What If....the Tories Won the last election!?!?! (This is regarding Opioid users!)

[StoneHappyMonday]

Don't quote stupid statistics at my experience wcote. I won't bite any further but shambles has let you off lightly.

 

[wcote]

Yeah I like this forum, don't wanna fuck people off.

Just put my foot in it.

 

[Shambles]

Sorry.

And sorry to be a tad vitriolic. I get on with you for the most part. Nice PM exchanges and everything. But trying to defend the utterly indefensible is downright offensive to most. It's bordering on Holocause denial trying to defend the Tories' policies in the 80s

 

[Gaz_hmmmm]

No it isn't bullshit and he isn't making it up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/20/conservatives-heroin-addiction-treatment-overhaul

That's what he is talking about.

I'm appalled you seem to imply the Tories want to improve rehab. The Tories want to make rehab as cheap and painful as possible. The Tories are responsible for a shift towards abstinence-based ideas in harm reduction. The Tories are currently making the lives of drug workers and drug users as shitty as they possibly can.

Gaz is prompting a valid debate and I'm amazed some of you people have nearly written off this thread without checking what he was on about.

Thank you StoneHappyMonday, that's what I was referring to.

No one's posted anything close to the 'What if' scenario, only said things like I'm talking shit and it wouldn't happen.

All I'm asking is... what if?

 

[tekkeN]

I got the impression during my spell in residential treatment that under the coalition there has been increased funding for 'recovery' based treatment, especially for those with substance problems who have been in and out of the prison system for years. In fact one of the counselors repeatedly talked about it being on the agenda.

There is certainly more talk of conditionality in the welfare system to encourage addicts to change their behavior. This seems to be related to increasing disillusionment with methadone maintenance treatment and an aspiration to solve the drug-crime problem by endorsing the goal of total abstinence. Furthermore the Alcohol Strategy presented by the coalition government in 2012 puts greater emphasis on changing problematic social norms relating to consumption as well as increasing funding for abstinence based treatment for alcoholics.

I find it all very interesting considering the vast majority of residential abstinence based treatment centres use the Minnesota Model (modified from 12-steps). It's all a bit moral compared to maintenance, and with Comic Relief raising money for drug addicts it seems to be getting discussed a lot