Would Legalising Drugs Make A Better World?

Why are some drugs illegal?
The only answers I can find, suggest, that some drugs/substances are illegal due to the harm they cause. Is this really a good reason to criminalise people, stigmatise people? Looking at the wider picture, I can see harm is not just directed at the user but their family, friends and society.
The family and friends suffer due to the lies, stealing, possible violence, ill health and also the stigma. could legalisation change these, if it was done properly?
Society suffers the harm from the violence, crime and stigma. Could/would this change if these substances were legalised properly?
What do I mean by 'Properly'? Well, I'm not that naive, that I would suggest Mr Cameron or future prime ministers suddenly declared that users no longer faced prosecution if they were to use 'drugs'. But what if, trained pharmacies/services were to provide safe areas/places where people could use their substances? Licensed premises where such substances could be purchased and consumed? Does this sound familiar? They could be called a 'Public House'? Though I presume that during the passage of time this may be abbreviated or shortened so that it rolls of the tongue a little easier.
I'm getting ahead of my self a little. lets take it back a touch. Imagine, instead of the British tax payer funding 'treatment' in the way of alternative substances, which are then controlled by pharmacies, GP prescribing, accompanied by support services and therapies. The substances are purchased, as they are currently albeit illegally. Would it be to much to imagine that the government could then tax the product?
The global drug trade is estimated to be worth $320 billion of which the illegal or 'black market' accounts for 8% about $256,000,000 (Math is not a strong point).
Would the British government not like a piece of that? especially in the current climate.
You might think that the slice Britain would get, would not be worth the harm, destruction and crime that legalising drugs would bring. Hang on a moment, under the current system the government gains nothing from the illegal drug trade but yet has to pay for 'treatment'. Although I cannot find the full figure, it is estimated that the NHS side alone costs £160 million per year! I don't work for the NHS, so I'm guessing that this figure is only a part of the overall cost. Drugs are Illegal but they are still widely used and probably used somewhere near you.

The system is not working, the previous governments over the last 30+ years have not tried to 'Tackle Drugs' or 'Change Lives' but brush an issue which affects millions under the carpet by throwing money at it, hand over fist, cripple people with convictions because they wanted to put something in their body which other people dislike. people still use drugs and I believe that the issue is too big and far to scary for these "leaders" of our country to handle. they do not have the wisdom or strength to see they have been doing things backwards.

Yes, drug use may increase, but has this not already been predicted due to the financial state of the country? how long would the party last? at which point would it become common place for people to treat their body in a way that they choose?
How long can we as a 'Society' dictate what people should and should not use?

If you still believe legalisation or De-criminalisation is wrong I would like to hear what your plan would be? ask your self, do I disagree because I'm scared? or because my morals would not allow it? if this is the case, then legalising would not mean you had to use any substance. Please carry on with your alcoholic drink and remember to put your cigarettes in the bin provided.

Please remember that this is only my opinion, one formed by seing the harms illegal drugs can cause. It does not mean that any government in this generation would actually have the courage to try to Tackle Drugs or dream to Change Lives

Smoking

It has been too long since my last confession!

on 13th January 2009 I had my last cigarette! I had stopped a couple of times a year but this time I found it so easy to stop. I had been put on blood pressure tablets (I was 26). I was determined to change my health and get rid of these tablets!

Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks and yes, weeks turned into months. with my determination, nicotine patches and help from other quitters on www.stayquit.co.uk I was on a mission, nothing was going to stop me stopping (have I over done the drama again?).

The stay quit website, if you have never tried it, is very helpful. every two days you log on and answer the question in a mini-blog style. the question could be "why I want to stop smoking" you type away at you answer and then tick the box to say you want it kept private/public. I made all mine public. other quitters then read your posts and offer advice, support, praise. it is a great community, full of people in the same situation.
once you have put on your post, you can click the 'Support' tab at the top of the page, this directs you to everyone Else's posts, which you can read and see what they are going through and then leave comments for them.

I found this so helpful (am I repeating myself) that I often logged on to give support and let people know how I was doing, one occasion I had been stopped for 15 months, but I was struggling, i logged on and asked for help, everyone was very supportive and helped me get through it.

Then cam all the issues with HADA (read 2nd blog for full details) and I caved in!
I started by buying a small packet of Amberleaf tobacco, a lighter and some filters. as you can tell this was pre-meditated and not a spare of the moment thing.
It was horrible, I only had the one but the next day I had another. The weekend came around and I left my Cigs at work. nobody knew and I wanted to keep it that way.

Monday morning came, not smoking had not bothered me all weekend but as soon as I approached Harrogate the urge to have a cig crept in. Had this been an experiment in Tobacco addiction and how much association play a part in it, the results were proven instantly!

Smoking at home was not an option so smoking never entered my head, but as soon as I was near work, where i had my last cig, the little nicotine receptors in my brain woke up and wanted feeding!

The weeks went on with my casual smoking, colleagues then found out, this meant Icould smoke more. When HADA closed I no longer had anywhere to hide my ciggies, they now had to go in my car, but this meant that i was taking them home, thus creating an association between smoking and home.

"I can resist anything, except temptation" (Oscar Wilde)
Soon enough, my wife found out, then my step-son, now i was free to smoke anywhere. I have lost control. Addiction has once again taken over!

So what now? Well, yesterday i bit the bullet and typed www.netdoctor.co.uk/stayquit into the Internet, logged into my account and pressed the 'I've slipped up' button.

The site gave me two options, 'slipped up - had a couple of goes on a cig' and 'Slipped up - smoking regularly'
I clicked the obvious one, I was then given support and asked to write about what happened. they have also given me a new quit date 21/10/10 ( I have ticked the private box because I'm not confident i can do it).

i'm not sure I'm ready to quit yet, because, if I try now and fail within hours, I will feel misserable and my confidence will be knocked and then I'll feel trapped.

But I am going to try, not for my kids, my wife, friends or for that ex-smoking snob that tuts every time i go out for a cig! I'll do it for me and when I'm ready!

Alcohol & Pregnancy

Firstly, it has been a while since my last blog, I have been waiting to write about something a little less self indulgent. So as a male wanting to be less self indulgent I thought I would write about pregnancy...................before the feminists, mums and expectant mothers come for me with pitch folks let me explain why.

This Thursday (23rd Sept 2010) I have agreed to do a session with a group of young people at TRAX in Harrogate, the group is the 'Bumps to babes' group who meet there every Thursday. They have asked if I would come along and discuss Alcohol with the expectant mothers.

I have been looking into the 'current' guidance for pregnant woman on how much alcohol is safe to consume.
It had been thought that expectant mothers could drink alcohol in 'moderation' and that safe limits were up to 8 units per week, this equates to 3 & 1/2 pints of 4% lager per week or 4 small (175ml) glasses of wine per week.
"in 2007 ministers changed their advice on drinking during pregnancy after research found that almost 1:10 expectant mothers drank more than the recommended limit" (www.Drinkaware.co.uk)
"in March 2008 the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence or NICE (Said whilst pointing both index fingers at the screen) advised woman not to drink at all during the first 3 months of pregnancy, also known as the 1st Trimester (check out my knowledge).
they added small amounts of alcohol one or two units once or twice per week after the first trimester was safe " there is uncertainty about how much alcohol is safe to drink in pregnancy, but at this low level there is no evidence of harm to the unborn baby" (www.drinkaware.co.uk)

So there is no evidence it harms the baby (drinking small amounts) but is there any evidence it does not harm the baby? (I'm being Pedantic I know)

All this is useful for my session in 3 days time but nothing beats real life experience! having the wrong equipment and only 3 days to prepare, me getting pregnant is a non-starter.

So.....I Need You!

Whats your experience? did you drink alcohol during pregnancy? did you avoid alcohol for the full term? how easy was it? also did you get any advice about drinking from your mid-wife or GP? is any thing missing? looking back what advice would you give to expectant mums?

Thank you for helping me to help others!

HADA what really happened?

I am writing this now as I have had time to come to terms with what happened and because the Harrogate Advertiser led the good people of Harrogate to believe that the organisation had been saved.

Granted, if you read the article, it will tell you which services were taken on by other providers and which were redundant, but most people only saw the headline "Drug service saved"

So I thought I would write about my time at HADA (Harrogate Alcohol & Drug Agency).

I came to HADA on 30th November 2009 after spending two years working in Easington (County Durham) as a DIP Worker (Drug Intervention Programme).

HADA had lost the adult drug contract the year before to CRI, a national drug charity. This was obviously still a sore point amongst Andrew (CEO) and the remaining staff. I could also see the size that HADA as an organisation once were, by the amount of space left by losing that contract.

I spent the first day getting to know the staff, HC had only started 3 weeks before me as the gambling worker, KL on reception, ED and CB the adult alcohol workers, GB was a young persons worker, she was about to leave HADA to travel to Israel for 6 months. TDF was HR & Finance manager, she was also going to a new job and announced she would be leaving at Christmas. CC would be starting after Christmas and he will be doing Alcohol Treatment Requirement or ATR. Later KF would join as Young Persons Alcohol Worker

I was able to settle in very quickly and received my first referral on the 1st December. word must have got around that someone was now in post because before schools closed for Christmas they were phoning and asking me to come in and do talks in assemblies and to classes around staying safe over the holidays.

I was thriving and the young persons service was growing quickly and my reputation seemed to grow with it. over the first few months of a new job you begin to notice the cracks, we as a team were very strong but things did not seem right within the management structure. the staff had their fears, why did we have such a large building for such a small team, in fact we leased two buildings and one was stood empty. Why had they just renewed the lease? why was Andrew looking for premises in Bradford and how could we possibly afford this? On top of this Andrew now had to take on the role of HR & Finance as he and the chairman of the management committee told us they would not be appointing anyone to replace TDF.

Andrew was a very proud northerner, the word delegation was never used but the strain was starting to show on his face. How could any human being take on that much work and after loosing such a valuable contract.

We began to see less and less of Andrew, at first he would pop in and be out within an hour leaving KL to do the wages alone.

Because of our fears, we began collecting evidence against Andrew to show the Board that he was neglecting HADA and the staff.

The evidence built up over the next few months, the staff began having regular evening meetings in order to gather information and put it together, ready to present to the management committee. We were determined to save HADA, we knew we had a great staff moral and we were all very passionate about our work and that we worked for a local charity.

In April 2010 Andrew began to call in sick, his phone calls would be left on the answer phone at 9pm, 2am and 7am, was this because he was avoiding having to speak to staff?

By May he was issued an ultimatum by the management committee to produce a sick note, I believe these did eventually arrive.

Our evidence was mounting, we came to the decision that we would copy this large ring binder folder bursting with evidence 7 times, one for each member of the committee. each member was contacted and asked to collect their copy as it was too large to post. these were collected but not with any urgency.

over the last couple of months the staff had many meetings with the chairman to explain our fears, each time we had been re-assured that "when Andrew returns" HADA would be back on track.

at 9am on 16th June 2010 we had another meeting with the chairman, we expected him to tell us what the committee had decided to do about the grievance we had submitted, instead he told us that we would not be getting paid this cumming Friday.

Bombshell!

"What?"

"We have been advised that no money be paid out, at all, including wages"

"By who"

"our financial adviser"

We gathered together as a team, mainly to try and make sense of it but also to decide what we do now. Do we go home? should we still be seeing clients? are we in a fit state to help others to understand their issues when we are consumed with our own.

I decided that I would cancel the three clients I had booked in for that day, others followed. So what do we do now? go home? We were well within our rights to walk out and lock the door behind us but that would be a defeat, we loved this agency, after all we had been running it since April. We stayed, not knowing if or when we would get paid.

The following day we came back into work, still trying to find reason, I was more angry today than yesterday. We sat in Reception and shared stories of how our other half's took the news, it was very clear that we all had supportive partners. My wife had been very understanding, even when I told her I will still be making the 50+ round trip to Harrogate from Bedale, to a job which could not pay me but also to a place where people came for help and to a bunch of friends who also needed support like I needed their support.

Over the next 7 days we came up with all kinds of conspiracy theories. the most sensible one was, maybe HADA could not pay the HMRC, in which case they could not possibly pay us as that would break all kinds of tax laws. Maybe HADA was going bust, but then why would they not pay us? the next meeting was arranged for June 23rd at 9am, we would no doubt find out then.

I remember saying that I would refuse to sit down until they told us it was good news, because if it was bad news I would be going, I could not take another week like this.

Wednesday 23rd June 2010. As I walked in the meeting room of 47 East Parade, I began to shake, I'm not saying this for dramatic effect, I was scared, my heart was racing I had to sit down.

it began,

"Thank you all for the last week"

"the management committee met last night, and it is with regret that we have informed BWC to take HADA into voluntary liquidation"

A stunning silence around the room, I could see eyes filling with water, all our efforts, the grievance, the time put into it with the vision that 'we' could save HADA. it was all too late.

A faceless man in a suit dished out information and answered questions.

We would be paid only half of our monthly wage, the other half we must claim through the insolvency.

Andrew is redundant with immediate effect, at which point HC gave a round of applause. the faceless man went on to say, this was because he was of no use to HADA now but HADA needed the staff to assist with closing the agency down over the next 7 days. We did have the option to walk out there and then, but again we stayed.

I contacted my clients to let them know, but I did say that as soon as a service is up and running again I would be in touch if it was still me.

We spent the next 7 days packing, speaking to those who commissioned our services, I looked set to be one of the lucky ones, My commissioner was already on the case to find another provider and assured me that I was very much a part of the contract she was offering for tender.

I was determined that another provider be found ASAP. I contacted people I knew from previous employments to let them know that this service and others would be looking for providers.

It was said that the PCT would most likely take on the adult alcohol service and that the young persons service would follow them.

Tuesday 29th June. PCT bosses came and spoke to CB and ED but no one else. I contacted my commissioner to ask what was happening. I was to go to TRAX (Connections) and be based there as of Thursday.

On Wednesday 30th June I was told that the PCT had not got in touch so my commissioner had gone to CODA (Craven Organisation for Drug & Alcohol).

At about 16:30 the faceless man locked the door behind us, we spent the evening at KL home having a BBQ and remembering the fun times and listen to those who had been at HADA for years tell stories of past staff.

I am now employed by CODA who are all great and share my passion for the work I do, I'm based at TRAX in Harrogate, again the people are very friendly and nice, but I don't laugh as much as we did at HADA, those around me now are colleagues but not friends, I miss that so much.

As for the others, ED and CB are currently based at the hospital. Their service will go out to tender in March 2011, maybe we'll end up back together? CC got one days work with the ATR through the probation service, HC has gone self employed in a bid to win the gambling contract herself, there might be the possibility of some work for KL.

KF started maternity leave early, and I wish her all the best of luck with her new family.

As for Andrew? I really don't know, I have not seen him since April. I hope he finds peace and success but that it is far away from any service which hopes to help others. and that he does not have control over their budgets or financial affairs. I sometimes wonder if the child support agency ever found him? they phoned HADA enough times.

Take care

Mike

Here we go!

This is my first blog......so far so good.
A blog is something I have thought about doing in the past, today I fell into it by default.

My name as it says at the top, is Mike, a 28 year old man working in Harrogate, I support people under the age of 18, who have become involved in drugs.

that last word in the context I have written it in may have triggered some kind of emotional response with in you and possibly without you knowing. when I tell people what I do for a living, I occasionally get some hostility, especially when I worked with adults. comments like "why do you want to help those people? don't they get enough?" "smack heads" "Scumbags"

Your absolutely right to ask that question and here's my answer..........

Those people, are exactly that......People, Human Beings.
I will never accept, defend or try to justify the crimes some people commit........Never.
Picture a drug user in your head....what do you see?
I bet you see a man and not a woman! am I right?
ok this man is stood infront of you, how old is he?
late 20's early 30's right again?
ok, so there is a 31 year old man infront of you, what is the first queation you would ask him and why?
I would ask him where he came from? people are not popped out as 31 year old drug users. the person before you began as a baby, just like you. but what happened to them why did they choose a different path to you? I do what I do because I want to know why this person went wrong and where it happened.

I have met some very interesting people, people with more intelligence than me (not hard to achieve) others with fantastic abilities.
The drug is nothing more than a coping mechanism, have you ever been stuck in a rut with no motivation, then someone (parent/boss/friend) gives you a huge kick up the backside?
imagine not having anyone to give you that kick?

To say they all come from poor backgrounds is very wrong, but one that the media enjoy pushing on people.
To say they all steal and would hurt old people is also wrong.

Look at the worst criminals in recent history, Ian Huntley, not a drug user, Ian Brady, not an addict. the world is full of bad people not all of them are addicts.
I believe for every bad person there are two very good people and one person who wants to be bad but has reasons not to be.

Drugs are illegal but i will blog/rant about this later. a whole other argument.

I guess what I want the world to understand is, people are not born bad, this leads me to believe that people are not bad, but some times we do bad things. in the case of 'drugs' a bad decision can lead to a lifetime of bad choices.

Take care
mike