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MEDIASAVVY
WHO’S BEEN SAYING WHAT..?
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Letters |
Media savvy
November 2014 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 11
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
The state can only do so much. Most of us aren’t alcoholics. We just drink
too much. With every drink, we make a decision. We need to make different
decisions. But the state can shape attitudes and it can legitimately do so,
citing the costs and losses that result when it does little or nothing. The
state can do more without being accused of nannying. And it should.
Hugh Muir,
Guardian
, 3 October
How unrealistic of NICE – the body that decides which life-saving drugs the
NHS can afford – to suggest anyone who drinks more than two large
glasses of wine a day should be prescribed a pill costing £3 on the NHS by
their family doctor… NICE needs to be disbanded – it’s not fit for purpose.
Janet Street Porter,
Mail
, 6 October
Our collective consumption has come under fire from NICE (possibly the
most exasperatingly contradictory acronym ever coined). This august body,
which normally preoccupies itself with the illogical restriction of life-
saving cancer drugs, has decided to interfere with our right to a family life
that’s pleasingly fuzzy.
Judith Woods,
Telegraph
, 4 October
Macmillan’s Sober October campaign seems to have been brewed on the
very idea that not drinking should be some publicly declared, universally
admired, valiantly fought battle. Something to scream from the social media
rooftops and compensate with sponsorship… We have become so used to
drinking, eating, buying and downloading ourselves into a state of milky
infant satiation that we have started to see self-restraint as something
worth writing home (on Facebook, Twitter, email circulars) about.
Nell Frizzell,
Guardian
, 1 October
Given the percentages, it follows that everyone knows someone who has
taken drugs. And the chances are that most of us know someone who
acknowledges that they’ve had problems with drugs. In addition, it’s not
unlikely that we’ve fallen victim to a crime committed by an addict
funding his or her habit. The point is that drugs cannot be safely
categorised as a niche activity or a passing fad. They are as much part of
modern life as food banks or farmers’ markets.
Andrew Anthony,
Observer
, 5 October
A long and expensive international PR campaign has fooled a willing elite
(many of them drug abusers themselves) into believing that cannabis is
safe when in fact it is one of the most dangerous drugs there is. So we shut
our minds to all the evidence of the terrible harm it can do – even highly
publicised killings by cannabis abusers.
Peter Hitchens,
Mail
on Sunday, 26 October
Colombians would dispute the claim that [Stephen] Fry repeated on
Newsnight
: that, with cocaine consumption, ‘I’m the only person I hurt’. For
them, a long line, more of blood than of powder, links the smallholdings of
Cauca or Antioquia to the toilets of Soho clubs. Cocaine-driven conflict in
Colombia has cost 220,000 lives. The same upheavals displaced about
4.5m people from their homes... Self-righteous spliff-puffers who believe
that their beloved herb stands on higher moral ground than cocaine should
know about the Vietnamese children trafficked into Britain to work as
slaves on cannabis farms.
Boyd Tonkin,
Independent
, 3 October
their own policies – for some it’s six
months, others say two years.
Some people can be off work with
a serious illness for 13 months or
more, but services employ people in
recovery after six months? We often
forget that a lot of addicts have not
had formative years and so need to
make up for this and relearn how to
live a ‘normal’ life, for want of a
better word. Some people may not
agree with me and say they are ready,
and I appreciate that this is a
subjective matter. However, I think
that after treatment and recovery
there should be a ‘time to reflect’
period. It would put ex-service users
in a much better position to become
a practitioner if they spent two years
doing this, in my opinion.
Agencies have a moral and
professional duty to protect people
they employ and should have rigorous
systems and policies for this. Sadly
this is quite often not the case and
service users are put on a pedestal
as a promotion for the wonderful work
the service has done, or for stats on
how many ex-service users they
proudly employ.
We should be looking to embed
guidelines nationally so commissioners
and strategic influences are on board
and it becomes part of the tendering
process at the very least. You could
argue that just because it’s an ex-
service user they have the right to be
treated the same as any other
employee and I would agree, but I think
the process for ‘time left’ services
needs to be looked at properly.
I am not naïve enough to think that
this has not been discussed a thous-
and times before, but with the current
climate of the recovery movement
across the UK and with organisations
such as the UKRF, as well as localised
movements and SU involvement, surely
it is time to put this on the agenda
again in a bigger, better way.
Steve Loxley, by email
GAMBLING SUPPORT
I have recently come across your
excellent online magazine and I am
particularly interested in recent
coverage of disordered gambling.
Betknowmore UK was launched as
a social enterprise earlier this year,
and our mission is to develop and
deliver support, education and
information services to address
problem gambling and addiction. We
recently launched our first Gambling
Support (GaMS) hub in Islington,
which will be a base to deliver our
services initially across north London.
We have had a lot of interest in our
services from a wide range of
organisations as diverse as HMPs
and premiership football clubs. This
includes a number of drug/alcohol
agencies and we are currently
planning to develop and deliver our
services to DASL in east London and
Cranstoun in north London. We have
also had interest from Addaction and
WDP. This is an area we are very
much planning to further develop and
work in partnership with current
service providers.
More details can be found on our
website: www.betknowmoreuk.org
Frankie Graham, director/project
manager, Bet Know More
MISLEADING FIGURES
The headline on page 4 of your
October edition (‘England and Wales
see sharp rise in drug deaths’) is
misleading. England saw a rise of 21
per cent in deaths from drug misuse,
from 1,492 in 2012 to 1,812 in
2013. In Wales, by contrast, there
was no change in the number of drug
misuse deaths in 2013 compared
with the previous year, with 135
deaths recorded in both years.
Discussion on the reasons for the
diverging patterns of drug misuse
deaths over the past few years, in
your magazine and the wider
community of those involved in
substance misuse policy and
practice, would be of great value.
Chris Emmerson, information analyst
specialist, health protection, Public
Health Wales, Cardiff
Our headline was misleading, as
there was no change to the number
of drug misuse deaths in Wales, but
the ONS report does state: ‘However,
mortality rates from drug misuse
were still significantly higher in
Wales than in England.’ DDN