On January 17th Mark Johnson wrote an article in the Guardian entitled "It's time to treat drug-addicted children as adults" although the article was itself about young people's rehab, the title does raise the issue of how we treat our young people when they access services. As those working in young people's drug treatment know, the outcomes the government look for are already those of adults. But, is it reasonable or even achievable to use same outcome measures for young people and adults in the UK?

Earlier on this year in September the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that the Harper government couldn't close the Insite safer injection facility in Vancouver. Insite, which in 2009 had over 250,000 visits from people using its facilities, opened in 2003. In the time it has been operating it has received strong local support especially from the Mayors of Vancover who irrespective of their party have always fought to keep it open.