- In order to provide safe and effective support for young people involved in drug taking, staff require access to information, training and support from their managers and specialist agencies.
Substances are defined as any substances, whether restricted or prohibited, which may have a harmful effect upon a child, such as:
nitrous oxide, alcohol, cigarettes, tobacco, aerosols, gas, glue, magic mushrooms (amanita), petrol, solvents and all controlled substances such as amphetamines, barbiturates, cannabis, cocaine, hallucinogens, hashish and heroin.
It also includes psychoactive substances which can cause a very similar range of problems to the drugs which they mimic, including a risk of dependence developing with repeated use. Some appear to be more dangerous even than the traditional drugs they mimic.
For procedures regarding smoking and alcohol, see Smoking Procedure and Alcohol Procedure.
See: Frank - new psychoactive substances and Frank – Drugs A-Z.
See also: Frank Drugs and the Law.
All reasonable measures must be used to reduce or prevent children from obtaining controlled drugs or other substances which may harm them.
If it is known or suspected that children are obtaining products, which may harm them, whether off the streets, from dealers or traders of any kind, the manager and social worker must be informed and a strategy adopted to reduce or prevent it.
This may include engaging or involving the supplier, if it is safe to do so.
If the problem persists or is serious, relevant specialists or bodies, including Trading Standards or the Police, should be informed.
Medical Emergency: See First Aid, Home Remedies and Medication Procedure.
Managers must ensure that aerosols, gas, glue, petrol and similar substances are only used for the purpose they were designed for; and that all reasonable measures are taken to restrict their use to staff and children who are known to pose no risk to themselves or others if they have access to them.
The arrangements for the obtaining, storage and use of these substances in each home must be outlined in the Staff Handbook and Children's Guide or individual children's Placement Plans.
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous Oxide is a colourless gas, also known as 'laughing gas'. It can be misused for its psychoactive effects – or to 'get a high' - by inhalation. It is classified as a Class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (as amended). Possession is illegal where the intention is for it to be 'wrongfully inhaled', i.e., for recreational purposes rather than for a valid use such as medical, dental or industrial.
For further information, see: Nitrous oxide ban: guidance (GOV.UK).
Further procedures are provided in First Aid and Medication Procedure re:
- Controlled Drugs;
- Medical Emergencies.
Under no circumstances may controlled drugs and substances, other than those prescribed by a medical practitioner, be permitted in any Home.
The manager of each home must ensure that information, guidance and advice on the risks associated with harmful drugs and substances are available to all children in the home.
Additionally, any child known or suspected to be at participating in drug or substances misuse activities must be provided with the following:
- Targeted relevant information, guidance and advice to help reduce or prevent such risks;
- A Strategy for managing the risk, outlined in an Individual Crisis Management Plan.
The strategy should state whether, and in what circumstances, the Police will be notified.
Evidence suggests that Looked After Young People may be more vulnerable to drug taking because of their early life experiences. Situations which would make Looked After Children more susceptible to drug use would include:
- Experience of abuse or neglect;
- Living away from family and friends;
- Experience of Domestic Abuse;
- Victimisation from bullying;
- Involvement with CAMHS;
- Education problems – school exclusion;
- Loss or bereavement;
- Involvement in criminal/anti-social behaviour;
- History of family involvement in drug taking.
All young people should receive information, guidance advice and support about drug taking through the drug education programme which appears at several Key Stages as part of the National Curriculum. However, it may be, because of past difficulties at school, that some looked after young people will have missed this vital part of their education and will require additional support from other agencies.
Supportive strategies are most effective when all those with an interest in the young person’s welfare work together – staff should always seek to promote partnership with parents and other agencies in these situations.
The type and level of support offered to young people should be appropriate to their needs and take account of their wishes and feelings.
Options for support would include:
- Additional drugs education;
- Befriending schemes;
- Mentoring;
- Counselling;
- Additional monitoring and support;
- Social skills/assertiveness training;
- Referral to specialist agencies.
For all young people looked after by Brinscall Care, the issue of drug use must be discussed at the initial placement meeting and appropriate arrangements incorporated into the young person’s placement plan. All young people with a previous history of drug taking must be the subject of a risk assessment plan.
The placement plan and risk assessment plan should be regularly reviewed in order to ensure that each young person is receiving all the help and support they need to make informed choices about drug taking.
When young people are known or suspected of being involved in drug taking, the staff working with them should remain positive and supportive and encourage young people at all times to think about the consequences of their behaviour for their long-term health and welfare.
If it suspected that a child is misusing controlled or harmful drugs or substances and no Strategy exists to reduce or prevent the behaviour, the Manager of the home and relevant social worker(s) should be contacted and an agreement reached on how to proceed; this will include whether the Police will be notified.
If there are immediate risks, which make it impractical to contact the manager or social worker, staff should take what actions are immediately necessary then inform the manager and social worker(s) at the first opportunity.
The actions that staff take will be dependent on the circumstances and the degree of offence or injury that is likely, but staff must be mindful of the following:
- The overall responsibility of staff is to protect children, themselves and others from injury and reduce or prevent the likelihood of criminal offences;
- If there is a risk of serious harm, injury or of a serious criminal offence and staff are unable to manage safely, the Police should be notified;
- If solvents are involved, allow air to circulate freely and extinguish naked lights;
- If any person is unconscious, in a fit or convulsing or otherwise seriously ill, emergency first aid should be given and an ambulance requested. The emergency services should be informed that there are suspicions of drug or solvent misuse;
- The drugs/substances should be removed or confiscated, preferably with the co-operation of the child(ren), and preferably by two staff, who must record their actions, describing what they have obtained and where it has been safely stored;
- If children do not co-operate or there is a risk of Injury or Damage to Property, it may be necessary to use Physical Intervention, conduct a Search or call for Police assistance.
See the following additional chapters:
- Use of Restraint and Physical Intervention Procedure;
- Searching Children/Bedrooms Procedure;
- Offending and Anti-Social Behaviour – Guidance on when to Involve the Police.
No further action, beyond making the situation safe and attempting to confiscate harmful drugs or substances, should be taken without a manager's authorisation, preferably in consultation with the relevant social worker.
However, the staff should undertake the following if a manager is not available within a reasonable timescale:
- Legal but potentially harmful substances such as cigarettes, alcohol, aerosols, gas, glue, and petrol should then be put in a safe place out of the reach of children or disposed of safely;
- Controlled substances and any associated materials or paraphernalia must be placed in a clearly marked box or other strong container, sealed and given to the manager who must arrange for it to be taken to a competent authority e.g. Pharmacist or doctor; and a receipt obtained.
When safe to do so, the manager and relevant social workers should be notified and a decision reached on the actions/measures, which should be taken. This should include whether the Police should be notified.
Any incidents must be notified immediately to the Home's Manager and the relevant Social Worker notified within 1 working day.
Serious incidents e.g. if the Police or other emergency services are called, must be notified to the Designated Manager (Drugs) and consideration given to whether the incident is a Notifiable Event, see Notification of Serious Events Procedure.
All incidents must be recorded in the Home's Daily Log and relevant child's Daily Record.
An Incident Report must also be completed.
The child's Placement Plan should be reviewed with a view to incorporating strategies to reduce or prevent future incidents.
In the management of any drug related incident the paramount consideration is the safety and welfare of the young person involved. Drug related incidents may present themselves in one of the following ways: through intoxication or medical emergency; through discovery or through disclosure. Crack and cocaine powder users have died from overdoes. High doses can raise body’s temperature, cause convulsions and respiratory or heart failure. Risk of overdosing increases if crack is mixed with heroin, barbiturates (sedatives) or alcohol.
Cocaine is highly risky for anybody in general, but even more so for anybody with high blood pressure or a heart condition. Perfectly healthy young people can have a fit or heart attack after taking cocaine, and you may not know you’ve got a pre-existing heart condition and staff should never assume young people have.
Using cocaine with other drugs or alcohol (whether with depressant or stimulant substances) can subsequently increase risk of side effects.
Alcohol and cocaine together can be particularly dangerous as the substances interact in the body to produce a toxic chemical. The risks further increase if other drugs are taken as well.
Mixing of Alcohol and class A drugs, therefore, constitutes a medical emergency.
Always
- Assess the situation;
- If a medical emergency, send for medical help and ambulance.
Before assistance arrives
If the person is conscious:
- Ask the person what has happened and to identify any drugs used;
- Collect any drug sample and any vomit, for medical analysis;
- Do not induce vomiting;
- Keep the person under observation, warm and quiet.
If the person is unconscious:
- Ensure that the person can breathe and place in recovery position;
- Do not move the person if a fall is likely to have led to spinal or other serious injury which may not be obvious;
- Do not give anything by mouth;
- Do not attempt to make the person sit or stand;
- Do not leave the person unattended or in the charge of another young person.
When medical help arrives:
- Pass on any information available including vomit and any drug samples.
If the young person is intoxicated but conscious and not considered to be a medical emergency, the situation should be managed according to the guidance contained in the Alcohol Misuse Policy.
If a young person is found in possession of a drug, the member of staff should take or confiscate the drug and store it securely. The member of staff should ensure that there is a witness to this action.
The incident should be clearly recorded – including time and place, what happened, who was involved and the outcome.
The matter should then be reported to the Manager who, in consultation with their Line Manager, will decide how to proceed.
Options for future action include:
- Disposal of drug (witness present and properly recorded) or handed to the police. If the latter option is selected the member of staff is under no obligation to inform the police how they came to be in possession of the substance;
- An assessment of the young person’s needs with a review of the placement plan/risk assessment plan to ensure appropriate levels of supervision and support are in place;
- A report to the police for further investigation. The decision would be determined by the nature of the drug and the circumstances in which it was discovered.
- If a young person discloses their own involvement in drug taking, they do so presumably because they feel in need of help and support;
- The carer’s first response should be to tell the young person they have done the right thing in seeking help;
- The carer should then obtain as full an understanding as possible of the nature of the young person’s difficulties and in consultation with the young person him/herself and the Manager should decide how best to proceed with the option of a referral to specialist services.
Under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, there is an obligation on staff to pass on information to the police about a young person’s use of drugs as long as the member of staff does not actively abet the young person or obstruct the police. Thus, if a young person is found in possession of a small amount of a controlled Class C drug (i.e. enough for personal use) this should be confiscated and handed to the police. If the incident involves larger quantities of drugs where there is reasonable cause to believe that the young person is intending to supply it to others or the young person is in possession of any amount of a Class A or Class B drug, it should be confiscated and the matter reported to the police for investigation along with the identity of the young person. In every instance when a young person is found in possession of a controlled drug this will be brought to the attention of the Manager or Director(s) (or on-call Manager if out of hours) who will decide on the appropriate course of action.
It is legal to confiscate an illegal drug in order to prevent an offence being committed and then destroy it or hand it to the Police. Staff can dispose of illegal drugs by, for example, flushing them down the toilet. In these circumstances, a witness should be present, and the incident properly recorded and signed by both parties.
If there are drugs, suspected drugs, alcohol or paraphernalia found by the staff team or they have them handed to the them, staff are to try and gain support from another staff member / witness if possible. Staff are to take photo evidence of the substance/item and store in an envelope clearly dated and signed by staff witnesses. 101 to be contacted to follow instructions of how and when dispose of it. The police may come and collet it from staff and discard by their own means.
In the likelihood that the police advise the home to discard it themselves, this information should be outlined clearly in a substance misuse form, paying close attention to the following:
- Officers name / collar number;
- Advice offered by officer;
- Method followed;
- Staff member and witness (if applicable);
- Any other details to incident.
Staff are under no circumstances to give the items back to any child, unless otherwise stated by the police.
It is not legal to conduct an intimate personal search of a young person even for illegal drugs. It is permissible to search their room or their property if there is reasonable cause to believe they conceal illegal substances.
If staff believes a young person has a drug on their person, it is possible to ask them to turn out their pockets or bags. If the young person refuses consent the Police should be informed. It is not legal to restrict the person’s liberty while awaiting the arrival of the Police.
Even with the young person’s consent, intimate searches by staff are not permitted. If necessary, these should only be done by the Police. Any searches should be carried out in the presence of a witness and by a person of the same gender as the young person searched. Staff should ensure that the young person’s right to dignity is respected. Cultural differences must be respected throughout.
The government reclassified cannabis from Class C to Class B in January 2009. The decision was part of the drug strategy. The classification of cannabis means:
- The government will robustly enforce laws on cannabis supply and possession;
- Police and other agencies will work to shut down cannabis farms and arrest the organised criminals who run them;
- The consideration of additional aggravating sentencing factors for those caught supplying cannabis near schools.
A young person found to be in possession of cannabis will be arrested and taken to a police station where they can receive a reprimand, final warning or charge, depending on the seriousness of the offence.
Following one reprimand, any further offence will lead to a final warning or charge. Any further offence following a warning will normally result in criminal charges. After a final warning, the young offender must be referred to a Youth Offending Team to arrange a rehabilitation programme.
This police enforcement is consistent with the structured framework for early juvenile offending established under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
Brinscall Care has a zero-tolerance policy to drugs misuse including the use of Cannabis.
Serious drug use by young people has stabilised over the last few years, but a real downward shift has still to be achieved.
To do this the Home Office has been working closely with the Department for Education and skills and the Department of Health on a new cross-government approach to young people and drugs which began implementation in April 2005.
A central aim of the government’s drug strategy is to prevent today’s young people from becoming tomorrow’s problem drug users.
A key aim under the Every Child Matters ‘Be Healthy’ outcome for children and young people is to encourage young people to choose not to take illegal drugs.
New guidance on young people and drugs has been published detailing this approach in Every Child Matters – Young People and Drugs.
To be effective in helping young people avoid drug problems we are focusing on the following objectives:
- Reforming delivery and strengthening accountability;
- Ensuring provision is built around the needs of vulnerable children and young people;
- Building service and workplace capacity.
Drug Action Teams and Children’s services can help each other improve outcomes for young people and their families and the community, as part of an overall strategy for meeting children and young people’s needs.
Young people’s services must be fully committed to identify drug misuse in young people and intervening before the problem becomes acute.
We need to build on this through the Change for Children programme so that more can be done to prevent drug misuse earlier on.
Young People’s Substance Misuse Partnership Grant totals around 55 million and is available to local areas to fund a range of comprehensive interventions for young people through YPSMPG (Young People’s Substance Misuse Partnership Grant) in addition to mainstream investment.
FRANK – massive awareness of the FRANK has been achieved with millions seeking help and advice through the helpline and website.
Positive Futures – continues to demonstrate achievement in positively influencing participants in some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country.
Blueprint – the biggest drug education research programme ever run in this country.
Class A drug use in the past year amongst 16-24 year olds remains stable at around 8% (British Crime Survey 2005-2006)
Class A drug use amongst 11-15 year olds is stable at around 4% (source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk)
|
DRUG INFORMATION SHEET |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Penalties for possession and dealing, under the Misuse of Drugs Act |
|||
|
Class |
Drug(s) |
Possession |
Dealing |
|
Class A |
Ecstasy, LSD, heroin, cocaine |
Up to seven years in Prison or an unlimited Fine or both |
Up to life in prison or an unlimited fine or both |
|
Class B |
Amphetamines, Cannabis, Methylphenidate (Ritalin), Pholcodine |
Up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine or both |
Up to 14 years in prison or an unlimited fine or both |
|
Class C |
Tranquilisers, some painkillers, |
Up to two years in prison or an unlimited fine or both |
Up to 14 years in prison or an unlimited fine or both |
(source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk)
Drugs Act 2005/2010
The new act brings about new Police powers to test for Class A drugs and more:
Aims of Drug Act
Increase the effectiveness of the Drug Interventions Programme by getting more offenders into treatment.
Introduce a new civil order that will run alongside anti-social behaviour orders for adults to tackle drug related anti-social behaviour.
Enhance police and court powers against drug offenders.
Clarify existing legislation in respect of magic mushrooms.
Contents of Drug Act
Test drug offenders on arrest, rather than on charge. Require a person with a positive test to undergo an assessment by a drugs worker.
Provide for an intervention order to be attached to ASBOs issued to adults whose anti-social behaviour is drug related, requiring them to attend drug counselling.
Allow a court to remand in police custody for up to a further 192 hours those who swallow drugs in secure packages, to increase the likelihood of the evidence being recovered.
Allow a court or jury to draw adverse inference where a person refuses without good cause to consent to an intimate body search, x-ray or ultrasound scan.
Create a new presumption of intent to supply where a defendant is found to be in possession of a certain quantity of controlled drugs.
Require courts to take account of aggravating factors – such as dealing near a school – when sentencing.
Amend the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 to give police the power to enter premises, such as a crack house, to issue a closure notice.
Amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, making fungi containing the drugs Psilocin or Psilocybin (magic mushroom) a Class A drug.
Repeal section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001.
(source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk)
Home Office:
Drug Scope:
National Drug Line:
Release:
NCCDP Information Service:
Eclypse:
Last Updated: March 7, 2025
v30
You can translate the content of this page by selecting a language in the select box.
Copyright © tri.x