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drinkanddrugsnews
| November 2013
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
LETTERS
MISPLACED FAITH
In your October issue (page 21) Neil
McKeganey stated his case for keeping
a dual focus on health and criminal
justice as equally important elements
in tackling drug problems. Although he
outlined his argument with clarity,
several comments made me pause for
thought.
It seems to me that it’s possible
that countries with liberal drug
policies and lower numbers in
contact with formal treatment
organisations may be a good thing.
Perhaps they have fewer problems
that require a massive bureaucratic
system to ‘sort out’ for them and
instead rely on the same support
that the rest of the population use
(
ie
their own GP and other community
services) and peer support, that
won’t be captured in official
numbers, for their needs.
With reference to the availability
of heroin versus alcohol, he stated,
‘In contrast, heroin is much less
available and the recovering addict
has to work less hard to avoid being
exposed to the drug.’ Heroin is
cheap, available 24/7, can be
delivered to your door and payment
made at a later date. Your ‘friendly’
dealer will also ring you up (whether
you want them to or not) to let you
know a new batch of heroin is in
town. In addition many people
struggle to move away from areas
high in drug use, and social circles
where class A drug use is
normalised, due to a lack of money
and debts racked up from drug use.
This hardly seems like an easy
scenario in which to avoid drugs.
Drug laws that permanently and
harshly impact on people’s lives and
futures have no place in a society
that espouses ideals of fairness.
Police, prison and probation aren’t
good settings for the delivery of
health services. Just look at the
news and you can see examples of
poor performing, overcrowded, drug
filled prisons and police using
inappropriate and sometimes lethal
methods to deal with issues they
don't understand. Police, prison and
coerced treatment isn’t the same as
holistic, service user centred
treatment and support.
Drugs are cheaper and more
available than ever. I’m not sure
where the faith in the criminal justice
system to reduce the availability and
accessibility comes from...
Malcolm Clayton, by email
KICKING THE HABIT
I made a film on how to get off
heroin for ITV in 1985, called
Kicking
the Habit
. ITV have now asked me to
do a follow-up to see what happened
to the people in the film. Some were
in Phoenix House’s Featherstone
Lodge in Forest Hill, some in Roma,
which was a therapeutic community,
some in Chester. There have been
follow-ups over 30 years so I hope to
trace as many staff and ex-clients
and their families as possible.
One person I want to trace
especially is Dee Halpen, the social
worker who ran Roma. Please get in
touch if you can help – my email is
dcpsychologynews@gmail.com
All information and contacts will
be treated in total confidence. (Since
few, if any, TV companies are called
Psychology News, I should explain
that was a small magazine I once
ran – and the name has stuck.)
Many thanks.
David Cohen, Psychology News
STIGMA STORIES
Unlock is an independent award-
winning charity providing information
and advice services for people with
criminal convictions to help others
overcome the long-term problems
that having a conviction can bring
(www.unlock.org.uk).
As part of this, Unlock supports a
volunteer-run online magazine for
people who are no longer offending
but are having to deal with all the
problems that come with having a
criminal record. We are always on the
lookout for stories of how people
have overcome the discrimination and
stigma that having a criminal record
brings or illustrate the barriers that
are put in the way of people trying to
turn their lives around. So, if you
have a good story, either positive or
negative, we’d love to hear from you.
Just email us at the address below.
Richard, co-editor,
email: therecord@outlook.com;
www.the-record.org.uk
KNOWLEDGE GAP
Martin Blakebrough is right to say
‘inserting the word “recovery” into a
drug strategy does not in itself
change very much at all’ (
DDN
,
October, page 10), but he fails to
add: ‘unless there is a viable
procedure available to deliver a
lasting return to the natural state of
relaxed abstinence into which 99 per
cent of the population is born.’
As soon as an addict recovers
that state, the other factors in the
Coalition’s brilliant 2010 drug
strategy start to become available,
not only to the recovered individual
but also to his whole community.
But without that initial lasting
relaxed abandonment of addictive
substance usage, we do not get
reduced demand or any of the other
2010 strategy objectives.
Martin is also right to say:
‘bullying people into recovery through
the threats of the criminal justice
system or reduction of benefits’ is
not the key, but the ‘evidence-based
approach’ he and Caroline Lucas
advocate is apparently nothing more
than ‘a reduction of drug-related
harms’ – not a reduction in drug
usage and not a reduction in the
number of addicted drug users, both
voluntary and involuntary.
In my 38 years of experience of
training addicts to cure themselves of
addiction, I have learned that 70+ per
cent of individuals who have been
addicted for seven days, seven weeks,
seven months or seven years have all
tried, often daily, to quit their habit
but, having failed, still want to quit.
So, willingness is not their problem,
it is lack of knowledge of what to do to
quit. Which means training them in
addiction recovery techniques which
they apply to themselves.
These techniques are currently
delivered in 169 centres in 49
countries and over each of the last
47 years they have delivered
thousands of addicts to lasting
relaxed abstinence – a result capable
of satisfying the ‘PbR’ criteria which
the 2010 drug strategy logically
demands,
ie
‘results based’ – not
just ‘evidence based’.
We don’t need royal commissions
or anything new to defeat the ‘vested
self-interest in perpetuating the failing
status quo’. We just need to
substitute effective inexpensive
‘training’ for failed costly ‘treatments’.
Kenneth Eckersley, CEO Addiction
Recovery Training Services (ARTS)
‘Drug laws that permanently and
harshly impact on people’s lives
and futures have no place in a
society that espouses ideals of
fairness. Police, prison and pro-
bation aren’t good settings for
the delivery of health services.’