Does anyone else hate the use of"clean and dirty",to talk about drug use

[manus]

I have never been comfortable about those two little words"C word,D word,when used in the context of drug treatment ,agency etc speak!,I have never ever considered myself dirty because I use drugs,I may have been f..king filthy covered in muck etc "dirty"or called "You dirty bastard",by ex mrs girlfriends,,but hate the inplication that when being talked of as "not yet clean",or",do you think you would ever want to be clean,etc  in reference and often used when discussing my maintenence on methadone.Am I one of a few (,I know others who find the use of the two words in such contexts really out of order) or are there many more who just keep quiet and say nothing but really they also fing the terms offensive.So dont you think those "Dirty bastards",could and should come up with  a more non extremely offensive way of discussing a persons use or not of drugs?(I CERTAINLY DO)

[sapphire]

Yep, I hate it too, if I was "dirty" I'd take a bath! It all adds to stigma and people need to be more thoughtful about the language they use around drug treatment.
Or as it is commonly being known "Enforcement off Methadone Treatment".

[OP8S]

Can't say that my DSP employees ever come out with that very often. I would certainly be offended if one of them did in reference to my meth script as it's a legally prescribed drug. I may get asked if I've been using anything but for the most of the time I don't. I think even my DSP think's it a bit offensive.

[sapphire]

I think even my DSP think's it a bit offensive.

An enlightened bunch then?!   

[froude]

Yeah hate the word's CLEAN n DIRTY,rather say used or not used.Used to get right on my tits when the Keyworker would say "right then Ian are you clean today?"YEAH HAD A SHOWER BEFORE I CAME OUT ,YOU?.Got to admit now its slightly different and nothing's said as im here and they know ive not been using Drug's(well the skunk is still playing a part),just having them at medication time, the one's that are prescribed are taken and down the throat as quick as i can.Yeah personally cant stand the word's CLEAN N DIRTY,remind's me off being homeless.All the best Froude

[derek d j]

Oh yeah. Nowhere is newspeak more in evidence than where drugs are concerned. Even that word 'drug', has an ugly sound - I drug the junk-ie to the washeteria, etc. If you tape record a certain type of treatment worker and play it back later, you can pull out a hundred words used to suggest other than their dictionary meaning. Whenever language is mutated, alarm bells should ring.

[physeptomaton]

Oh yeah. Nowhere is newspeak more in evidence than where drugs are concerned. Even that word 'drug', has an ugly sound - I drug the junk-ie to the washeteria, etc. If you tape record a certain type of treatment worker and play it back later, you can pull out a hundred words used to suggest other than their dictionary meaning. Whenever language is mutated, alarm bells should ring.

I hear this gripe from my closest still-using friend. "35 years, they've been telling me to get clean... I've had a fucking shower, shut the fuck up with your stigmatising language, it's DRUG-FREE you want to say."
 
I sympathise with your concern over mangling of meaning. Like "recovery-oriented", "full recovery", "client" or even "Service User" itself [to me that implies that it's not really medicine, else the word PATIENT would be used- with the SU nomenclature, the issue of the last thing you hear being "user" is psychologically significant too], "involuntary addiction" as opposed to voluntary which MacD calls out for its victim-blaming potential,  "inappropriate prescribing" for giving addicts what they want and especially when it's white and powdery or pink and cyclizine-ish. 

One consoles oneself that this happens in every walk of life, and is not a special torture inflicted exclusively on papaverians. Nota bene, "tough on the causes of crime" for allowing Thatcher-Major welfare stripping and brutal prison regimes etc to continue; "war on women" on both sides of the US election,  meaning either allowing abortion or opposing abortion depending on the persuasions of the speaker, "in denial" for not agreeing with every word your shrink says about you...

and when your daughter's teacher calls herself "approachable", which you later discover means that she will listen to her sexual fantasies and experiences and keep it absolutely SECRET  provided she's over 13.    Now that's a War on Parenting.


But you already know of my keen appreciation for linguistic follies from previous posts.

[Jim]

never use this word myself and acticely discourage it.  However I've personally heard it used more by service users than workers (conditioning no doubt)

[sapphire]

never use this word myself and acticely discourage it.  However I've personally heard it used more by service users than workers (conditioning no doubt)

I think you're right, workers these days use a more "politically correct" phraseology, but a lot of the service users (at my DSP), still talk in terms of clean and dirty, which I actively try to discourage them using without sounding too much like a condescending prick, if you know what I mean!!

[froude]

Your bang on there Derek DJ,DRUG.what 's it mean to people;
Injection
Heroin
Junkie
Medication
Homeless
Disease
health
Begging
Abcess
Treatment
Dirty,need i go on,no i dont think i do ,ive seemed to be all that when the use of the word DRUG ever came up with me in the room ,especially family/parents.
                All the best to you Froude.

[afcjimwomble]

Oh fuck yes!!! I find that very insulting. If anyone uses those words with me I,ll kick there fucking nuts in! The Womble has spoken! Bloody cheeky fuckers.