The Good, the Bad, the Gay and the Ugly

Three weeks ago, my media work brought me into the orbit, for the first time, of Mr Brian Paddick- would-be King of the Jungle (I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here) and Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police.

Brian was one of the first openly gay senior police officers- a good thing. For which I thoroughly commend him.

His legacy on policing drugs is less exemplary.

My wife H was on the beat in uniform in Brixton, when he was The Boss.

She had her arm broken- in the line of duty- by a crack dealer. And her take on his time as the gov'nor there is very interesting.

Her and her colleagues often put their personal safety at enormous risk to arrest street dealers. (You know those nice guys who deal in front of kids and their mums in front of KFC and McDonalds).

Part of their enviable work was to have to wrestle the dealers to the floor (whilst being spat on) and open the dealers mouths to extract the heroin and crack wraps before they could swallow them; thereby risking their lives and making making the evidence collection a messy, protracted business.

Brian banned this direct intervention. Something to do with the dealers might get hurt.

He was also keen on down-grading cannabis from B-C.

And now these days he is bemoaning the failure of policing!



Which seems a tad ironic?

Anyway, Brian and I put our personal differences aside- after the interview- and subsequently became friends on Facebook (this may not last?)

Something about keeping your friends close...popped into my mind.

After the interview in the Green Room a tall, well-groomed man, in a very nice suit, came in and Brian and he exchanged kisses; french-stylee.

The man went into make-up and I gave Brian a quizzical look?

He told me that this chap was the (openly) gay health minister Ben Bradshaw.

I said my goodbyes to Brian (quickly) and went back into the make-up room to introduce myself to Ben.

It has to be said I'm the Queen of networking (or as H says, I'm totally shameless)

I got that feeling that my audience with Ben was to be short, so I cut to the chase...

"1 in 10 of the general population has an addiction issue.

One-third of the LGBT community does".

Who I am, what I do..

Will he help in my mission to reduce this terrible statistic?

That the new drugs strategy makes a pledge- in the Equality section- to include LGBT people (for the first time)...

But that this needs putting into action.

Will he as an Out gay man, with ministerial responsibility for health (actually, Minister of State for Health Services at the Department of Health) , help?

Can I get his number, so we can talk more?

(Very cold body language)

He replies that Dawn Primarolo (Minister of State for Public Health) has responsibility for drugs.

(End of conversation body language).

As those of you who know me know, I'm not that easily put off.

Yes, but maybe he could help me to help our community by introducing me to some people- in Dawn's office?

(Very cold, even icy BL)

I persist.

Can I get a number for him or an email?

He gives me his assistants.

I call this and leave a message, within an hour.

No response.

So I tracked down his Constituency Office email and write him a short, very friendly letter.


This is the official response.



DE00000392248

Dear Ms Graham,

Thank you for your recent email to Ben Bradshaw about drug addiction among the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. I have been asked to reply on his behalf.

Although it is the case that some drugs are more commonly misused in the LGBT community, this is not the same as “addiction”. However, this high level of drug misuse may lead to a higher level of drug dependence and other drug-related problems in the community and is a clear priority for drug treatment.

As you are aware, there is a clear expectation in the new drug strategy that commissioners and providers of drug treatment “determine patterns of drug use and service needs, particularly where there are significant gaps in evidence, such as the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and transsexual (LGBT) people”.

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) was established by Government in 2001 to improve the availability, capacity and effectiveness of treatment for drug misuse in England .

The NTA shares a commitment to drug treatment being made available locally which meets the range of needs experienced by local drug-misusing populations. The NTA is committed to action to ensure:

equal access to relevant and appropriate drug treatment services for the whole population; and
the eradication of unlawful discrimination and the promotion of equal opportunities with respect to ethnicity, age, culture, gender, sexuality, mental ability, mental health, geographical location, offending background, physical ability, political beliefs, religion, health, status or any other specific factors which result in discrimination.

There is more related information on the Equality and Diversity section of the NTA website at www.nta.nhs.uk/areas/diversity .

Since 2005/06 the NTA and the Healthcare Commission have worked together to review the key aspects of providing and commissioning effective services for the treatment of substance misuse in England . This is the third and final review in the Government’s joint series.

One of the themes of the 2007/08 NTA and Healthcare Commission service review was diversity. The full report is available online at:

www.nta.nhs.uk/areas/standards_and_inspections/2007-08_review/hcc_nta_review_docs_jan_09/2007_8_substance_misuse_national_report_diversity_tier_4.pdf

Highlights of the report are included in the comments that follow.

It is the clear responsibility of local drug partnerships to assess need in their areas and to commission services to meet these needs, particularly the needs of traditionally marginalised or under-represented groups.

Once local partnerships have met the requirement to increase the number of problem drug users in effective treatment by 1 per cent a year in each of the next three years, they may select targets around increasing the access of marginalised groups to drug treatment.

The NTA monitors partnerships’ assessment and meeting of need through the treatment planning process, and the Department is aware that a number of partnerships have made specific efforts to tackle the needs of the LBGT community.

In the 2007/8 service review, partnerships generally did well in assessing the needs of diverse local populations but less well in translating these needs into a strategic focus on diversity and equality issues when planning treatment. As a result of the review findings, NTA regional teams are working with partnerships on planned improvement in relation to diversity, as part of partnerships’ treatment planning and to ensure that this planning translates into practice.

Drug treatment services should consider the full range of client needs relating to drug treatment, including sexuality issues, and take the necessary steps to address these, while observing all relevant diversity legislation.

People should not be discriminated against or feel excluded from treatment because of their sexuality. The highest scoring criterion in the diversity theme of the 2007/8 service review “related to whether service providers ensure that the delivery of services meets the needs of local diverse populations”.

Although this is encouraging, there is, of course, room for improvement and, if you are aware of specific “drugs services … failing to engage gay people”, this issue should be raised with the relevant partnership (contact details at http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/dat/directory) or with the relevant NTA regional team (contact details at www.nta.nhs.uk/areas/regions ).

I hope this reply is helpful.

Yours sincerely,



Deepa Shah
Customer Service Centre
Department of Health

Yes, I feel slightly patronised.

No, that wasn't very helpful.

There's also a sense that this letter was written by a computer, not a real person.

Will Ben be leaping into action to turn the tide against addiction in the LGBT community.

His community (?)

Put it this way.

I'm not holding my breath.

I'm about to start working on a doc about meth.

Do you think he's say "yes" to my interview request?

Will Dawn be calling soon?

Ben's got my number.