Life Suspended - the madness of UK Drug Treatment

[charlie clean]

I'm 60. My life went down the toilet as a result of criminalised narcotic addiction but, at 38, I 'qualified' under UK treatment guidelines for a diamorphine 'script'. I've prospered ever since.

This time last year, the future was rosy. I'd discharged some longterm personal responsibilities and reunited with 'successful' old friends who thought I'd died twenty years ago. They provided cautious backing for a new personal project and I looked forward to a new challenge.

I certainly got one, but it was very different to what I'd planned. On election eve, our new, 'charity corporation' drug service provider (dsp) announced times were tough, we were all in this together and all 27 'injectable' prescriptions in the county ( Cambridgeshire )were to be discontinued 'on cost grounds'. There would be no exceptions and no right of appeal; we could, however, write to the 'business manager' who'd made the announcement.

I wasn't the only one to whom this 'blanket' removal made no sense. There were eight on diamorphine and nineteen on injectable methadone prescriptions in the county. The six known diamorphs had accumulated 45 criminal convictions between them before they were given their scripts; in the average 20 years since, zero. Lives had been repaired, we were posterchildren for 'harm reduction' maintenance. We'd all suffered dreadfully adverse reactions to methadone and other treatment options and did not believe that, after a little 'upset', we'd be 'grateful' to lose the very medication that kept us together.

Online research and enquiry revealed some disturbing lies on the part of the dsp. After intial sceptism, local DAAT (drug&alcohol treatment) and NTA ( national treatment agency) reps finally met face-to-face with complainants in August - they'd been told we were all 'very happy' with the new policy and were shocked to hear our side of the story. '2nd psychiatric opinions' from experienced clincians were arranged and the dsp informed there were to be no further script 'reductions' until these were given, which was expected to be 'within 2 or 3 weeks'.

From thereonin, things turned rather nasty. New complainants and numerous, unexplained logistical problems delayed the arrival of the '2nds'. There was no return of the average 25% of their scripts already removed from addicts. Those perceived as 'ringleaders' of the dissent enjoyed some pretty individualised treatment. The dsp scrambled to find justifiable 'medical reasons' for their decision and 'users' complained it effectively created problems for them to 'prove' they had a problem in the first place. Some were obliged to turn to street drugs again, with predictable results. If they told the dsp, they faced 'punishment' for not sticking to their scripts; if they didn't they were fine with lower dosages. A formal query at Christmas brought the response that it was not safe to return addicts to their regular dosage as their 'tolerances' were down'. What to us was a serious matter seemed to be a game to the dsp, a corporate contest they were out to 'win', like battling with rival providers when new contracts came up for tender. Vulnerable men and women of fragile mental ecologies were treated to tactics more appropriate to corporate raiders. An incomplete history of the affair may be found on the general discussion forum at www.m-alliance.org.uk.

The 2nd opinions finally arrive to see us next week. For some, it's too late - one guy died in hospital from complications following a septicemia from shooting up bad brown. Others complain of near clinical depression from dsp bullying and the constant stress of getting by with an axe poised above their necks; some report dsp crowing they'll ignore unfavourable (to them) 2nd opinions and all believe their lives diminshed since May.

Britsh Drug Treatment, once the envy of the world, is in a sorry mess, the sick man of Europe. Since the privatisation of treatment, four charity corps have taken over 70% of cachement areas. Finding the difference between them is like distinguishing Christian fundamentalists; all are abstentionist opiophobes who see drug treatment as a control problem. the social policing of moral defectives. They pay less than the NHS, allow all kinds of inferior types the legitamacy of health service professionals after 12 weeks training, and underbid rivals in the usual corporation way, a concentration on appearance over substance. In absence of checks and balances or any form of 'union lobby', their version is the only one heard. Government policy is effectively determined by their reports. Consequently, vast sums are now spent on detox, rehabs and counselling - exactly the same percentage achieve lasting abstinence as did in times of diy. If you think about it, it's pretty obvious there would be.

But nobody's thinking. The money's so good. Boomtime for the 'help' industries, hard times for 300,000 UK heroin self-medicators. Reason has gone out of the window, replaced by a dubious presumption of addict as criminal or retard, less patient than parolee. Younger addicts have known no different, accept pissing into a beaker and being treated as a naughty boy by spurious middle-class dogooders wanting to think well of themselves, or of being at the mercy of the kind of bully found from playground to killing fields. Consultants who know nothing of their subject, who are unable even to distinguish among different 'drugs', are commonplace - obedience to company dictates is the principal obligation of employment. Righteousness is confused with drug abstinence, getting 'clean' - even words are corporate-spun to mean the opposite of their dictionary definitons. 'Users' have precious little options other than to adapt, to get used to it.

I'm not used to it. I'm not animated waste. I'm a 60 year old, law-abiding British citizen. Until this bloody nonsense started, my circle of freinds and acquaintances included only two other 'drug addicts' - an intelligent prescribing policy had allowed me to live with my dependency much like an insulin addict, to divorce from other drugs and the 'drug scene'. Now, drug treatment ( having finalised its divorce from the 'drug problem'! ) would make my life reolve around the pharmacy line. And of course them. These terrible people want to control my life, to 'help' me by making me like them - they project their own unresolved 'ego-conflicts' onto me, the addiction object. If I protest, my ingratitude to help shows I need more help, to be 'monitored' further. They must 'win' - they'll stand over my grave and piously lament they couldn't have helped me earlier. Why? Is it for the money? Or the drugs?

I'm not the kind of person who usually namedrops, but earlier in my life I ran into people like Ronnie Laing, Joseph Campbell and Viktor Frankl. A helpful young CBT counsellor isn't going to do much for me, except maybe encourage me to help with their problems. Like many another addict, I also bumped into Burroughs a couple of times. He'd have said this is the whole point - the drug addict now exists for the benefit of drug treatment. In effect, they turn you into what you're supposed to be, junk people. Bill would've said everybody's got it back to front, its the Benways of the dsp who're the junkies.

It shouldn't be this way but for nine months my life, like others in Cambridge, has been on hold, treading water, trying not sink under the weight. Why do we feel so alone? A quick scan of this site reveals addicts still dying daily, needlessly - would a diamorphine prescription have saved those ives, maybe turned them around as it did with mine? Are addicts resigned to their lowly status, pathetically grateful for a few mls of methadone linctus under supervised consumption? ( another 'earner' at their expense.) Are they incapable of finding a united voice? Are they happy to be criminals? Do they think they deserve the stigma? Why is nobody asking why?

The pressure's on here, we're all bruised and battered by the events of the ast nine months. As indeed are 300,000 UK victims of drug treatment insanity. Does anybody have any ideas?

 

[monstanoodle]

Woh....
I've just read all this (it would benefit from a bit more sentense breaking for easier reading) and this is SO SO FUCKED UP!!!

I'm so sorry you've had to go through all this. I mean... Having to prove you're an addict!!!!?!?!?! What the hell are you there for in the first place for fuck's sake??? My god are they utterly thick? Can't think of any other reason.

This must be a political thing, with a lot of pressure involved. If not then I don't have a clue. It does sound like there's pressure on them from somewhere. And these alternative agencies sound completely useless - Don't have a clue about the lives and ways of the people they're "treating".

You've been able to get your life completely back on track with thanks to a Diamorphine script and they expect you, and others, to continue on as normal when they take it away from you?
Baka!

I really don't know what else to say other than I'm so sorry and that I hope you can get this sorted out without too much more fuss (which I feel is unlikely)...

Seriously, I wish you the best of luck charlie ♥

Monsta

 

[MrM]

Sounds like a terrible situation. The government actually has a decent harm reduction program (shock horror!), albeit a small one, and then decides to cut the budget and cut off all the people previously able to live normal productive happy lives.

I would suggest you investigate dried poppy pods. If you are reasonably handy with basic kitchen stuff you can extract an opium like substance from them, although it is a bit of a pain. Or you can brew them into a tea, but that leaves you constipated for days. Not that i'm suggesting this is anything like a good enough solution.

(it would benefit from a bit more sentense breaking for easier reading)

This is true, but it was well written for someone probably unfamiliar with internet forums.

My advice is to just use enter twice rather than once after each paragraph to pad them out with an extra line break. Like myself and monstanoodle (all the cool kids do it).

 

[monstanoodle]

Sounds like a terrible situation. The government actually has a decent harm reduction program (shock horror!), albeit a small one, and then decides to cut the budget and cut off all the people previously able to live normal productive happy lives.

I would suggest you investigage dried poppy pods. If you are reasonably handy with basic kitchen stuff you can extract an opium like substance from them, although it is a bit of a pain. Or you can brew them into a tea, but that leaves you constipated for days. Not that i'm suggesting this is anything like a good enough solution.

That could be a good idea but yea, if the OP's used to the pin then that's another thing to have to quit from in itself But the Opium-esque liquid from Pods would be very useful and it last a very long time. If you could get used to it then it'd suit you really well

My advice is to just use enter twice rather than once after each paragraph to pad them out with an extra line break. Like myself and monstanoodle (all the cool kids do it).[/

Yea I'm such a cool kid %) (Pah!) But yea it does make for easier and quicker reading

 

[MrM]

That could be a good idea but yea, if the OP's used to the pin then that's another thing to have to quit from in itself But the Opium-esque liquid from Pods would be very useful and it last a very long time. If you could get used to it then it'd suit you really well

I was surprised at the strength of the dried poppy head tea when i made it for myself. The fact i legally aquired the stuff and then made a tea from it (which took about half an hour or so to do and wasn't much more complex than making regular tea in a pot) seemed almost too good to be true.

I spent a good 24 hours completely stoned. I've never had much success gaining recreational value from the fiew opiates i've tried, but the poppy tea was really enjoyable. I think the fact it was a mixture of various opiods naturally occuring in the poppies (a bit like opium would be, i guess) rather than one refined opiate like heroin means that you get a broader range of effect. It almost felt psychedelic at points.

The 24 hours after than i still felt quite spaced. I wouldn't have been able to drive or do serious tasks for a good 2 days after taking it (lacking energy and possibly coordination) and i wasn't able to eat much during this time as hunger seemed to be surpressed. I also ended up constipated for the whole time as well which is never pleasant.

For these reasons, whilst i did the stuff half a dozen times, i never found it that addictive. It just didn't seem practical to take it that often and dedicate 2 days to the experience that often which leaves you feeling quite wiped out, albeit in a very pleasant way, for the whole time.

I suppose a lower dose might have been more practical but i was going for a full blown recreational high, and i enjoyed the stuff a lot.

If you refine it to an opium like substance i believe there are fewer side effects and you can also smoke it to get a shorter more managable high, but my one attempt at this failed horribly. It's not that hard though from what i read.

 

[sockpuppet]

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[monstanoodle]

And to think that the UK followed the USA when it came to passing the "misuse of drugs act"
Utterly pathetic..

 

[charlie clean]

Yeah, it's a madness.

What happened here should have been stopped when the dsp was rumbled. It had relied on our doing and believing what we were told. Drug treatment has grown so divorced from reality, they did not realise they denied neurological and other addiction realities. Think about how you'd be if you were taken off a 40 year solid habit at 65. But they're so bloody arrogant, and they're used to their own way, like Canute. Rather than admit the mistake, they've determined to front it out. It was more important they assert their control, to silence our protests as the ingratitude of garbage. Who are we to stand in their way, to say they're not right?

Such is the confusion within the soon-to-be disbanded NTA, and DAAT co-ordination in the hands of local government,nobody stops them. The individuals concerned face the possibilty of redundancies in the next round of job cuts. It's only junkies. They're fuck-ups anyway, the dsp tells them so and they're the experts.

We've suffered a nightmare over the past nine months. We've faced a hostile 'give us trouble, we give you trouble' mentality and some terrifying intimidation. Everyone thinks they mean to help. t's been fucking unbelievably awful. I've vomited violently in the street after 'appointments' and seen strong women weeping like children. Any attempts to get publicity have just brought more punishment, more teaching us to be grateful for their 'help'. That's all we've achieved - those contacted sympathise, but can't do much. Perhaps, they can't quite appreciate addiction realities, perhaps it's more than their job's worth to risk the wrath of the corps. We've all got one more 'consultation' to survive before the 2nds come on February 11 th -12th. If we make it, we've the chance to 'prove' our stories. I and others cling to our law-abiding, lovely lives by our fingerptips. It's wrong what they've done, what they would still do. Please help.

Opposition has been silenced after forty years concentrated effort by an uholy alliance of moralists and moneymen. First they took heroin off the agenda as 'euphoric' - pleasure, especialy easily obtained, is bad. They've sinced picked the addict carcass dry and would now it over for rebuilding to their ocusins in rehabs. As 'The History of the Brtish System' tactfully puts it, 'a determined few have, in the absence of contrary voice, exercised undue influence'. Demurring professionals have faced hysterical witchunts, persecution up to GMC level. Now they know its professional suicide to stick their head over the parapet. Addict numbers have risen every year from less than a 1000 on the 1969 abandonent of the Rolleston System to an estimated 300,000 tonight. It's been a very bad joke, and the punchline has come in Cambridge.

Since the opening up of local treatment service provision to tender, the big boys have moved in. US outift Phoenix, already operating its 'tough love' rehabs in the UK, took an immediate interest. Small charities of hustlers and ex-addicts suddenly found corporate backing, and followed. Drug treatment became big business; a governent that ruled by expediency killed the the two birds of job creation and drug problem with one stone. Boomtime.

Management is recruited from other corporate areas, from oil or retailing. PR men use charity associations to sentimentalise a good earner as a good thing. NHS presentations are no match for ruthless corporate tactics. Contracts fell like dominoes. Ground level employees were already there - the DSP workers not good enough to find alternative NHS posts and willing to take £2000 a year less. ( which allows the corps to underbid for the contract in the first place) And to do what the corps tells them. They join newbiies of twelve week indoctrination on the team. Their job is to use any method to get bad addicts off bad drugs, to get them clean. For their own good. And the corps. For the team. New addict generations have learned to play their part, to grin embarrassedly for their naughtiness to please shallow, insufferable prigs. If they decide pissing in a beaker and being humoured as garbage in exchange for a supervised-consumption methadone addiction isn't a good deal, they can always return to the street. They've successfully discharged from treatment. Good for the team. Those who stay are pressed into detox and 4 tier rehabs, for which the corps bill governent £1000 a day. The former offers less than mate with a spare room and the latter concentrates on turning wild childs into Stepford wives.

It doesn't get any more addicts to achieve lasting abstinence. If you think about it, it wouldn't, would it? But that's hardly the point. This is business. These are businessmen, they fly business class. Statisitcs can be bent, who'll know or care, this is drugs, these are junkies. Read The Sun or the Daily Mail. It's sordid; we volutnary sector entrepreneurs deserve our money. For our kindness in helping the ungrateful bastards.

Drug treatment provision for Cabridge alone puts £3.7 million annually into the corp pocket. The corps can think of better ways to spend the cost of out scripts. On themsleves, the hole in their consumer arm where all the money goes. Addicts exist to benefit the dsp, what other earthly use are they? Consultants are only considered if they will follow the corporation line. This tends to attract only the incompetent, the specious moralist or the both. They spout only corporate-approved research and dismiss RIOTT, Cochrane and the Orange Book as irrelevant. Who's going to argue? At the top, corporate wheels make political and business connections. They report their successes and 'findings' to governent and suggest policy adjustments. It's a two way street. Friends get consultancies to the board.

Addicts get sent into an endless cul de sac. This is drug treatent as massive con, with the people its meant to help as its victims. The business manager who told us straightfaced we had to 'do our bit' by sacrificing our scripts could assuage any conscience with assurances from the experts of the team. They told him we were just sneaky junkies, we'd suffer no worse than a mild dose of flu. They knew this because the corps had told them so during their training.

300,000 are out in the cold tonight, facing premature death and a certain criminal tomorrow. Proper drug treatment can change things. It needs to be taken out of the hands of charlatans and carpetbaggers. It's a dreadful fraud. It's about time everybody realised it. The Emperor has had no clothes for decades, and we've all been bamboozled and bewildered into thinking otherwise. Till now

In sleepy Cambridge, a few old addicts from better times have stood up to them. Not because they're heores but because they'd no alternative. Drug treatment had reduced itself to its own absurdity - addicts were actually expected to collaborate in their own extirpation, and the corps affected outrage at our being unable to do so. We've suffered some awful retributive bullying and what one described as psychological vivisection. But their ignorance and arrogance caused a chink in a closed prsim to be prised open. It allows people like you to see what's really been going on in UK drug treatment. To think about it, to make the difference

I go on. I'm tired. Thanks for the double spacing tips. I'm learning. Please help.

 

[sockpuppet]

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[StoneHappyMonday]

Sense.

Best posts on BL in ages.

Solidarity an' all that.

 

[monstanoodle]

Abso-fucking-lutely SHM, that was a fantastic post Charlie ♥
I'm just so sorry it's under such messed up circumstances

xxx

 

[charlie clean]

Woh...

This must be a political thing, with a lot of pressure involved. If not then I don't have a clue. It does sound like there's pressure on them from somewhere. And these alternative agencies sound completely useless

Monsta

The clue lies in the date of the the original 'everybody off' announcement. May 5th, 2010.

Election time. Polls put Cameron win as racing certainty. Alliance between Duncan Smith of the Tory Right and our charity corp bigwigs. IDS promises hard line come the new 'Drugs Strategy' - no dole for junkies who won't go to rehab, bucks for dsps who get their clients 'clean' etc, etc. In a competitive market, vital to get an edge on other charity corps rivals with new contracts up for tender,

On the ground, all the decent drug workers of the old NHS service gone elsewhere. Replaced by nincompoops and bullies who'd've happily worked at T4. And feel good about themselves for 'helping these people'

Protest. Punishment for us. Fightback by the few health professionals who give a fuck. Small Lib Dem reaction via local MP but nobody wants to make too many coalition waves. Abstentionists - respectable people - refer all enquiries to 'dose of flu' evidence. Scumbag junkies, making much ado about nothing.

Teresa May et al ignore most all opposition, but IDS thwarted. No financial sanctions for addicts. Grudging recognition of 'medically assisted recovery'. Rival corps spread the news of problems at our dsp, their rivals. New tender boards influenced, new contracts go to other charity corps, who are in reality little different. They pledge to 'follow government policy' they in effect create.

Pressure from management. Clean up this mess in Cambridge. Indequate individuals here decide to crush the protesters. 2 on incidental chemotherapy suffer appalling abuse. DOH guidelines for treatment of addicts on chemo utterly ignored, denied as 'not relevant in these cases'. Other specialists concerned, reassured by fellow 'health professionals' at dsp. These are only junkies. Who cares?

I'm not junk. I'm a 60 year old, law-abiding British citizen. These clowns would kill me to protect their mileage alowances, their sense of self-importance. I've seen them do it before. There's one lad died here December who'd still be alive if his script hadn'y been removed 'to help not shorten his ife'. Inadequate dsp individuals decide to hush it up, front it out - he was a junkie, junkies die, not our fault.

After 9 months of hell for Cambridge addicts, the delayed 2nd opinions finaly due to arrive. DAAT/NTA/national corps scramble. They invite compainants to 'express their feelings'. Complainants do just that. Everybody says how sad but its not their fault. Everybody goes home. Shame about the junkies, looked like one or two of them weren't dole scrounging, useless mouths after all. Never mnd, eh?

As I've said, we've suffered such nasty 'individualised treatment' for 'running off to the DAAT and NTA', we've been reluctant to post on sites like this. There's been not let up from the dsp. These people shouldn't be in charge of a dogs home. British Drug Treatment is a con, a fraud, a lie. Pass the word on. Pease.

Btw, poppies used to grow in abundandance in the nearby Fens. Addicts happily slitting 'n' scraping in corn fields were a common summer sight. Then a 'police initiative' warned local farmers of the menace in their midst. Previously friendly yokels now chase off 'drug barons' with pitchforks, council sends workers to burn down patches growing wlid on wasteland. Local nurseries introduce 'opium free' genetically -modifed poppies. These are dominant, cross-pollination lowers opium content of the reaL thing. So it goes in word gone mad. Poppy tea hurts my aged belly, anyway'.

 

[B9]

Best posts on BL in ages.

Solidarity an' all that.

Seconded - I'm all for deliberate targeting of the individuals concerned in the decision making process & more so the ones who "crowed" about ignoring second opinions; and doing whatever it takes to wreck their lives.
Probably not a useful suggestion but how else do you deal with bullying when the bullies are the regulators ?

Vulnerable men and women of fragile mental ecologies were treated to tactics more appropriate to corporate raiders.

I'd imagine they'd congratulate themselves for professionalism and completely disregard the human part of the equation.
Sad thing is in so many areas of our lives things are set to get worse with the caring sharing alliance idealists finally letting loose on those who cannot effectively fight back.

Does one remain as cannon fodder or does one fight back in the drug war ?

 

[brimz]

Very intelligent posting Charlie, I sincerely feel for you . I myself have been in "Drug Treatment" for the last 15 years with no consistency in prescribing .
This past week has been a nightmare and all i m doing is taking my script to a different chemist. I was treated with suspicion by the new Pharmacist as soon as he saw the Controlled Drug script.
All the best Brimz

 

[effie]

I agree - v good post, it's a sorry situation indeed. There are also plans afoot to scrap the whole idea of long term maintenance methadone and give users 18 months then kick them off their script completely (can't find a source, but heard this from a doctor involved in drugs treatment) and generally move away from harm reduction and towards total abstenance from opiates. Based on no scientific grounds that I can find, just seems to come from complete discrimination and prejudice against drugs users. It's crazy and horrible and I hope it doesn't come to that!

So sorry to hear your story Charlie - hard to know what to do about it but I hope you find a way through this..

 

[megawoof]

i agree found the post a very good read i deffo feel empathy for you charlie as im one of them 300,000 addicts strung out in the cold cant imagine what it must of been like to be told you were been taken off your script after such a long time of stable and law abiding progress. people and power it really sucks i wish there was a way to fight to unite against this ugly machine i would deffo stand up and be counted

 

[bonebeater]

Maybe I'm a bit naive to think this - but is there no way any of the Cambridge lot to mount some sort of legal challenge to what these dsp charlatans are doing to them? If not through the UK then through the EU which always seems to like to stick its oar in. Has any legal advise about this situation been sought?

 

[charlie clean]

Maybe I'm a bit naive to think this - but is there no way any of the Cambridge lot to mount some sort of legal challenge to what these dsp charlatans are doing to them? If not through the UK then through the EU which always seems to like to stick its oar in. Has any legal advise about this situation been sought?

Oh, man, if only. Any advice welcome.

Way I see it, once the 2nds have reported, there'll be efforts to sweep it all under the carpet. That's when people can help, make sure it's not.

Can no-one mount a challenge to corporate/abstentionist drug treatment? The politicians simply just do not know how it works. Why is everybody so resigned? 50,000 views on the 'heroin shortage' thread - do people like this way of life? Do younger generations think it obligatory?

A lovely afternoon in the country here among the real people. They're a dying breed. World's full of fucking junkies, and some of them even take drugs as well.

 

[charlie clean]

Woh....
I've just read all this (it would benefit from a bit more sentense breaking for easier reading) and this is SO SO FUCKED UP!!!

I'm so sorry you've had to go through all this. I mean... Having to prove you're an addict!!!!?!?!?! What the hell are you there for in the first place for fuck's sake??? My god are they utterly thick? Can't think of any other reason.

This must be a political thing, with a lot of pressure involved. If not then I don't have a clue. It does sound like there's pressure on them from somewhere. And these alternative agencies sound completely useless - Don't have a clue about the lives and ways of the people they're "treating".

You've been able to get your life completely back on track with thanks to a Diamorphine script and they expect you, and others, to continue on as normal when they take it away from you? ♥

Monsta

This is the point, in a way. When you think about it, government drug policy is what drug treatment tells them. Drug treatment is run by corporation men, and the corporations are above government. Why do you think Cameron is powerless to halt the bankers bonuses, even though we the taxpayer bail out the banks?

They employ the cheapest, to undercut the competition. That means the incompetent. the moralising and the lazy. In a difficult area of understanding, they have remarkable licence, an extraordinary power The kind that would figure £3.7 million isn't enough, would want the extra few grand our scripts cost. They don't give a fuck about 'people who take drugs'. Just for themselves, although the of course pretend different. Posible even to themselves. The're shallow people. Corporation men.

The 'politics' was a corporate provider in a privatised, competitive market trying to get an edge on competition by reading the political runes. If we'd've been younger, we'd've' believed them. done as they bid. Then they'd have reported 'success' to political contacts. Drug policy would then have reflected their 'findings'. This, incredibly, is the way it works. I feel like the child who cries out the Emperor has no clothes.

Are addicts junk? Or are they so lacking in self-confidence, so battered and bewildered by criminalisation and stigmatisation, they'll lie down and take anything?

It doesn't have to be like this! When i was a kid, addicts went to their GP, got a heroin script. No need to raise £100 a day. No crime, no drug gangs, no billionaire narcoterrorists. There were less than a 1000 naroctic dependents in the whole country. Lokk around, see what's happened since.

Drug treatment is a con, a hoax, a fraud, a lie. It's the folly of mad moralists, fearmongers and moneygrabbers. A whole country suffers and nobody asks the obvious question. Why has this nonsense gone on and got worse for 40 years?

Can your social chitchat about who's had the best imitation drugs. You've been conned! Those of you who need them should all have smack scripts. Bit like that old John and Yoko slogan, if you want it. Tell your friends, do something about it

 

[Shambles]

Sorry to say but the OP still makes my eyes bleed and am too pissed to read the more manageable follow-ups properly... But I presume this is essentially yet another "Jump through the hoops and beg for scraps, Junky Boy/Gal" type policy? If so, have lived through many variations on this theme and none have ever made one iota of difference to actual treatment (or lack thereof) as far as I'm aware. Any addict worth his salt can blag any bullshit test in his sleep. Am just about to start up seeing my old drugs counsellor again after several months break (cos she wasn't quite sure how to deal with somebody whose usage of and opinions on drugs she totally agreed with) so will see what the craic is at the end of the week. Storm in a teacup seems likely to me based on pure assumption though....