| Topic: Drug deaths up! |
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| 1. Author: Parboiled Date: Tue 12th Sep 2023. 14:48 Up 7% on same period January - June last year. Let the excuses, deflection, blame game etc from Scotgov begin… Post Edited (Tue 12 Sep 14:55) Reply |
| 2. Author: wee eck Date: Tue 12th Sep 2023. 15:26 Why the exclamation mark? You seem pleased. Reply |
| 3. Author: The One Who Knocks Date: Tue 12th Sep 2023. 16:30 With the safe consumption rooms about to become a reality I`d expect this figure to start dropping. And although my eyes were open They just might as well be closed Reply |
| 4. Author: jake89 Date: Tue 12th Sep 2023. 17:57 It depends if they`re used. There`s some ambiguity around their legality. I believe the use of drugs within them is still illegal but you can`t be prosecuted. That may not be correct though so don`t quote me on that! Reply |
| 5. Author: Andrew283 Date: Wed 13th Sep 2023. 13:33 Parboiled, Tue 12 Sep 14:48 Can we ban this wankstain? Guy just loves stroking himself over people dying. It`s beyond cringe worthy Reply |
| 6. Author: Parboiled Date: Wed 13th Sep 2023. 14:00 Alistair Jack said during Scottish questions today he would not seek to block the Scotgov consumption rooms trial. Tommy Sheppard pressed the point saying Jack had form in intervening in Scotgov decisions and asked Jack to confirm he would not legislate to interfere with or block the trial A definite “yes” from Jack. Cue crestfallen mugs from the Nats whose only interest to was weaponise the issue to pick a fight. So get on with it. It’ll just be another total eff up like everything else these incompetent eejits get their mitts on. Reply |
| 7. Author: wee eck Date: Wed 13th Sep 2023. 14:27 What are you doing if not `weaponising` it and why don`t you ever cast your eyes south at the `incompetent eejits` down there?? Reply |
| 8. Author: jake89 Date: Wed 13th Sep 2023. 15:28 Just to keep people right: Request for amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act were suggested by the Scottish Government in 2021. Amendments were rejected by Westminster with Johnson saying they would instead go after drug dealers. SG response was to seek legal guidance. LA has now essentially green lit consumption rules. Westminster won`t intervene because they can`t. They correctly say drug consumption rooms aren`t the only solution but fail to highlight they are ONE solution to reducing drug deaths. Reply |
| 9. Author: hurricane_jimmy Date: Wed 13th Sep 2023. 19:11 Honestly, I really don`t get why Parboiled doesn`t just leave Scotland if it`s so Anglophobic and terribly run! That said, I guess it does reflect what I experienced working in England, which - the Imperialist superiority complex notwithstanding - was that people moan like buggery but have no solutions or grit to actually fix things. Moreover, appearing to celebrate that more folk have died than a previous quarter is genuinely pathetic. Fixing the drug deaths issue simply isn`t going to happen overnight and there will have to be a degree of experimentation to figure out which approach(es) are right. Personally, I always wondered about the feasibility of a mandatory 90 or 180 day treatment order, whereby those caught using heroin (or any drug for that matter) could be detained, treated and rehabilitated properly and for long enough so that they can stay clean. It would quite likely though interfere with a person`s legal right to reject medical treatment and this puts you on the slippery slope toward arguments about civil liberties and so on. My mother actually works as a Criminal Justice Social Worker and so I`ve had many an interesting conversation with her about this subject. She is quite adamant that the Methadone scheme doesn`t work and suggested this could be an option. She also states that a big part of the issue is that addicts will often return to their home areas following treatment and encounter the same circumstances that got them there in the first place. Forcing someone to relocate however is another potential legal obstacle and could prevent someone from working based on whatever skill set they might have. Creating the infrastructure for this would need to be a nationwide project with treatment centres across the country and then there comes the fact that these "treatment facilities" would be considered temporary and so they`d have to be designed in a way that they could be relatively re-purposed or downsized as the problem is gradually solved. Then you`d also have to think about the training for the staff and what kind of staffing you`d need in terms of medical training etc. In terms of funding, legalising cannabis and taxing it properly could be an option and there are several of the US states that could be used for potential financial projections of what could be brought in in revenues. I`d guesstimate though that cannabis use is more prevalent per capita in the US than it is in Scotland but I could be wrong. Reply |
| 10. Author: jake89 Date: Wed 13th Sep 2023. 20:03 Agree more needs done around rehabilitation but we also need to solve the problems that lead people into addiction in the first place. I`m not a researcher, but it would be interesting to compare the likes of Glasgow, which creates a massive spike in drug deaths in Scotland, with a similarly affected area of England or Wales. Many areas across the UK had the backside ripped out them in the 70s and 80s but Glasgow seems to have been adversely affected. Why is this? It`s not to do with money (Glaswegians receive more government funding than people in Dunfermline, for example). It`s not to do with opportunity either as Glasgow is a more prosperous city than somewhere like Blackpool or Bradford. So what is it? The only thing I can think of is Glasgow is a pretty grim city. Pleasant Victorian centre surrounded by post-war council estates and a motorway that runs through the middle of it. Reply |
| 11. Author: Dave_1885 Date: Thu 14th Sep 2023. 10:53 hurricane_jimmy, Wed 13 Sep 19:11 Because he gets all the additional perks of living here…..same reason my English Aunt, whos been retired 5 years and spends half her time in her camper van in Spain, is registered as living at my cousins in Stepps…..she lived her whole life in Yorkshire 😂 Post Edited (Thu 14 Sep 10:54) Reply |
| 12. Author: Parboiled Date: Thu 14th Sep 2023. 11:44 I am quite touched by the interest, but not as touched as those who express it..! Reply |
| 13. Author: hurricane_jimmy Date: Thu 14th Sep 2023. 17:15 Dave - You`re probably spot on. Parboiled - An auld Tory making jokes about younger folk being touched? I`d tread lightly there if I were you... Reply |
| 14. Author: Wotsit Date: Thu 14th Sep 2023. 22:59 hurricane_jimmy, Wed 13 Sept 19:11 This wouldn`t work because addiction is very often a symptom of trauma, and forcing traumatised people into treatment centres against their will only serves to further their trauma and reduce their ability to trust others. You'd be sending them back into the world clean, but more traumatised and with a reduced sense of trust, particularly for health services. Traumatised people have a very difficult time living in their own heads, and if they have self medicated with heroin, or alcohol, or crack before then they probably will again, even after going through forced-rehab-prison. Sadly, their is no such thing as forced trauma therapy A lot of people I work with who have addictions would willingly move to a different area if it was made easy mind you. That way they could escape debts and have a new set of dealers with a zero tab, because it`s not the individuals that they are returning to, it is the culture and that culture exists in every town and city in Scotland. On the extreme end of this is alcohol addiction; where would someone go in Scotland where boozing wasn`t part of the culture? The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Post Edited (Thu 14 Sep 23:05) Reply |
| 15. Author: hurricane_jimmy Date: Thu 14th Sep 2023. 23:02 Genuinely curious Wotsit - as somebody who works quite closely with this, what would you suggest as solutions? Reply |
| 16. Author: Wotsit Date: Thu 14th Sep 2023. 23:35 Much, much better psychology funding. Without going into literal psychobabble, I`m a fan of the theory that addiction, along with all other human psychology, is governed by our relationships with others (and, sometimes, stuff like addictive substances, teddy bears or computers) and that using psychotherapy to help people to better understand those relationships is the best way to overcome trauma and therefore addiction in a lasting way. Reduce poverty. Childhood trauma is linked to poverty very strongly, so breaking that link is essential. Traumatised parents often traumatise their kids, generating a cycle of poverty where multiple generations of the same family live the same chaotic and destructive lifestyle. Decriminalisation for personal use and prescription of clean, properly dosed morphine for heroin addicts. Methadone is much worse for people than morphine. It`s more addictive for starters. If people with addictions are able to access clean, properly dosed morphine then they are unlikely to use dealers nearly as much and are much less likely to overdose. Harm reduction works and it wasn`t so long ago that the Daily Mail brigade was up in arms about needle exchanges, yet no-one even mentions them now. Appropriate housing. Currently in Edinburgh we have a load of B&Bs crammed full of people with chaotic lifestyles and addictions. People have no chance in these places. If they`re not addicted to something when they go in, they probably will be by the time they leave. There aren`t any cheap or easy solutions unfortunately. Some cost a lot of money and one costs very little cash-wise, but would probably burn through a lot of political capital for whoever tries to enact it. The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Reply |
| 17. Author: jake89 Date: Wed 20th Sep 2023. 08:22 Sad drug related death at Inverkeithing High School yesterday. Why are kids taking drugs in school? Whatever happened to all the education adverts on the effects of drug and alcohol? Reply |
| 18. Author: Wotsit Date: Fri 29th Sep 2023. 18:32 The tone of the adverts is wrong. It always is. If you tell people that "drugs are bad" then people take some drugs anyway and discover that they are actually pretty good, at least initially, and they tell their pals then their pals are obviously going to believe their peers over the government. Otherwise new people wouldn`t keep taking them. We need to be more honest about drugs. For example, one of the main reasons people take drugs is to self medicate for poor mental health. We need to say that they are actually not so bad in the first place, great even, but if you feel the need to take some more than once in a while then that is probably an indicator of poor psychological wellbeing meaning that you should engage with the freely available, approachable mental health provision which is available in every society with has a rational approach to addiction prevention. That`s not cheap though, so when folk vote they have to balance how much they want a society with fewer people dealing with addiction vs how much they want to pay less tax. Post Edited (Fri 29 Sep 18:34) Reply |
| 19. Author: sammer Date: Fri 29th Sep 2023. 19:21 If I read Wotsit correctly he is saying that drug abuse is a symptom rather than a cause of a social problem. He`ll hear no arguments from me if that is the case. His emphasis on social relationships is surely the area that has to be addressed and that requires financial intervention. I do take issue with this statement however: `For example, one of the main reasons people take drugs is to self medicate for poor mental health.` In my own case I have taken legal drugs (alcohol and nicotine) in order to PREVENT falling victim to poor mental health. I`ve enjoyed the social interaction offered by both drugs (you can still get a good smokers` craic outside most bars even in these puritanical times)and can still overtake the odd runner on my daily jogging, which is possibly another drug for all I know. It`s not the drugs themselves that kill and that is the weakness in the argument of the Holy Willies who legislate on behalf of the public. Last I heard, Mick Jagger and Keith Richard are still alive and kicking which surely makes them over the UK average for life expectancy. sammer Reply |
| 20. Author: Wotsit Date: Fri 29th Sep 2023. 20:38 I agree that heroin addiction in particular is, in and of itself, a pretty benign thing pysiologically speaking. However, the social/psychological conditions which lead a person in our society towards habitual opiate misuse are not comparible to the Libertine ideal of clean, properly dosed, medically pure morphine in which rock stars reside. I am in no doubt that providing said clean, properly dosed morphine for those who need it might help prevent a lot of deaths mind you: I`m not opposed to the Libertine ideal, as long as it doesn`t only apply to some arbritrary vanguard. The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy. Reply |