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MEDIASAVVY
WHO’S BEEN SAYINGWHAT..?
We more or less turn a blind eye to the users of illegal narcotics,
concentrating our indignation on those who sell them. Would drugs be
trafficked so profitably if we prosecuted users with the same zeal? Perhaps
not. Prohibiting alcohol (as they once did in America) encourages
gangsterism. It’s the same with drugs. But a society of drinkers can more
or less function normally. Can the same be said of one in which all drugs
are freely available? Our fear that it can’t – that great swathes of our
young would become unemployable zombies – keeps narcotics illegal.
Peter McKay,
Mail on Sunday
, 15 September
What I don't understand at all is what decriminalisation of drugs will do for
addicts. I mean not only active addicts who are locked in compulsive drug
use, but also those millions of potential addicts, most of them children,
who have not yet picked up their first drug and could go either way.
Melissa Kite,
Guardian
, 16 September
[The Centre for Social Justice’s
No quick fix
report] is a muddled, shrill and
selective document, determined to bring together issues such as binge
drinking, heroin addiction, legal highs, cannabis smoking and alcoholism,
which have different levels of seriousness, patterns of use and potential
for harm. Yet at the heart of it lies a truth: Britain is a nation addicted, not
necessarily to drugs or alcohol per se, but to excess itself.
Leo Benedictus,
Guardian
, 2 September
Despite the dangers, our appetite for destruction seems voracious. Perhaps
it has always been so. Aldous Huxley and George Orwell could not envisage
a futuristic Britain without drugs, be it 1g of Soma or a bottle of gin. Yet
nothing has quite prepared us for the rise of the legal high generation. We
can’t stop them getting the drugs. And more worrying, we still don’t know
what, in the long run, the dangers of this Brave NewWorld will be.
Joe Shute,
Telegraph
, 5 September
The Scottish nation as a whole, thanks to English taxpayers, has never had
it so good. English money is propping up the most welfare, drink and drug-
addicted nation in Europe.
Simon Heffer,
Mail
, 19 September
Poverty and addiction have a thousand mothers, none of them sloth.
Surviving the streets and hustling for the next fix is some of the hardest
work around.
Chris Arnade,
Guardian
, 9 September
Some people have moved [because of the bedroom tax] but most haven't,
and those people will eventually find their debts unmanageable and
become homeless. This cannot come as news to the devisers of the policy,
and if it is not news to them then it must be part of their plan.
Zoe Williams,
Guardian
, 11 September
Nothing more graphically illustrates the warped, destructive values of
Labour and the Left than the manufactured outrage over the so-called
‘bedroom tax’. There has been a barrage of increasingly hysterical
propaganda against this measure, which has been portrayed as a
vindictive attack on the poor carried out by heartless Tories for purely
ideological reasons. Despite all the noise they generate the frenzied
protesters cannot disguise the weakness of their case.
Leo McKinstry,
Express
, 12 September
I WENT FOR A STROLL THE OTHER SUNDAY
, which
isn’t remarkable in itself, but it was unusual in that
5,000 other people were doing the same thing! The
fifth UK Recovery Walk had come to Birmingham
and I was fortunate to be able to participate. It was
a hugely inspiring sight to see so many people come
together with a single positive aim.
As we made our way through the streets of
Birmingham accompanied by drums, the waving
of banners and a lot of noise from the walkers,
there were an array of responses from onlookers –
a few were bemused, the odd motorist looked fed-
up at waiting for thousands to cross the road but
the overwhelming attitude was of support and
encouragement. For me the elderly lady on a
mobility scooter who stopped and clapped and
cheered the walkers saying ‘Well done!’
exemplified this.
Having been involved in the treatment system
in Birmingham for more than 20 years I did
recognise a few of the walkers. One of these,
John, had decided that he wanted to be treated
in general practice as ‘it felt more normal.’ He
came to register with us as his own GP didn’t
provide OST. He was encouraged to look at
getting support from a mutual aid group and after about 12 months he
finally went to an NA meeting.
Over the next few months he came to the conclusion that he needed to be
abstinent from medication as well as illicit drugs and he wanted to do a
residential detoxification. Supported by our shared care worker, arrangements
were made for him to go into our local unit. He has now been abstinent for
two years and finds the fellowship he gets from mutual aid a key part in
supporting his recovery.
Gary has been with the practice for over 15 years. In that time he has gone
from fairly chaotic IV heroin and crack use with regular spells in prison, to a
stable period on a methadone script during which time he became alcohol
dependent. I was able to support him through a community alcohol withdrawal
programme and following this he has found full time employment and no
longer drinks. He doesn’t yet feel he wants to stop his OST but he was as
buoyant as anyone on that walk and I think he had earned his place there too.
I was delighted to take part in the recovery walk and I hope that over the
years I have worked in Birmingham I have helped some people take a few steps
on their own journeys. But the main thing that struck me was how humbling it
was to be among such a multitude who know that recovery is real and tangible
and who wanted to celebrate that.
Steve Brinksman is a GP in Birmingham and clinical lead of SMMGP,
www.smmgp.org.uk. He is also the RCGP regional lead in substance misuse for
the West Midlands.
More on the walk on page 18.
Post-its from Practice
Amazing journey
Joining the Birmingham recovery walk
made
Dr Steve Brinksman
realise how
far many of his patients had come
October 2013 |
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Post-its
‘It was a
hugely
inspiring sight
to see so
many people
come together
with a single
positive aim.’