Drug users 'turning to crime to get treatment'

The quickest way for a drug addict to get residential care if their family cannot afford it is to commit a crime, Mitch Winehouse, the father of the singer Amy Winehouse, said today.

The man whose daughter has arguably done more than anyone else to make the nation familiar with the concept of “rehab” was giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which is preparing a report on drug addiction.

He complained that too many young people who are allotted precious residential places in rehabilitation do not actually want to be cured of their addiction. Their attitude, he might have added, is rather like that held by the protagonist in “Rehab”, his daughter’s hit single: “My Daddy thinks I’m fine. He’s tried to make me to go to rehab, but I won’t go, go go.”

In real life, Ms Winehouse did go into rehab, several times. Her father, a former taxi driver turned drugs campaigner, who is making a film about heroin addiction, said today that she has been off drugs for a year. But he claimed that, unlike her, most young people in rehab have not been persuaded to visit by their families, but have been sent there by the courts, and agree to go because it is a way to get a lighter sentence.

Although some do want to be cured of their addiction, most don’t, he added. He said there was very little help for people who want to be cured, but have not committed a crime, unless they can afford a place in a private clinic.

He told MPs: “We were very fortunate – we were able to afford the best doctors, clinical psychologists, rehabilitation and hospitals. We’re making a film about people who can’t afford it, and unfortunately we found there are very few facilities and very little help available for people like that.

“We’ve spoken to addicts who have told us people are desperately committing offences just so that they have a chance of receiving treatment. The truth is there is very little treatment available to people who walk in off the street and say: ‘I need help’. ”

He appeared with Sarah Graham, a former cocaine addict who now works for the anti-drug campaign FRANK.