by Mat Capper
There’s always the great debate around drug use about whether people suffer from the disease of ‘addiction’ or whether it’s a moral choice. I work in police custody with addicts who have been arrested and drug tested. They are forced into treatment or face a criminal charge if they refuse. In principle people will then get clean and go about their lives drug free and become useful members of society. I say principle because in practise this is rarely the case.
I imagine that these ideas are made by plutocrats who have little experience in the practicalities of what and who they are dealing with. It’s the same with the idea of giving children ‘Anti Social Behaviour Orders’. I can imagine the committee led by President Blair, who said that children given these orders will see the error of their ways and adjust their behaviour to fit into society. This may work in nice wealthy villages where the children actually have something to lose, but not in inner cities where the ASBO is a badge of honour. The government is going to introduce the ‘super’ ASBO, which aims to be more intense, but in reality is only going to be the next must-have item.
Treatment for Heroin addiction in the UK largely consists of prescribing methadone. This gives the addict two monkeys for their backs. The idea with Methadone is that drug users will stabilise on it and gradually decrease until drug free. Once again the reality is entirely different. Drugs users will use Methadone to stop withdrawals and then go looking for a Heroin top-up and numerous crack hits.
It makes absolutely no sense prescribing an opiate to someone who is an opiate abuser; would you prescribe sleeping tablets to someone addicted to tranquilisers? I think not, unless you had completely given up on them and wanted to assist in their slow suicide.
Unless the drug user has a large bank account and can disguise his use, there is obviously going to be an increased level of crime to fund habits. The people I see tend to say they have habits that cost anything from £60 to £300 a day. Given that they are likely to receive about £70 a week in benefits there is a rather large shortfall. This gives a rough idea of the amount of crime the average addict commits. If you take into account that they will get caught shoplifting about 1 in every 20 times and only go to jail after perhaps 10 convictions then you can see the farce that takes place in the legal system.
Then there’s the fact that women get treated far more harshly than men. People put this down to the attitude of the Judges and magistrates towards women and their roles in society. For some reason it is considered far more acceptable for men to go out robbing. The attitude towards women is that they ‘should’ stay at home and look after children, and if they are forced to go robbing they should be punished more severely. Women are more frequently remanded in custody prior to trial and are given harsher and longer sentences.
I recently dealt with a couple arrested on the same charge. The male had a much longer criminal record that included violence, drug dealing, armed robbery and theft, and yet he was given a Drug treatment order while the female was sent to prison even though it was only her fourth offence in court. It seems that the longer you have been in the criminal justice system the lighter the sentence because the judges have realised the futility of prisons for you. If you are new on the scene you are much more likely to go to jail in the naïve hope it will shock you into submission.
The saddest thing with the above example is that the couple in question had three children. The youngest two were whisked off into care while the eldest went to live with a relative. It’s a strange world that throws money and resources at people taking drugs and does very little for the families who suffer around them.
The families, friends and victims of crime are the real losers in all of this. There are areas of Liverpool and probably every city that are infested by drug problems. The effect is like a bad smell, in that everyone gets a whiff. The mood as you enter these areas is always dark and depressed. There is the ever-present suffocating sense of fear.
The thing that I get most bothered about is that the drugs policies, certainly in the UK, leave us all stuck in the middle somewhere. Why do we issue clean needles, water, wipes, give out inoculations for most blood born viruses and yet not give out the drug being used. It is like serving a pint of sewage in a clean glass. People argue that this is ‘harm reduction’. I would argue that it taking away all responsibility from the drug user who wants to continue to use chemicals. Either we have to issue the drug or we have to make it is as hard as possible for people to use drugs and take away all help. The consequences of drug use would be a lot harsher.
The latter would probably cause more problems, and I’d be much more in favour of prescribing drugs and making it all as safe as possible. There is a huge argument in the UK at the moment over Cannabis classification. Recently it was made a ‘Class C’ drug, which is the step before de-criminalisation. There is now an outcry because about 80% of all street Cannabis is the skunk variety, a cross bred plant from the Sativa and Indica seed. It’s grown in this country in the wrong conditions and can cause mental health problems particularly with habitual use. This is being used as an argument to re-classify it as a Class A drug, the same as Heroin and Cocaine. I would argue that this is more of a reason to legalise it and educate people on the different varieties and their effects. Once a drug is made illegal the strength goes through the roof in order for profit to be maximised. Prohibition is a good example of this. If we genuinely care about people then we surely have to make everything as safe as possible. Legalisation isn’t the ideal answer, but it is the best.
All of the police I have spoken to and worked with, including some chief superintendents, would agree that the only solution is to legalise. Immediately crime would reduce and the false economy in drug dealing would disappear. Children would no longer have power over other children and have the need to shoot and kill them. Middle England politicians aren’t ready for this, and it will take years for public opinion to slowly accept the truth.
I do think there is a tiny minority who do suffer with the disease of Addiction. They would become addicted to anything that they could get their hands on whether it is drugs, food, chocolate, or sex. I don’t consider myself to fall into that group even though I know for a fact I cannot drink alcohol in any safety. I do plan in the future to become a connoisseur of Cannabis, treating it like a fine wine, treasuring its different flavours, and finding types that suit fish, meat or cheese.
There are numerous twelve step groups that include Sex Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Co-Dependence Anonymous, Catholics Anonymous, and Christians Anonymous. The last two deal with people whose lives have been made unmanageable by religion. The one group that may be missing is Anonymous Anonymous, a twelve step program for people who are addicted to twelve step groups. Maybe I will found it.
I am not certain what the answer is for people who fall into the disease of addiction. The people I have seen tend to have been diagnosed with personality disorders or manic depression, they frequently self harm, have eating disorders and abuse substances. I think the only answer must be a spiritual one, not religious although for some spirituality comes through religion. People need to feel a part, to have self esteem and self worth in order to have true humility and acceptance. I count true humility as knowing and accepting oneself both good and bad. It is the courage to stand up and say I’m good at that, but I know my limitations.
Maybe the answer is so simple that we often miss it, maybe it is true unconditional love. Not just for those who it is easy to love, like our children and families, but for everyone with absolutely no judgements made. Is it possible? I just don’t know….