Health Board reiterate commitment to tackling substance misuse in Wrexham following criticism from deputy council leader

The deputy leader of Wrexham Council has called on the Health Board to do more to tackle issues with substance misuse in the town.

Wrexham’s issues with New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) – formerly known as legal highs – have been well-documented over the last year, along with various ideas to attempt to tackle the problem. All this came to a head in March 2017 when a series of images went viral on Facebook – resulting in national coverage and the local newspaper headline ‘Druggy Town’.

In late 2016 new legislation was introduced to specifically focus on tackling the sale, production and misuse of what was then known as ‘legal highs’ such as ‘spice’ and ‘mamba’

Previously such substances, which were also rebranded as NPS could be purchased openly in shops or online. However under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 those found producing, supplying and importing NPS could face seven years imprisonment.

There have been questions as to whether the legislation works, goes far enough or if it has created further issues. This is also highlighted by Wrexham Council, who note along with others that in many ways NPS are harder to police than the old-style drugs.

Locally there have been attempts to tackle the seemingly growing problem in Wrexham, including two ‘everyone in a room’ events – which brought together service users and relevant agencies to offer support to what has been described as a ‘vulnerable cohort’ of individuals.

Last month a statement released by Wrexham Council said that “things are happening and there are people doing incredible work” in a bid to offer reassurance and inform the public on the work being done locally to tackle NPS use.

However Cllr Hugh Jones, Lead Member for Communities, Partnerships, Public Protection and Community Safety, has now called on the Health Board to do more to tackle issues with NPS in Wrexham and to work in closer partnership with the council and police.

Cllr Jones said: “We’re all aware of those concerns which have been raised around the use of non-psychoactive substances, or NPS, in Wrexham.

“The recent growth in NPS has made life even more difficult for vulnerable people already dealing with issues around mental or physical health, family breakdown or homelessness.

“Wrexham is not unique in this, but in other towns and cities in the UK where NPS has posed a problem, a lot of work in this area has been led by the Health sector.

“A lot of good work is being done in Wrexham and progress is being made, but it would benefit further from greater involvement from our NHS partners.

“I recently attended a meeting of the Safeguarding, Communities, Wellbeing and Scrutiny Committee, and members supported my view that not enough was being done by the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) with respect to this issue.”

He added: “I have written to the Chief Executive and the Chair of the Health Board, asking for greater focus on those challenges which we’re facing in Wrexham, as well as more expediency in dealing with requests for support from the other parties involved.

“I have said before that we have a good partnership in place between Wrexham Council, North Wales Police and a variety of agencies, all of whom are striving to tackle this problem.

“This partnership is a unique grouping of specialised parties, all of whom cover issues of public safety, drug rehabilitation treatment, homelessness and others, but without stronger backing on the part of the Health Board, we can only go so far.

“I would urge the Health Board to work closer with all of us on that partnership, and to speed up responses where support is requested.”

Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board’s Chief Executive, Gary Doherty, responded: “Over recent months and weeks, additional outreach sessions have been provided by our Harm Reduction Service and we are currently looking at ways to allocate additional resources to target the most problematic and hard to reach NPS users.

“Our priority is to make contact and develop a trusting relationship with people who use NPS before we are able to motivate and promote positive behaviour change.

“This complex problem is bigger than any one organisation and it’s vital that we work together with our partners to ensure that NPS users in Wrexham receive the intensive support they need. We will be writing to Cllr Jones to reaffirm our commitment to tackling this problem, and to look at ways we can strengthen our partnership working.”

Over the weekend Wrexham.com reported that the encampment on the Groves site had been vacated, with fire crews seen dampening down a makeshift bonfire on Saturday afternoon.

That report also contains some tweets between a Lead Councillor and the Police and Crime Commissioner, the latter pointing out Councillor Hugh Jones is ‘Lead partner for Crime and Disorder is @wrexhamcbc and @hugh_wre’ – you can read that here.