Just seen what you've been reading Julia, Hope you didn't miss this from the Crikey Big Ideas series By Kate Holden;
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/11/23/kate-holden-lots-of-people-like-drugs-try-asking-them-about-it/
Thanks for that, orr. Reading this makes me realise that anyone making a plea for people not to use some drugs necessarily comes across as simply being judgmental, patronising and lacking in understanding of the sheer pleasure many drugs can offer.
If this is in fact how my concerns have come across, I want to try to dispel that.
Kate Holden says in the 'big ideas' piece:
My time as a heroin addict was, admittedly, almost entirely horrible. Addiction and enslavement is terrifying and sometimes lethal.
The only people affected by my being impoverished, feared, despised, marginalised and degraded were me and my horrified family, as my self esteem was ground down, my prospects of rebuilding a respectable life receded and the only consolation was .... more drugs.
This is the essence of what I've been trying to say, probably very poorly.
I'm in favour of individual freedoms and resent strongly that we are forced to obey laws that seem to be made only for the most stupid amongst us. And I believe we need to be encouraged to take individual and personal responsibility for our decisions and largely live with the consequences. Our society is actually going in the other direction unfortunately.
I have no argument with the obvious conclusion that if drugs were decriminalised/legalised then the benefits in terms of crime reduction would be huge.
But my unrelenting concern is about
addiction and the misery it confers not just on the addict but on his/her family, colleagues, relationships and finances.
I've already said that I've seen many 'respectable' professional people's lives in ruins because they discovered too late that the recreation had turned into an addiction.
Kate Holden uses the word 'enslavement'. She is so right. The constant seeking of the drug takes over the addict's whole life. Nothing else matters.
I'll offer an example, a story typical of many.
A doctor, in his late 30's, partner in a large general practice, president of the local professional body, lecturer of students, well liked and respected by all, happy marriage, two beautiful daughters, was discovered to have been addicted to narcotics for nearly ten years. None of his family or his partners had any idea.
Such is the insidious nature of narcotics that this doctor was taking forty times the therapeutic dose if the drug had been used for its approved indication, e.g. severe pain. Yet he showed no evidence of any 'high' or otherwise unusual behaviour.
All this massive dose of the drug was doing was keeping him from going into withdrawal.
Eventually the quantity prescribed for his patients drew the attention of the Health Department who made some enquiries amongst his patients, few of whom had ever received the prescriptions made in their names.
He was offered the choice between being prosecuted or take leave to get assistance.
Obviously he chose the latter. His family were shocked but supportive, as were his partners. He angrily submitted to three months at a private (and very discreet) psychiatric hospital well away from his city of residence where he unbelievably was permitted to keep his car and prescription pad, so happily drove round the new city filling prescriptions for himself. Such is the enslavement to the drug that even when everything he once valued is clearly on the line, he refuses to genuinely engage in any sort of therapeutic effort.
Eventually, he's discharged, the hospital feeling they had done all they could, went home on the proviso he continue to see a local psychiatrist and not prescribe the drug in question.
Meantime, the real reason for his absence from the practice had leaked out and an enterprising heroin addict saw an opportunity to get various precursor drugs prescribed by the doctor in exchange for giving him some heroin off the streets.
The lure of the narcotic was so great, the doctor succumbed to this blackmail and before long was himself sharing the smack in the filthy boarding houses on the street.
His despair at what he had become led further to his using benzodiazepines, barbiturates, amphetamine et al in a crazed attempt to block out what had become his reality. Before long this poisonous cocktail along with alcohol produced in him a psychotic state. He tried to kill his wife and threatened his children, and smashed up furniture when his partners tried to reason with him.
He engaged in some horrific abuse of patients, the details of which are too ghastly to be recorded here.
He was eventually arrested in a psychotic state, injecting himself with heroin in the small hours on a city pavement.
There was a lengthy trial with multiple charges and much publicity which further destroyed his family, colleagues and friends. He was financially destitute after legal fees had been paid. He went to jail for some years.
He was never successfully rehabilitated and died at an early age.
His story is just one of many that are similar.
This is why every time a thread like this comes up, I'm compelled to make a plea to all you bright, intelligent young people, all your lives ahead of you, to please not consider you're always going to be in control of what now seems like harmless and enjoyable recreation.
I wish all of you health and success, but most of all just want you to be safe.