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Despite a considerable increase in drug testing within the criminal justice system (CJS) through schemes such as the drug interventions programme, research is equivocal about its added value, as a recent series of reports from the UK Drug Policy Commission highlighted. The role of drug testing needs to be clarified and its cost‐effectiveness confirmed through studies with comparative regimes. Any further expansion of drug testing within the CJS should be undertaken with caution.

In this article Michelle Duffin reports on the difficulties of finding adequate housing for vulnerable groups including drug users and ex drug users.

This article reports on the difficulties of finding adequate housing for vulnerable groups including drug users and ex‐drug users.

Drawing on research conducted by Perpetuity, a research and consultancy service specialising in crime and community safety, this article provides an overview of the housing needs of drug and alcohol users. The article is based largely on feedback from consultation with service users, and outlines some of the barriers they face when accessing supported housing and mainstream housing; and some of the potential difficulties they can experience when trying to maintain a tenancy. It summarises the importance of partnership working when addressing housing needs among this vulnerable client group. It is essential that these matters are taken seriously and addressed accordingly.

Britain is undergoing its biggest change in drug policy and practice ever — and most of it without a shred of evidence to back it up. Despite mountains of evidence that community treatment works, criminal interventions, such as DTTOs, are still being extended, expanded and re‐invented across the UK — at huge cost to the UK taxpayer and at the expense of other forms of treatment. Neil Hunt is part of a pan‐European research study looking at coercive treatment within the criminal justice system. We reveal what the government is not telling us about their crime agenda.