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Drug deaths

Fitness tips, Relaxation, Mind and Body
Dod101
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Drug deaths

#432526

Postby Dod101 » August 4th, 2021, 5:44 pm

Drug deaths in Scotland have reached their highest level ever for the year 2020 and in fact per head of population are apparently the highest in Europe.
Obviously that is disastrous for those affected. The SNP government is getting a lot of stick for this but it should surprise no one because their record in any form of governing is hopeless. I must be missing something. These people voluntarily started taking drugs and clearly find it impossible to stop. In fact they move from one form of drug to another each more dangerous than the previous, but why is the government getting it in the neck? It is not an illness; it is something these drug addicts started voluntarily. Surely they must have known the dangers before starting. Plenty people live in some sort of poverty but do not become drug addicts. Clearly we should do what we can to help them but.........Many smokers say they cannot stop but they do not bleat to the government about it. Alcoholics are mostly treated via AA as far as I know.

Is it simply because of the lethal nature of the problem or what?

A serious question. I am not being flippant about the problem.

Dod

Itsallaguess
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Re: Drug deaths

#432527

Postby Itsallaguess » August 4th, 2021, 5:54 pm

Dod101 wrote:
The SNP government is getting a lot of stick for this but it should surprise no one because their record in any form of governing is hopeless. I must be missing something.

These people voluntarily started taking drugs and clearly find it impossible to stop. In fact they move from one form of drug to another each more dangerous than the previous, but why is the government getting it in the neck?


From this BBC article -

More than 1,300 people died of drug misuse in Scotland last year, with the country seeing a record number of deaths for the seventh year in a row.

The annual figures showed that there were 1,339 drug deaths last year - an increase of 75 from the 1,264 recorded the previous year.

It means Scotland continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe.

And its rate is more than three-and-a-half times that of England and Wales.

The number of drug-related deaths has increased substantially over the past 20 years and is now almost three times higher than it was a decade ago, with the upward trend accelerating since 2013.

And people in the most deprived parts of the country were 18 times more likely to have a drug-related death as those in the least deprived.

The gap has widened significantly since the start of the century, when deaths were 10 times higher in the most deprived areas.

Opposition parties say cuts to drug rehab and addiction programmes by the Scottish government have had a big part to play in the upward trend in the number of deaths in recent years.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58024296

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

kempiejon
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Re: Drug deaths

#432529

Postby kempiejon » August 4th, 2021, 6:26 pm

There were 4,561 drug poisoning deaths in England and Wales in 2020 – the eighth consecutive annual rise.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ecord-high

servodude
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Re: Drug deaths

#432571

Postby servodude » August 5th, 2021, 1:23 am

Dod101 wrote:why is the government getting it in the neck? It is not an illness; it is something these drug addicts started voluntarily.


The drug death statistics are a pretty damning indictment of the problems in society in general.

It implies things are a bit grim if people are turning to drugs
It suggests a lack of education if people think it's worth risking (and if they think addiction isn't a illness)
It points to a failure to control supply of illegal substances
It shows those addicted have been let down by the services in place to help

Apparently governments are meant to be "in charge" - so when there's such an egregious statistic it's not surprising that it's pounced upon (and with some justification in this case unlike a lot of Nat bashing that goes on)

Bloody miserable situation all round - and there's no easy solutions

"Getting it in the neck" reminds me of a story I was told by a counsellor who worked at Dykebar (alcohol and drug rehab)
A patient came in to the clinic in such a state of decrepitude that the last remaining place he could find a vein was in his neck and he thought he should get assistance rather than inject his heroin on his own - gives the staff a shite dilemma

- sd

Dod101
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Re: Drug deaths

#432580

Postby Dod101 » August 5th, 2021, 7:14 am

servodude wrote:
Dod101 wrote:why is the government getting it in the neck? It is not an illness; it is something these drug addicts started voluntarily.


The drug death statistics are a pretty damning indictment of the problems in society in general.

It implies things are a bit grim if people are turning to drugs
It suggests a lack of education if people think it's worth risking (and if they think addiction isn't a illness)
It points to a failure to control supply of illegal substances
It shows those addicted have been let down by the services in place to help

Apparently governments are meant to be "in charge" - so when there's such an egregious statistic it's not surprising that it's pounced upon (and with some justification in this case unlike a lot of Nat bashing that goes on)

Bloody miserable situation all round - and there's no easy solutions

"Getting it in the neck" reminds me of a story I was told by a counsellor who worked at Dykebar (alcohol and drug rehab)
A patient came in to the clinic in such a state of decrepitude that the last remaining place he could find a vein was in his neck and he thought he should get assistance rather than inject his heroin on his own - gives the staff a shite dilemma

- sd


Thanks sd. That is a balanced view of the situation, but I suppose my question is really why these addicts turn to drugs in the first place. Has it just become a way of life? I suppose it has. But that seems to me to be the real dilemma. Nat bashing goes on because they really have done very very little in all their years in power either in dealing with the drug situation or anything else.

Anyway that is another story.

Dod

servodude
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Re: Drug deaths

#432622

Postby servodude » August 5th, 2021, 9:14 am

Dod101 wrote:
Thanks sd. That is a balanced view of the situation, but I suppose my question is really why these addicts turn to drugs in the first place. Has it just become a way of life? I suppose it has. But that seems to me to be the real dilemma. Nat bashing goes on because they really have done very very little in all their years in power either in dealing with the drug situation or anything else.

Anyway that is another story.

Dod


It's the same reasons folk turn to drink
- it's very enjoyable in the immediate term (I've only had diamorphine once for medical reasons - it's up there with first time you try Lagavulin as a memory! )
- there's a culture and enthusiastic supply that enables it

I do think "getting wasted" is part of life in Scotland in a way that it's not in other places; I'm pretty sure that alcohol specific deaths per capita are similarly excessive

I think that the heroin situation is an extension of that, and not a recent one; I remember the stooshies over the ice cream routes
- and realizing why you might be able to park your ice cream van beside your massive house (and why you would be delivering ice cream at night in the west of Scotland)
- these entrepreneurs had "Uber Smack" up and running before the internet

And I'm not going to defend Nicola (seriously that haircut was shite when she wore it at uni) and her mob, but I'm pretty sure that drug misuse was reserved by "Westminster" so they've resorted to mad schemes like fannying about with alcohol price fixing
- which if anything will turn those just looking for a buzz away from the Super Lager and on to something illicit

Still I wouldn't want to be responsible for fixing it; I've seen the toll it takes on those trying to help

But if there's any light on the horizon it's that the younger generations seem to have got the message more than those entering middle age

-sd


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