New drug strategy

[Ursula]

It's out: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/drugs/drug-strategy/drug-strategy-2010?view=Binary
 
Thoughts?

[Jimmy]

I have only glanced briefly at the the treatment section and I am pleasantly surprised. I hope I'm not imagining things but it appears as though they are actually recognizing that, I quote "medically assiated recovery can and does happen. There are many thousands in reciept of such prescriptions in our community today who have jobs, positive family lives and are no longer taking illegal drugs and committing crime". Moreover, there is not even the faintest hint of arbitary time limts or forcing people off their scripts.

Does this mean that those who don't feel able/want to come off their scripts but are living positive lives, such as myself and many other users of this forum, will now have their hard won recovery recognized as legitimate?

I am trying to retain some pesimism as this sounds almost to good to be true.

p.s What will happen to scripted individuals who are not considered to be leading positive lifestyles?

[OP8S]

It's got all the fashionable "buzz-words", holistic, individual etc. but appears not to recognise the fact that a proportion of society take drugs for pleasure, or because they feel it helps them in their daily lives. From looking over it I appear to have all my " Recovery Capital ", ie; my own house, my children that are being brought up well (my 6 year old has just been given a certificate for being one of the most polite & well behaved in the school he attends...dunno where that came from, LOL! ). I have a full-time job wich requires qualifications. The " holistic " situation is that I enjoy taking drugs, mostly recreational apart from my methadone which I have to take daily & will continue to do so because I find that opiates help stabilise my moods better than any anti-depressants that they have given me for my chronic depression that I have suffered from ever since I was a child. The reason that it is methadone I take now is that it is the only opiod that I can get legally on a daily basis. For years I spent my money on DHC only taking 6 x 120mg DHC Continus daily & would only use heroin if I could not obtain pharmacuetical painkillers like MST, DHC, Omnipom, Palfium. Once I had my family I could not afford to be buying other peoples scripts so went to the GP who prescribed me the DHC that I needed as long as I showed him my veins when I went to pick up my script, even my psychiatrist agreed with me that opiate use would help me with my depression. Then I was called in by the Practice Manager at the time who disagreed with the DHC prescription & sent me off to the local CDT who only prescribe DHC for fast detoxes. So now I am on a dose of methadone which is far higher than the equivalent dose of DHC I was on but needs to be to have a similar effect on my mood.
All this is costing the CDT/NHS far more than if I had been left on my original script of DHC from the GP, to me this just doesn't make sense. They're wasting loads of money sending key-workers out to see me, try to get me to reduce which I would if I was guaranteed to be put back on my original script from my GP but will certainly not if they just want me off opiods altogether. I know myself that it would be no time at all before I was either buying prescription painkillers or if I couldn't obtain them then heroin.
So in my experience they are not treating me as an individual or looking at my situation holisticaly, if that's my experience then I imagine that it is many other peoples experiences also.
I don't want to live in a society where people are expected to abstain from any substances, if substance use is regulated & distributed legally then the authorities will have done everything they can to reduce harm that substance mis-use causes.
Apoligies if I went off on a bit off a tangent but I can only speak from my own personal experiences.

[H4U]

I CANT STAND this TORY government, their idea of drug treatment sucks, i wish there was a bloodsless coup and they got overturned and replaceed by Labour party. I mean look at Nick Clegg the David Cameron ass wiper and as for Vince Cable look at his antics. Clearly this country ISNT conservative as it TOOK Cameron to ass lick Clegg to get into NO.10, and this is the liberal democrats first time in "co=alition power little known that, WHEN were the liberals in power on their OWN ie by WINNING an election?? Last century? Their policys are more fashioned like LABOURS so why the sudden coalition with the Torys of all people??? POWER THAT HE ALONE WOULDNT GET EVER THATS WHY, this government ia a JOKE IT MAKES ME FUMING MAD.

























8K

[OP8S]

KILL THEM ALL & LET GOD SORT THEM OUT!....as I beleive the original puppet politician Ronald Reagen was once quoted in relation to the troubles in Nicaragua at the time. I'd be quite happy with a blood thirsty coup, at least there would be a few less of them.

[H4U]

Blood thirsy coup? YES YES YES ID LOVE THAT OP8S THAT made me laugh like a vampire! the coalition is a joke.

[skunkworks]

Blood thirsy coup? YES YES YES ID LOVE THAT

Hey there folks, joke not about this - I have some very disturbing information - I garnered it from a friend on the inside at GCHQ:

There is indeed talk of 'Anti-Tory' pigeons gathering in and around the parliament buildings and Whitehall and they are backed by the British military too.







Several Anarcho-syndicalists who were undercover at the time heard the pigeons shouting Coo! [coup] Coo! [coup]

Be careful, it's a jungle out there, sometimes I wonder, how I keep from going under etc.. ..

[H4U]

Hey there folks, joke not about this - I have some very disturbing information - I garnered it from a friend on the inside at GCHQ:

There is indeed talk of 'Anti-Tory' pigeons gathering in and around the parliament buildings and Whitehall and they are backed by the British military  :Dtoo.

Craked me up reading this on :De!









Several Anarcho-syndicalists who were undercover at the time heard the pigeons shouting Coo! [coup] Coo! [coup]

Be careful, it's a jungle out there, sometimes I wonder, how I keep from going under etc.. ..

[dr117]

I have only glanced briefly at the the treatment section and I am pleasantly surprised. I hope I'm not imagining things but it appears as though they are actually recognizing that, I quote "medically assiated recovery can and does happen. There are many thousands in reciept of such prescriptions in our community today who have jobs, positive family lives and are no longer taking illegal drugs and committing crime".

I would be more optimistic about those words if the sentence before that didn't say that "substitute prescribing continues to have a role to play in the treatment of heroin dependence, both in stabilising drug use and supporting detoxification"; nothing about maintenance treatments. It then goes on to say that substitute prescriptions should only be a "first step in the recovery process" and that everyone on a substitute presciption must "engage in recovery activities" although it doesn't say what they are.

I don't like this at all, and while I agree that it doesn't explicitly set out any time limits, when you read it together with the stuff on Payment by Results for Drugs Recovery I don't think they are going to want people in there for the long haul.

[OP8S]

Yes the whole idea of " Recovery " makes you think that you've been in a road accident or something, it doesn't point out that some people are quite happy to stay stable on a substitution script. My drugs-worker brought up the whole Recovery Capital idea with me, thing is that unless I am mis-understanding him completely (?) I have all my recovery capital already. The things he mentioned was a job ( I already work full-time in quite a demanding job ), I am paying the mortgage on a three bedroom house on my own at the moment & I also have a good relationship with my kids, family, work colleagues ( including my prescribing GP ), etc. My main worry that if I was to have my maintenance script taken away from me that I would be at risk of losing all this so-called recovery capital because the chances are that I would end up spending a lot of my hard earned cash on street-drugs again, at the risk of losing my house, contact with my kids & losing my job. He didn't really have a satisfactory answer for that. Anyway I spoke to my GP alone the last time I went for my script & asked him if he would ever reduce me against my will ? He told me that he could see no point in it unless I asked him to reduce me myself as in his experience forced reductions are usually disasterous for the user with them turning back up at the clinic to get scripted within the year. As long as the Government doesn't put any arbitary (sp?) timescales on the length of time a client is in treatment for then he will keep prescribing me my daily dose until / if I decide that I am ready to reduce. I do have a very good prescribing GP who happens to be German & if you look at the way that Germany treats opiate dependent people you will see that they have a far more logical & civillised approach to drug-treatment. My GP does seem to have a very good attitude towards drug-treatment & will do everything he can to help you, even bend the rules a bit but he wont break the law & I wouldn't expect him to.

[Mark Gilman]

If you have a job etc and have decided that maintenance best serves your recovery then I cant understand why anyone would want to do anything to undermine your current success?

[Mark Gilman]

Sorry that was my point not a quote

[Jimmy]

In a way, the strategy appears to contradict itself. On the one hand it gives the impression that methadone should only be used for stabilisation/detox purposes and as a 'first step' in the recovery process; on the other, it appears to concede that there is indeed such thing as 'medically assissted recovery' which 'can and does happen'. If the powers that be were intending to detox the 'many thousands in receipt of such perscriptions in our communities today, living productive lives', I'd have thought the term 'medically assissted recovery' would have been avoided like the plague - and a concerted effort made instead to highlight the dangers and futility of long term perscribing, whatever the circumstance.

Having said that, my optimism is fading fast and I am beginning prepare myself for a long, hard fight.

All the best

[OP8S]

Just to make things a bit clearer...although my GP said that he would never reduce me against my will he did say that the local CDT's philosophy was that of recovery. So I just have to remain firm & assertive with my drugs-worker, when I said to him that I didn't mind taking methadone because it meant I could still have an opiod in my system & remain within the law. He said that wasn't the point that I was only prescribed it to stop withdrawls from opiates, so occassionally have to tell the odd white lie like.." the lad across the road has some top gear & I'm finding it really hard to resist". I don't particularily care to lie to him & kind of think that it defeats the point of having a drugs worker but if I was to tell him that I like taking opiods, better still opiates then he would start applying even more pressure for me to reduce, causing me to dread every visit he makes. Think I'll wait a few months & ask my GP if it would be possible for me to go back into a Primary Care setting. My drugs-worker would spend his time better helping those who want to acheive abstinance.

[derek d j]

 Is perhaps the bottom line that the Drugs Strategy can mean whatever you might think it means?

 What's important is how the various service providers interpret it.  Most will use iit to justify what they're doing anyway.  They make drug policy.  Government just rubber stamps and coughs up.   There hasn't been a whiff of common sense since Rolleston.

 Why not? 

 Weird.