By Jon Silverman Legal affairs analyst

The top-down, "nanny knows best" approach to helping drug users marginalises those with most experience - the addicts themselves. Now there are moves to put users in charge of projects as a way of boosting their own self-esteem.

On a dank Monday night in south London, a dozen drug users and alcoholics are socialising in the back room of a former public library. There are soft couches, a pool table, pop music playing, an air of conviviality. The Sanctuary Club is run by and for users and the people here regard it as a revolution in the making.

Hippo Grigg, a recovering alcoholic, is one of the founders. "The fact that there are no counsellors, no professionals involved, has done wonders for our self-confidence. It was also an act of faith by the council, Lambeth, to let us have the building because there's such a lot of prejudice against drugs and alcohol users."

That narrow mindedness also exists among those working in the drugs field.

"The issue of drug user involvement has been heavily political in the past," says Dawn Hart of the Centre for Public Innovation, the consultancy which kick-started the Sanctuary.

We don't sit around talking about drink or dope - we're helping each other just by being together Drug user Patrick

"The drugs field has tended to lag behind mental health, where it is commonplace for 'users' to be at the heart of projects. Drug users have been treated as these angry people who come to meetings and shout a lot, without recognition that they may have much to offer."

...like the fruits of personal experience.

Clive Diedrick contracted Hepatitis C from years of heroin use. Now, he's behind an information project called Fear and Loathing which disseminates potentially life-saving information to addicts on cards headed "Be hep and smart".

"I'd never done anything like this before but now I'm going to become a mentor for others wanting to start their own self-help programmes. Many users have become passive recipients of services over the years. But this is a different approach," says Mr Diedrick.

One of the benefits of involving users in the running of projects is that, unlike some professionals, they tend to see the individual behind the addiction. As the Audit Commission recently pointed out, many treatment services are wasted or ineffective because they fail to deal with the other problems - mental health, housing, social care - which often afflict the lives of addicts.

Sharing experiences

At the Sanctuary Club, Patrick, a former soldier, describes the set-up: "We don't sit around talking about drink or dope. Being here is like having your own gang. For people who are lonely and desperate, that's vital. We're helping each other just by being together."

The National Treatment Agency, which funds substance misuse services, will be examining how to boost user involvement at its annual conference next week. It has already commissioned the Oxfordshire Users Team to provide training throughout the South-East on how to involve users in services.

Glenda Daniels, an ex-user who will be speaking at the conference, points out that in Oxfordshire, peer education in how to tackle overdoses has been so successful that when paramedics arrive on the scene, they frequently find the patient has been resuscitated by his or her mates.