Dear Deidre on Google
Mood: celebratory
Topic: Drugs FAQ
STOP PRESS! (11 January 2007)
I couldn't resist pasting this in here: my Dear Deidre Google listing!!
Gledwood's Drug Confessions: A Heroin Addict's Blog
Posted by gledwood at 12:57 AM GMT. Updated: Saturday, 6 January 2007 1:18 ... Hi, Gledwood -- yes, it certainly is amazing that Dear Deidre wrote to you! ...
gledwood.tripod.com/blog/index.blog?entry_id=1616106 - 37k - 9 Jan 2007 - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from gledwood.tripod.com ]
Posted by gledwood at 1:02 AM GMT
Updated: Thursday, 11 January 2007 3:22 PM GMT
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Saturday, 20 January 2007
Dear Deidre Replies!
Friday, 5 January 2007
Dear Deidre Replies to Me!
Mood: hug me
Topic: Drugs FAQ
Hi, thanks for your email and for telling me about your efforts with your blog.
I am sorry to hear that you are addicted to heroin and I hope you are getting the right kind of help to come off it. I am attaching my leaflet about drug worries, which where you can get advice and information on stopping. It also explains my perspective on this.
I do hope, though, that things work out all right for you.
All the best
Deidre
sun newspaper personal advice service deidre sanders
DRUG WORRIES?
If you are worried about drugs, whether it's your own use of them or someone else's, I'm glad you've got in touch.
Some drugs are much more dangerous than others but the ones I’m talking about here all have one danger in common. They are all illegal, unless taken on a doctor's prescription, so using them brings the risk of getting in trouble. If you’re caught with just a tiny amount of some of these drugs on your person – simple “possession” – you may get away as far as the police are concerned with just a verbal warning or official caution. But most schools and many colleges and companies have a zero-tolerance policy, so you could be thrown out for possession of just a small quantity of a drug not in itself very dangerous health-wise, and that could have a seriously bad, lasting effect on your education and prospects. This is a good argument for steering clear of all such drugs.
If you are caught in possession of any larger quantity of a drug than a single dose, then you could be suspected of possession with intent to supply. Passing drugs to your friends, even free of charge, is regarded as supplying, and can get you into far more serious trouble. And there are some serious reasons for such drugs being against the law.
Even drugs which aren't reckoned medically to cause serious side-effects can be more disturbing the younger you are when you start using them, because your brain chemistry and personality are less settled, more easily knocked off balance. Since you have so much else going on in your life during your teenage years and are going through so many personality developments and relationship changes anyway, it makes sense to leave drugs out of the picture at least until you are clearer where your life is heading, what you really want and how you’re going to get there.
For every high, there has to be a low, no up without a down. Regular use of any mood-altering drug - including alcohol, of course - eats into your energy levels, makes you feel you can't be bothered, tends to be destructive of relationships. This is dangerous at any age and is certainly a good reason to make sure you get help if you feel drawn towards regularly blotting out the world. There has to be a reason for this, probably to do with unhappy times in the past, perhaps even when you were a small child. The sooner you sort out what bad feelings lurk around inside you, the sooner you will find that you don't actually need drugs to have a good time. Just as with alcohol, it is always dangerous to take any drugs and drive.
Having said all that, however, it is important to realise that some drugs are more dangerous than others, though all illegally obtained drugs may - without your knowing - have been mixed with something far more dangerous or be at a lethal strength.
What drugs are commonly available on the street?.
Solvents are found in products like glue and lighter fuel. The effects are similar to being drunk (including the hangover). Risks include suffocation and choking to death, and long-term misuse can result in lasting brain damage.
Amphetamines (also called Speed or Uppers) give a sense of energy and confidence, but anxiety and irritability soon take over. High doses can give you panic attacks. Regular users tend to take increasing doses which undermine health.
Cannabis or marijuana (also called Dope, Blow, Grass, and so on), makes people feel more relaxed and talkative. It's not normally addictive, but users can come to rely on it as a way of feeling more relaxed socially. Modern extra-strong forms of cannabis are more habit-forming and damaging. It can trigger serious mental health problems such as schizophrenia in teenagers and is linked with depression, anxiety and risk of suicide. Cannabis is usually smoked with tobacco too, with all its associated health risks.
Ecstasy is mainly known as E though it has many other nicknames. If it's taken in a hot atmosphere without enough water or soft drinks being available, at a rave for example, it can cause heatstroke. It is particularly dangerous for anyone who suffers from epileptic fits or any kind of heart condition. Ecstasy can make people very friendly towards each other or give them a feeling of extra energy. Once the effect wears off, though, it can leave them feeling low, and regular use can have serious long-term effects. I have heard from many who found it leads to serious lasting depression.
Cocaine or coke as it's often known, is a powerful stimulant but effects tend to peak quickly and lessen rapidly. The drug then has to be taken more often to maintain the high and this leads to dependence. Over the longer term, it can cause sickness, sleeplessness, and weight loss. Sniffing cocaine can also damage the membranes inside the nose.
Crack is cocaine which has been treated with chemicals so that it can be smoked, and it’s more dangerous. The initial high is followed by unpleasant after-effects, which not only encourage compulsive use but can also lead to dependence.
LSD, also known as acid, is very powerful. You need take only a minute quantity - by mouth - for a trip lasting several hours. Hallucinations are usually vivid. It’s not addictive but trips can lead to depression, dizziness and panic. These are more likely if the user is anxious or in unfamiliar surroundings, and are more likely to cause long-term disturbance in the young or vulnerable.
Heroin (or Smack, Junk, or H) is sometimes sniffed like cocaine, sometimes smoked, sometimes injected. It creates a feeling of total relaxation and comfort but, once physical dependence has established itself, this pleasure is replaced simply by the relief of getting hold of the drug because withdrawal is so distressing. Mis-users need more and more just to get the same effect. Abuse is linked with crime, risk of HIV, self-neglect – in fact a thoroughly miserable way of life.
You can get more information and advice about all these drugs in confidence from FRANK (the national drugs helpline) on 0800 77 66 00, www.talktofrank.com. The Parents Drug Test on their website (www.taktofrank.com) is a useful quiz guide to most commonly used drugs, their appearance, popular street names and how to identify signs of drug-taking.
I hope you’ve found this useful. If I can be of further help, or you’d like my booklist on related subjects, please e-mail problems@deardeidre.org, or write, enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope if possible to: Deidre Sanders, FREEPOST, THE SUN, London E98 lAX.
© Deidre Sanders
D06L
While I make every effort to ensure the advice and information I provide is accurate and up to date, my service cannot be a substitute for consulting your own doctor, solicitor or a face-to-
face counsellor when needed. I cannot be held responsible or liable for claims arising out of our correspondence, nor if I have been misled about the facts and circumstances.
5 January 2007
Posted by gledwood at 12:53 AM GMT
Updated: Friday, 5 January 2007 1:01 AM GMT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink
Comments Page 1 of 1
Friday, 5 January 2007 - 11:43 AM GMT
Name: "chipper"
Home Page: http://playingwithfire.blogdrive.com
Fascinating blog you have here! I'll definitely be back.
Reply to this Comment
Friday, 5 January 2007 - 2:33 PM GMT
Name: "Ruth"
Home Page: http://ruth-boofie.blogspot.com/
Wow... a reply from Dear Deidre. To be honest I always thought these sorts of pages in newspapers were entirely ficticious. Glad to see I was wrong. I'm getting one heck of an education about drugs (in a good way) from your blog. Fore-warned is fore-armed. Keep up the good work. There are a lot of people who are going to benefit from your openess and sound advice.........including yourself.
Rx
Dear Deidre Replies to Me!
Mood: hug me
Topic: Drugs FAQ
Hi, thanks for your email and for telling me about your efforts with your blog.
I am sorry to hear that you are addicted to heroin and I hope you are getting the right kind of help to come off it. I am attaching my leaflet about drug worries, which where you can get advice and information on stopping. It also explains my perspective on this.
I do hope, though, that things work out all right for you.
All the best
Deidre
sun newspaper personal advice service deidre sanders
DRUG WORRIES?
If you are worried about drugs, whether it's your own use of them or someone else's, I'm glad you've got in touch.
Some drugs are much more dangerous than others but the ones I’m talking about here all have one danger in common. They are all illegal, unless taken on a doctor's prescription, so using them brings the risk of getting in trouble. If you’re caught with just a tiny amount of some of these drugs on your person – simple “possession” – you may get away as far as the police are concerned with just a verbal warning or official caution. But most schools and many colleges and companies have a zero-tolerance policy, so you could be thrown out for possession of just a small quantity of a drug not in itself very dangerous health-wise, and that could have a seriously bad, lasting effect on your education and prospects. This is a good argument for steering clear of all such drugs.
If you are caught in possession of any larger quantity of a drug than a single dose, then you could be suspected of possession with intent to supply. Passing drugs to your friends, even free of charge, is regarded as supplying, and can get you into far more serious trouble. And there are some serious reasons for such drugs being against the law.
Even drugs which aren't reckoned medically to cause serious side-effects can be more disturbing the younger you are when you start using them, because your brain chemistry and personality are less settled, more easily knocked off balance. Since you have so much else going on in your life during your teenage years and are going through so many personality developments and relationship changes anyway, it makes sense to leave drugs out of the picture at least until you are clearer where your life is heading, what you really want and how you’re going to get there.
For every high, there has to be a low, no up without a down. Regular use of any mood-altering drug - including alcohol, of course - eats into your energy levels, makes you feel you can't be bothered, tends to be destructive of relationships. This is dangerous at any age and is certainly a good reason to make sure you get help if you feel drawn towards regularly blotting out the world. There has to be a reason for this, probably to do with unhappy times in the past, perhaps even when you were a small child. The sooner you sort out what bad feelings lurk around inside you, the sooner you will find that you don't actually need drugs to have a good time. Just as with alcohol, it is always dangerous to take any drugs and drive.
Having said all that, however, it is important to realise that some drugs are more dangerous than others, though all illegally obtained drugs may - without your knowing - have been mixed with something far more dangerous or be at a lethal strength.
What drugs are commonly available on the street?.
Solvents are found in products like glue and lighter fuel. The effects are similar to being drunk (including the hangover). Risks include suffocation and choking to death, and long-term misuse can result in lasting brain damage.
Amphetamines (also called Speed or Uppers) give a sense of energy and confidence, but anxiety and irritability soon take over. High doses can give you panic attacks. Regular users tend to take increasing doses which undermine health.
Cannabis or marijuana (also called Dope, Blow, Grass, and so on), makes people feel more relaxed and talkative. It's not normally addictive, but users can come to rely on it as a way of feeling more relaxed socially. Modern extra-strong forms of cannabis are more habit-forming and damaging. It can trigger serious mental health problems such as schizophrenia in teenagers and is linked with depression, anxiety and risk of suicide. Cannabis is usually smoked with tobacco too, with all its associated health risks.
Ecstasy is mainly known as E though it has many other nicknames. If it's taken in a hot atmosphere without enough water or soft drinks being available, at a rave for example, it can cause heatstroke. It is particularly dangerous for anyone who suffers from epileptic fits or any kind of heart condition. Ecstasy can make people very friendly towards each other or give them a feeling of extra energy. Once the effect wears off, though, it can leave them feeling low, and regular use can have serious long-term effects. I have heard from many who found it leads to serious lasting depression.
Cocaine or coke as it's often known, is a powerful stimulant but effects tend to peak quickly and lessen rapidly. The drug then has to be taken more often to maintain the high and this leads to dependence. Over the longer term, it can cause sickness, sleeplessness, and weight loss. Sniffing cocaine can also damage the membranes inside the nose.
Crack is cocaine which has been treated with chemicals so that it can be smoked, and it’s more dangerous. The initial high is followed by unpleasant after-effects, which not only encourage compulsive use but can also lead to dependence.
LSD, also known as acid, is very powerful. You need take only a minute quantity - by mouth - for a trip lasting several hours. Hallucinations are usually vivid. It’s not addictive but trips can lead to depression, dizziness and panic. These are more likely if the user is anxious or in unfamiliar surroundings, and are more likely to cause long-term disturbance in the young or vulnerable.
Heroin (or Smack, Junk, or H) is sometimes sniffed like cocaine, sometimes smoked, sometimes injected. It creates a feeling of total relaxation and comfort but, once physical dependence has established itself, this pleasure is replaced simply by the relief of getting hold of the drug because withdrawal is so distressing. Mis-users need more and more just to get the same effect. Abuse is linked with crime, risk of HIV, self-neglect – in fact a thoroughly miserable way of life.
You can get more information and advice about all these drugs in confidence from FRANK (the national drugs helpline) on 0800 77 66 00, www.talktofrank.com. The Parents Drug Test on their website (www.taktofrank.com) is a useful quiz guide to most commonly used drugs, their appearance, popular street names and how to identify signs of drug-taking.
I hope you’ve found this useful. If I can be of further help, or you’d like my booklist on related subjects, please e-mail problems@deardeidre.org, or write, enclosing a stamped self-addressed envelope if possible to: Deidre Sanders, FREEPOST, THE SUN, London E98 lAX.
© Deidre Sanders
D06L
While I make every effort to ensure the advice and information I provide is accurate and up to date, my service cannot be a substitute for consulting your own doctor, solicitor or a face-to-
face counsellor when needed. I cannot be held responsible or liable for claims arising out of our correspondence, nor if I have been misled about the facts and circumstances.
5 January 2007
Posted by gledwood at 12:53 AM GMT
Updated: Friday, 5 January 2007 1:01 AM GMT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink
Comments Page 1 of 1
Friday, 5 January 2007 - 11:43 AM GMT
Name: "chipper"
Home Page: http://playingwithfire.blogdrive.com
Fascinating blog you have here! I'll definitely be back.
Reply to this Comment
Friday, 5 January 2007 - 2:33 PM GMT
Name: "Ruth"
Home Page: http://ruth-boofie.blogspot.com/
Wow... a reply from Dear Deidre. To be honest I always thought these sorts of pages in newspapers were entirely ficticious. Glad to see I was wrong. I'm getting one heck of an education about drugs (in a good way) from your blog. Fore-warned is fore-armed. Keep up the good work. There are a lot of people who are going to benefit from your openess and sound advice.........including yourself.
Rx
Saddam Hanged
Sunday, 31 December 2006
SADDAM
Mood: incredulous
Now Playing: tearfully - boo-hoo!
Topic: News Views
WHEN I WOKE UP yesterday with the radio telling me of the last moments of Saddam Hussein as he approached the hanging scaffold… turned down the offer of a hood, bowed his neck, calmly accepting the noose… exclaimed, “God is great!” — his last words — then:— WHAM!
I was always against the death penalty when I was younger… (What if they got the wrong guy?)… more recently my mind began to change. Saddam Hussein kept alive in Iraq would always be liable to jailbreaks from his mobs of “insurgents”…
But I have to admit, and I’m hardly Saddam’s #1 fan, that of all the things to feel on hearing of his death, I felt tearful. Why? Why do we feel sad when anyone dies? It’s often because of all that person didn’t achieve and all they were not. That’s why when someone like Mother Theresa goes, having lived a full and worthwhile existence, barely a tear is shed. But someone with a troubled life, someone like Princess Diana… see what I mean?
Well, that’s my theory.
Posted by gledwood at 1:55 PM GMT
Updated: Sunday, 31 December 2006 9:34 PM GMT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink
Comments Page 1 of 1
Tuesday, 2 January 2007 - 10:40 PM GMT
Name: "ggirl"
Home Page: http://ggirl.tblog.com
E-Mail: ggirl@space.la
To paraphrase one of my favorite poems, we are mourning for ourselves. I think people did cry when Mother Theresa died. I guess it just depends on your point of view. The loss of human life is...a reminder of our own mortality.
Reply to this Comment
Wednesday, 3 January 2007 - 4:01 PM GMT
Name: "Gledwood"
Home Page: http://gledwood.tripod.com/blog
Yeah, I suppose that might have sounded a little unfeeling of me... I didn't mean so much that nobody would have cried when Mother Theresa died as that the tears cried are very different ones to say those wept over Diana...
I remember when the Queen Mother died about 3 years ago. I fell asleep with the TV on (as per usual). BBC was playing a constant news loop of Queen Mum funeral coverage. This excerpt kept coming up of the Queen, "We should remember her with happiness," type of thing. But there was deep sadness in the Queen's voice. You could hear it. Of course it was her own mother's funeral. That clip kept going on again and again, it went into my subconscious, into my sleep and dreams... I woke up feeling very sad on what (for me) wouldn't have been an otherwise sad day. (I do like the Royals, but not in an OTT way)...
Ok then,
Gleds
SADDAM
Mood: incredulous
Now Playing: tearfully - boo-hoo!
Topic: News Views
WHEN I WOKE UP yesterday with the radio telling me of the last moments of Saddam Hussein as he approached the hanging scaffold… turned down the offer of a hood, bowed his neck, calmly accepting the noose… exclaimed, “God is great!” — his last words — then:— WHAM!
I was always against the death penalty when I was younger… (What if they got the wrong guy?)… more recently my mind began to change. Saddam Hussein kept alive in Iraq would always be liable to jailbreaks from his mobs of “insurgents”…
But I have to admit, and I’m hardly Saddam’s #1 fan, that of all the things to feel on hearing of his death, I felt tearful. Why? Why do we feel sad when anyone dies? It’s often because of all that person didn’t achieve and all they were not. That’s why when someone like Mother Theresa goes, having lived a full and worthwhile existence, barely a tear is shed. But someone with a troubled life, someone like Princess Diana… see what I mean?
Well, that’s my theory.
Posted by gledwood at 1:55 PM GMT
Updated: Sunday, 31 December 2006 9:34 PM GMT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink
Comments Page 1 of 1
Tuesday, 2 January 2007 - 10:40 PM GMT
Name: "ggirl"
Home Page: http://ggirl.tblog.com
E-Mail: ggirl@space.la
To paraphrase one of my favorite poems, we are mourning for ourselves. I think people did cry when Mother Theresa died. I guess it just depends on your point of view. The loss of human life is...a reminder of our own mortality.
Reply to this Comment
Wednesday, 3 January 2007 - 4:01 PM GMT
Name: "Gledwood"
Home Page: http://gledwood.tripod.com/blog
Yeah, I suppose that might have sounded a little unfeeling of me... I didn't mean so much that nobody would have cried when Mother Theresa died as that the tears cried are very different ones to say those wept over Diana...
I remember when the Queen Mother died about 3 years ago. I fell asleep with the TV on (as per usual). BBC was playing a constant news loop of Queen Mum funeral coverage. This excerpt kept coming up of the Queen, "We should remember her with happiness," type of thing. But there was deep sadness in the Queen's voice. You could hear it. Of course it was her own mother's funeral. That clip kept going on again and again, it went into my subconscious, into my sleep and dreams... I woke up feeling very sad on what (for me) wouldn't have been an otherwise sad day. (I do like the Royals, but not in an OTT way)...
Ok then,
Gleds
Diana
Diana
Mood: mischievious
Now Playing: Candle in the Wind '97
Topic: News Views
… Incidentally, re Princess Diana and the Royal Family it amuses me the way they seem to be viewed by the foreign media:— almost as celebrities who don’t make films or records. Very modern Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan-type celebrities. Has Lindsay Lohan been in a film? Has anyone seen it?
Our Queen is our Head of State much as an old granny becomes head of a family Since the Queen Mum died a few years ago our Queen ticks both of these boxes. She is loved and respected by a vast proportion of the population in a way I’m not sure Republic-dwellers could fully understand.
An American President gets at most eight years. The former Irish President Mary Robinson (in a figurehead role more equivalent to that of our Queen) had a regal bearing but she only did the job for a few years.
Queen Elizabeth II has reigned since 1952 and was well known to the public of course (as Princess Elizabeth) all her life up to then. We have seen how a woman perhaps not the most naturally gifted with “star quality” and charisma has performed the duties to which she was born with rare dignity, escaping the kind of scandals in which practically every other member of her family became embroiled.
Diana was dangerous because while she was alive and popular she attracted public sympathies and support that might otherwise have been directed at Charles and the Queen. (Although there were signs that her popularity was perhaps just starting to falter when she died.)
The Queen is little interested in her popularity ratings and though her “star” might well be at an all-time high today, there have been periods in history when the Royals weren’t all that popular at all.
It is often said that in an ever more rapidly changing world the Queen provides Britons with a sense of constancy and stability.
Perhaps it’s a paradox that as we gradually enter a sci-fi-comes-real style of future, the Royal family are becoming more indispensable to us than they’ve ever been in this present “Constitutional” age…
Posted by gledwood at 1:50 PM GMT
Mood: mischievious
Now Playing: Candle in the Wind '97
Topic: News Views
… Incidentally, re Princess Diana and the Royal Family it amuses me the way they seem to be viewed by the foreign media:— almost as celebrities who don’t make films or records. Very modern Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan-type celebrities. Has Lindsay Lohan been in a film? Has anyone seen it?
Our Queen is our Head of State much as an old granny becomes head of a family Since the Queen Mum died a few years ago our Queen ticks both of these boxes. She is loved and respected by a vast proportion of the population in a way I’m not sure Republic-dwellers could fully understand.
An American President gets at most eight years. The former Irish President Mary Robinson (in a figurehead role more equivalent to that of our Queen) had a regal bearing but she only did the job for a few years.
Queen Elizabeth II has reigned since 1952 and was well known to the public of course (as Princess Elizabeth) all her life up to then. We have seen how a woman perhaps not the most naturally gifted with “star quality” and charisma has performed the duties to which she was born with rare dignity, escaping the kind of scandals in which practically every other member of her family became embroiled.
Diana was dangerous because while she was alive and popular she attracted public sympathies and support that might otherwise have been directed at Charles and the Queen. (Although there were signs that her popularity was perhaps just starting to falter when she died.)
The Queen is little interested in her popularity ratings and though her “star” might well be at an all-time high today, there have been periods in history when the Royals weren’t all that popular at all.
It is often said that in an ever more rapidly changing world the Queen provides Britons with a sense of constancy and stability.
Perhaps it’s a paradox that as we gradually enter a sci-fi-comes-real style of future, the Royal family are becoming more indispensable to us than they’ve ever been in this present “Constitutional” age…
Posted by gledwood at 1:50 PM GMT
Friday, 19 January 2007
Daily Mirror
Monday, 18 December 2006
Daily MirrorNow Playing: the ModeratorTopic: News Views
WITH THE RECENT MURDER of five drug-addicted street prostitutes in Ipswich, the papers are full of letters on the issue of drugs.
These comments from today’s Daily Mirror:—
The Ipswich killer is a piece of trash who will be caught anyway bit I regard him as the secondary killer.
The people who took these girls’ lives in the first place are the scum who deal drugs.
They have been slowly destroying our country in ways that Hitler or al-Qaeda could only have dreamt of.
Put resources into stopping them before they finish the job.
Says Ian Crichton of Birmingham.
Heroin should be made available on the NHS which would curb drug dealing and prostitution. It’s time for a more enlightened approach.
— E Cosby, Leeds
We need to adopt a realistic attitude towards prostitution — I suggest regulating it as the Dutch and Scandinavians do.
Drug addiction is also a nightmare but trying to stamp it out will not work. We must seek to lessen its malignant influence by licensing drugs. Poverty too leads to degradation and despair.
Perhaps these deaths will jolt enough people into realizing something must be done.
— David Sawtell, Tydd St Giles, Cambridgeshire.
— Yes, but what?
The tabloids have not always been so open-minded regarding drugs as they are today.
But in a society where most people have a son or daughter, niece or nephew or at least know someone whose family has been blighted this way, it becomes more and more difficult merely to write off addicts as “scum”.
There are too many of us about nowadays — and I don’t say this with pride — to ignore this situation. Addiction to hard drugs crops up e.g. on TV talk shows incidental to the main subject so frequently it suggests to me that the Government’s figures, a quarter of a million supposed heroin addicts in a population of 60 million, are wildly underestimated.
There’s no point my demanding that someone ought to do something because I know they won’t. The problem will only get worse and society, like an already iceberg-hit Titanic, will continue to creak and groan and sigh in all its agonies. I believe our society is literally falling apart.
One day soon, just like the legendary boat, our civilized society will suddenly sink without a trace.
We’ll be left in anarchy and chaos, wondering how we managed to go so badly wrong.
Posted by gledwood at 9:44 PM GMT
Post Comment View Comments (2) Permalink
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Comments Page 1 of 1
Saturday, 23 December 2006 - 12:46 PM GMT
Name: "Igor" Home Page: http://--E-Mail: igorigorovic@yahoo.com
They talk about solutions, what is the solution though? I take methadone also, with some success. Surely a better treatment should be available...
Reply to this Comment
Saturday, 23 December 2006 - 9:37 PM GMT
Name: "Gledwood" Home Page: http://gledwood.tripod.com/blog
Yes, I'd like to see diamorphine made available to addicts.
Daily MirrorNow Playing: the ModeratorTopic: News Views
WITH THE RECENT MURDER of five drug-addicted street prostitutes in Ipswich, the papers are full of letters on the issue of drugs.
These comments from today’s Daily Mirror:—
The Ipswich killer is a piece of trash who will be caught anyway bit I regard him as the secondary killer.
The people who took these girls’ lives in the first place are the scum who deal drugs.
They have been slowly destroying our country in ways that Hitler or al-Qaeda could only have dreamt of.
Put resources into stopping them before they finish the job.
Says Ian Crichton of Birmingham.
Heroin should be made available on the NHS which would curb drug dealing and prostitution. It’s time for a more enlightened approach.
— E Cosby, Leeds
We need to adopt a realistic attitude towards prostitution — I suggest regulating it as the Dutch and Scandinavians do.
Drug addiction is also a nightmare but trying to stamp it out will not work. We must seek to lessen its malignant influence by licensing drugs. Poverty too leads to degradation and despair.
Perhaps these deaths will jolt enough people into realizing something must be done.
— David Sawtell, Tydd St Giles, Cambridgeshire.
— Yes, but what?
The tabloids have not always been so open-minded regarding drugs as they are today.
But in a society where most people have a son or daughter, niece or nephew or at least know someone whose family has been blighted this way, it becomes more and more difficult merely to write off addicts as “scum”.
There are too many of us about nowadays — and I don’t say this with pride — to ignore this situation. Addiction to hard drugs crops up e.g. on TV talk shows incidental to the main subject so frequently it suggests to me that the Government’s figures, a quarter of a million supposed heroin addicts in a population of 60 million, are wildly underestimated.
There’s no point my demanding that someone ought to do something because I know they won’t. The problem will only get worse and society, like an already iceberg-hit Titanic, will continue to creak and groan and sigh in all its agonies. I believe our society is literally falling apart.
One day soon, just like the legendary boat, our civilized society will suddenly sink without a trace.
We’ll be left in anarchy and chaos, wondering how we managed to go so badly wrong.
Posted by gledwood at 9:44 PM GMT
Post Comment View Comments (2) Permalink
.page_link { text-align: center; margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px;}
.prev_link { float: left; position: relative; }
.next_link { float: right; position: relative; }
.date { margin-top: 0; }
Comments Page 1 of 1
Saturday, 23 December 2006 - 12:46 PM GMT
Name: "Igor" Home Page: http://--E-Mail: igorigorovic@yahoo.com
They talk about solutions, what is the solution though? I take methadone also, with some success. Surely a better treatment should be available...
Reply to this Comment
Saturday, 23 December 2006 - 9:37 PM GMT
Name: "Gledwood" Home Page: http://gledwood.tripod.com/blog
Yes, I'd like to see diamorphine made available to addicts.
Monday Blues
Monday, 4 December 2006
Monday BluesMood: blueNow Playing: the Monday BluesTopic: Daily Doings
ANOTHER WEEK BEGINS. HOW DEPRESSING. "Teeshirts in December!" the paper was exclaiming last week. This has been the hottest autumn since records began around 1700. The December weather — 8°C instead of 7°C — is an entire one degree warmer than average. I did notice a nutter wearing shorts last week. But why? It was rainy and damp every day. I wake up freezing cold each morning. Darkness surrounds us — from practically 4pm till 7am In deepest midwinter — the solstice is about a fortnight's time — two-thirds of the day is dark. How people cope in latitudes even northerner than here where nighttime eats up even more of the day I really can't comprehend.
A feature on BBC World Service's Outlook show tracked down this crazy family from the Norwegian isle of Spitsbergen, well inside the Arctic Circle. Dark for weeks on end at one pole of the year; light for weeks on end at the other. I mean, I call them crazy because you'd have to be mad to choose to live there. But these folks — man and wife and two teenage daughters — seemed remarkably sane, considering. Making jokes about all-night guitar-strumming in July. Also, I couldn't help noticing they all spoke better English than I do!! And Spitsbergen is about 1000 miles north of Scotland, hovering somewhere between Northern Greenland and the ice-sheets on top of Siberia on a latitude of about 80°. If I lived up there I'd hibernate from October to March.
But I don't know if I'll feel any less down come spring. "Come off the drugs!" I hear you cry.
And daily, the treadmill of addiction continues to turn.
"I went on them because I was depressed, " is my answer.
And that, you could say, is the most vicious circle of all.
"How are you ever going to give yourself a chance unless you do give up?" you reply.
Well... excuses, excuses: I could give more. I had some demoralizing experiences trying to stop. Despite the most admirable reasons, I was victim of my own bad planning, had a poor domestic situation to return to as well as teh mother of all Disfunctional Relationships — all unresolved.
In a great pickle of unhappiness I stumbled blindly on. (That is my "excuse".)
I cannot explain the inexplicable, dear Reader, though some mischievious megabyte-gobbling inner gremlin would love to rise to the challenge of trying.
"Moderation in all things," counselled Jesus Christ. Although I may come across as clement and mild-mannered to many, beneath the surface I'm probably the most immoderate person I have ever met. Bouncing through lfie from obsessoin to obsession with bleakness and despairing in-between. (The obsessive times can be fun, I must admit. Morning, noon and night I'm consumed by whatever project on and on... then I look back and wonder what the fuss was about.)
BTW a restaurant Up North called "Polonium" has been packed to the rafters since Russian spies, a sinister case of politics and poisoning and a trail of the 210 isotope between London and Moscow have put the nation's media (not to mention Geiger counters) in a tizz.
Well I did have a lovely Sunday lunch yesterday.
I'll leave you with a news story that made me laugh. "False passports let investigator into Britain"!! What a surprise. This from the nation that really does make headlines like : "Snow in winter shock!!"
Must go. There's yelling in the hallway. The Whore of Babylon has fallen out with another tart at the brothel. Now she's ranting and raving every detail for the entire house to hear.
Madhouse? I have been in the lunatic assylum and can confirm, it was a really together place compared to here.
Okay, okay her employment troubles all resolved. Just in case anyone cares, the WoB's booked herself a 16-hour shift on her back from 10am tomorrow till 2am! Drunk out of her brains she sobs, "I'm not going down hill any more..."
Posted by gledwood at 6:40 PM GMT
Updated: Monday, 4 December 2006 7:11 PM GMT
Monday BluesMood: blueNow Playing: the Monday BluesTopic: Daily Doings
ANOTHER WEEK BEGINS. HOW DEPRESSING. "Teeshirts in December!" the paper was exclaiming last week. This has been the hottest autumn since records began around 1700. The December weather — 8°C instead of 7°C — is an entire one degree warmer than average. I did notice a nutter wearing shorts last week. But why? It was rainy and damp every day. I wake up freezing cold each morning. Darkness surrounds us — from practically 4pm till 7am In deepest midwinter — the solstice is about a fortnight's time — two-thirds of the day is dark. How people cope in latitudes even northerner than here where nighttime eats up even more of the day I really can't comprehend.
A feature on BBC World Service's Outlook show tracked down this crazy family from the Norwegian isle of Spitsbergen, well inside the Arctic Circle. Dark for weeks on end at one pole of the year; light for weeks on end at the other. I mean, I call them crazy because you'd have to be mad to choose to live there. But these folks — man and wife and two teenage daughters — seemed remarkably sane, considering. Making jokes about all-night guitar-strumming in July. Also, I couldn't help noticing they all spoke better English than I do!! And Spitsbergen is about 1000 miles north of Scotland, hovering somewhere between Northern Greenland and the ice-sheets on top of Siberia on a latitude of about 80°. If I lived up there I'd hibernate from October to March.
But I don't know if I'll feel any less down come spring. "Come off the drugs!" I hear you cry.
And daily, the treadmill of addiction continues to turn.
"I went on them because I was depressed, " is my answer.
And that, you could say, is the most vicious circle of all.
"How are you ever going to give yourself a chance unless you do give up?" you reply.
Well... excuses, excuses: I could give more. I had some demoralizing experiences trying to stop. Despite the most admirable reasons, I was victim of my own bad planning, had a poor domestic situation to return to as well as teh mother of all Disfunctional Relationships — all unresolved.
In a great pickle of unhappiness I stumbled blindly on. (That is my "excuse".)
I cannot explain the inexplicable, dear Reader, though some mischievious megabyte-gobbling inner gremlin would love to rise to the challenge of trying.
"Moderation in all things," counselled Jesus Christ. Although I may come across as clement and mild-mannered to many, beneath the surface I'm probably the most immoderate person I have ever met. Bouncing through lfie from obsessoin to obsession with bleakness and despairing in-between. (The obsessive times can be fun, I must admit. Morning, noon and night I'm consumed by whatever project on and on... then I look back and wonder what the fuss was about.)
BTW a restaurant Up North called "Polonium" has been packed to the rafters since Russian spies, a sinister case of politics and poisoning and a trail of the 210 isotope between London and Moscow have put the nation's media (not to mention Geiger counters) in a tizz.
Well I did have a lovely Sunday lunch yesterday.
I'll leave you with a news story that made me laugh. "False passports let investigator into Britain"!! What a surprise. This from the nation that really does make headlines like : "Snow in winter shock!!"
Must go. There's yelling in the hallway. The Whore of Babylon has fallen out with another tart at the brothel. Now she's ranting and raving every detail for the entire house to hear.
Madhouse? I have been in the lunatic assylum and can confirm, it was a really together place compared to here.
Okay, okay her employment troubles all resolved. Just in case anyone cares, the WoB's booked herself a 16-hour shift on her back from 10am tomorrow till 2am! Drunk out of her brains she sobs, "I'm not going down hill any more..."
Posted by gledwood at 6:40 PM GMT
Updated: Monday, 4 December 2006 7:11 PM GMT
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