UK - Club drug clinic opens its doors

edgarshade

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 31, 2010
Messages
1,954
Location
UK
Guardian

Sarah Boseley, health editor
Monday 26 September 2011 15.26 BST

NHS takes 70 referrals to treatment centre for new generation of designer drugs before its official launch

The first NHS clinic to treat people addicted to so-called clubbing drugs has opened, with 70 referrals already after people found it online ahead of the official launch. Nobody knows the scale of the problem that drugs such as ketamine, mephedrone and GHB or GBL may be causing the predominantly young people who take them when they go clubbing. Existing drug treatment centres were set up primarily to tackle more established abused drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, while GPs and other doctors are not well versed in the effects and dangers of the new drugs.

Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, an addiction psychiatrist who has set up the Club Drug Clinic with funding from Central and North-west London NHS Foundation Trust, said those who take club drugs tend to be younger, employed and sometimes affluent. They are often in relationships and don't necessarily identify themselves as addicts.
Cont...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/26/club-drug-clinic-launch?newsfeed=true
 
Thats the way forward. I know a Few people in their early twenties who are now desperately living with the health consequences of ketamine and mephedrone. They look for help at their GPs and all they get is fluoxetine to depress them even more...
 
This article is now available in the Independent with (currently clueless) reader comments.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...linic-to-treat-club-drug-addicts-2361444.html
Micky_B 13 minutes ago
OK, buy an old cruise liner, put on board all the drugs seized by customs; buy up the Taliban's heroin and put that on board too. Sail slowly around the UK, stopping at all ports. All druggies can come aboard for free and indulge in non-stop drug taking.

This will reduce drug-related crime, reduce the prison population, put the drug cartels and pushers out of business, stop young girls turning to prostitution to fund drug taking, reduce the spread of HIV (plentiful supply of needles on board) and de-glamorise drug taking ..... Oh, yes, it will also save the NHS a lot of money ..... i.e. working taxpayer's money.

Acevoice 1 hour ago
This initiative puts to shame the MOD on the treatment it has meted on that IED casualty they have 'retired' from the force that he became incapacitated serving, as well as every citizen sleeping easy in safety from Al Qaeda. How on earth can the system remove itself from the responsibility of freely caring and rehabilitating this man just because he is on wheelchair and has lost his speech, after actually watching all his efforts to walk again and perhaps go back to deactivate more mines?

This government stinks to the high heaven for its treatment of those who serve it, while those willingly killing themselves are pampered and nannied. In the right of the unfortunate case, how many will wish to join MOD? And then, who will guard the gates against Al Qaeda? The Taliban might as well have their HQ in Whitehall.
 
Last edited:
Daily Mail has the story now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...drug-users-number-addicts-keeps-climbing.html

With reader comments....
.... But cancer patients are likely to be left to die because NICE won't afford the drugs! ............ But you WILL afford this sort of thing!!!!!!!

- scinic, uk, 27/9/2011 12:46
There is no treatment for these dumbos except a personal realisation that they should stop abusing the most amazing and delicate organ in the human body - the brain. A waste of NHS resources. employed druggies should at least pay a token fee for 'treatment', as should drunks in A& E..

- David Bachauer, Manchester UK, 27/9/2011 12:01
 
It was only a matter of time.
Ket use is rampant in the u.k, especially in the 16/25 age range.
No one really knows the longterm effects of it either as it has not been around long enough . I have seen many younger folk using Ketamine and getting in to trouble with Physical health problems.
 
It was only a matter of time.
Ket use is rampant in the u.k, especially in the 16/25 age range.
No one really knows the longterm effects of it either as it has not been around long enough . I have seen many younger folk using Ketamine and getting in to trouble with Physical health problems.

Ketamine is 50 years old next year…

Its use was rampant in the hard house scene 6-10 years ago. There were very few reported problems until very recently - all involving people with similar usage patterns: huge, repeated doses over a length of time. We have had a binge culture in the UK - this is just an example of it, IMO.
 
^ Correct, the Daily Mail is pretty right-wing, nothing hipster about it. Man, I hate that paper.
 
Top