The state of the UK drug addiction scene

Fatalities linked to synthetic opioid increased by 29% in a year, according to ONS figures.

Karen Tyrell, executive director at the drugs charity Addaction, described the statistics as devastating. “It’s such needless waste of life and a tragedy for so many families and loved ones. We have so much more to do. The truth is that most drug related deaths are preventable............

she contd........... “People who use opioids (like heroin) often have cumulative physical and mental health problems. Most of them have had very difficult, often traumatic lives and we’re letting them down if we don’t give them the best care that we can.

“Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides to become dependent on drugs. Everyone deserves help, and we know that every person can recover with the right support.”
She added: “After 20 years in this sector, I know for sure that we need to do a much better job of providing safe and non-judgmental advice. The reality is there aren’t enough trustworthy places to get support around drugs and alcohol.”

As someone who has worked in the mental health and alcohol and drug arenas all my working life I have often struggled with the frustration of providing services to such individuals only to see them 'fall down' and 'fall down' again and again. We had to learn to be non-judgmental - easy to say than do sometimes and as Karen Tyrell says

I doubt if in a continuing growing young popn things are going to get better too soon. Services and the right staff are essential in the right numbers. Can the govt rise to this occasion?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...14&CMP=ema_632

Re: The state of the UK drug addiction scene

There's really no hope I'm afraid.

Politically speaking the government and all the political media parasites use this "problem" to tug at the heart strings of unsavvy voters and to try to lay the blame at the government in power. Looney Labour and the wholly duplicitous Commie Corbyn like to use the term "Homelessness" in this arena which is totally false. We don't have a nation of homeless people, the true numbers of really homeless are absolutely tiny.

What we have is a colossal drink and drug addiction problem which no-one is really tackling.

The basic problem is that rehab, and by that I mean REAL PROPER LONG TERM rehab, costs a lot of money. Rehab clinics charge £1000s for people to go there, stay there and get clean.

Naturally your typical drug addict has barely got change for a cup of coffee let alone £1000s for rehab.

So this problem isn't going away.

The NHS offer "rehab" but it is typically a 7 day affair which is frankly no use to man nor beast.

And all this rehab is but stage 1 of a much wider path to recovery.

You see you CAN succeed in getting someone clean, dry from alcohol or drugs, BUT that person still needs a life.

These people are street people. They are part of a very real underground that pervades every major city in the country. They roam around towns and cities, they know all the people in that underground network, the good, the bad, the really dangerous, and their lives revolve around being with those people, hanging out with those people, existing alongside those people.

Whilst that remains the case no-one will ever succeed in getting someone off drugs. What happens is the person comes out of rehab, but then doesn't actually have a life, has no structure, no real friends other than the underground network and they are immediately bored. What do they do?

They just head straight back to the town/city centres to be with the people they know, to hang out and that of course leads to them being offered drink/drugs again and straight away they are back on the wagon.

This problem is MASSIVE when you think it through end-to-end. These people need to have support not only to get proper rehab but also post rehab. They need places where they can go to meet new people who are not druggies, who are engaged in activities that are interesting, absorbing and fun. They need job opportunities where they can earn a steady wage and start to lead a normal life. But they need support right the way through this entire process.

What you have at the moment is 100s of silly little support centres who simply give them places to be during the day, give them meals throughout the day and who help them sort out some kind of accommodation. These are little more than sticking plasters over broken bones. They solve absolutely 3 fifths of FA. Most of those support centres are actually places where drug addicts can get together with drug dealers to buy their stuff. The support centres have rules of course banning the exchange of any drugs but naturally the clients do it anyway and if not right inside the centres, they just do it outside.

What these support centres DO do though is generate nice lucrative jobs for a raft of support workers who other wise might find it hard to get a job. Those people are simply perpetuating the problem, inventing support centres where these vulnerable people can come, ensuring there is a constant turnaround of "clients" as they call them, making their lives easier by giving meals and clothes and so on. Problem is that few of them are getting rehab and the few that do get it, don't manage to stay clean. The support centres are all getting money in as a charity from the public and business they tout. I find it all a bit unsavoury personally.

This huge issue will not go away until and unless our governments, globally, in total cooperation, go ruthlessly after the drug barons and drug peddlers. Cut the manufacturing and you cut out the supply of drugs. Then people have no choice but to get clean.

It will never happen though. The world is run by crooks like these and they have the governments in their pockets.

So we must live with the outfall. We must live in a world with increasing numbers of druggies who will naturally end up stealing and mugging people to get money for their habits.

This IS the world we live in.

Re: The state of the UK drug addiction scene

unfortunately agreed with you realist - if we can't really help the hurt ones we can never help ourselves truly!

Re: The state of the UK drug addiction scene

I despise dealers, I understand some dealers are addicts themselves but many aren't and they destroy the lives of users and their families for money greed. I could quite happily shoot those people dead. There is no place on this earth for pigs ( not the word I wanted to put) like those when they knowingly go out to destroy the lives and prey on vulnerable kids.

I agree with real too, if the government cared they would do something to help these people. The waiting list for rehab within the NHS can be 9 months + and by that time many have died.

Re: The state of the UK drug addiction scene

I think the extent to which we [all of us and govt] are willing to help the dispossessed and disabled and disowned in our societies is a measure of how we will succeed ourselves?