Something needs to be done about drugs in UK

[RegretMisery]

Drugs are killing healthy young people. How is it that a drug dealer is not tried as a murderer?

It's not limited to class. It could be your own son or daughter.

You know how many people in Singapore die from overdoses? Almost none, because drugs are actually illegal there.

Simple people are attracted to simple ideas.

Not quite sure how executions for drug dealing will avoid the problems of getting the wrong person that executions for murder have. Maybe because they are old and ugly it's easier ?

I guess you're right. It can't be fought. Things just are the way they are. And it's so sad.

Soigneur: Of these deaths 3127 involved “drug misuse” (relating to drugs controlled under the law) So 1800 (36%) of your quoted drug deaths were from legal drugs.

All drugs should be legalised, standardised and sold in pharmacies

No govt has the gumption to do it

Goodbye most of the criminality

Basically the way it should work would be someone who is addicted could approach the GP in the same way someone addicted to smoking would. The GP should refer to an addiction clinic who have a speciality in this and can make a judgment on treatment.

They can then be prescribed an opiate via a clinic as a first step to get themselves stable before moving through a process to get themselves clean. Most poor behaviour from addicts comes from being desperate to finance their next hit and the drugs being cut with all sorts. If they have a guaranteed, safe daily supply then they can focus attention on other areas like getting secure housing, a job, accessing therapy etc. This period of stability will make it much much easier to then wean off the drugs.

It will also be cheaper than the amount these people currently cost in terms of policing, emergency treatment, court/prison, homelessness services etc.

I have not been able to obtain any info for if NARCAN works on reversing opioid OD if there are other drugs present.

I haven't;t RTFT but these ignorant 'reckons' piss me off too much and I end up posting too soon. You don't know enough to have an opinion. Everyone is entitled to one but ignorance is killing people.

Firstly on the above. I am naloxone trained. They won't reverse benzos or alcohol so if that's the main thing killing the person, they are dead. Unless you can get an ambulance to them very quickly. Naloxone also needs to be used carefully. You can inject or nasally administer it, the person can seem fine, but the dose they took may mean they fall back into OD if they don't get more doses/medical care.

On harm reduction and treatment. Harm reduction has been fucked up in Canada. Canada has a habit of doing something that another country did excellently, and doing it with less money, missing pieces, poorly administered and making things worse. It's like antibiotics; for it to work, you have to do it properly.

You need:

Decriminalisation of all drugs
Properly funded treatment and housing
Properly funded healthcare
Properly funded MH care
Safe supply
Safe use
Supportive second stage housing
'Dry' accommodation which is properly dry, not damp

Last, but completely ignored, proper judicial and support systems that deal with the actual cause of drug addiction, male violence. I worked in treatment and drug and alcohol services and most of the people i worked with had adverse childhood experiences that stemmed from DV, CSA and PTSD, almost always from male violence. Stop that, you stop addiction.

Hang on - who said that ?

If you want to improve things, great. Just don't start with your solution and then reverse engineer it into the "problem".

If the goal is to reduce the harm done by drugs, then by all means let's have a debate.

However I suspect it will be like the "debate" decades ago where one of the ministers taking part laid down the "ground rules" before starting. The ground rules being we aren't actually interested in reducing harm if it doesn't agree with our principles and alcohol and tobacco are off the table. (Students of shit law will know that the Psychoactive Substances Act had to exempt alcohol and tobacco as they are indeed psychoactive substances as defined.)

And at that point I lose interest. I don't want to enforce someone elses morality thank you very much. Women are victim enough of that already.

Of course we know.

How long does somebody have between taking a OD of an opiate and dying? And how long do they have before it's too late for nrcan?

Absolutely agree. When we raised the age to buy tobacco, increased tax on tobacco, stopped smoking indoors, made people aware of the nicotine content, locked them out of sight in shops, and put hideous pictures on packets, the number of smokers dropped hugely.

If we did this with illegal drugs we could do the same thing.

Do you know what happens when you make a drug illegal? You give the supply of it over to criminals.

You lose ownership of regulations that make it safe. It stops you putting in safeguards. You lose control of it.

Do you know what happens when you make a drug illegal? You give the supply of it over to criminals.

Not just that. You then give these people (who have a lot of money) every incentive to ensure the situation stays to their advantage and drugs stay illegal.

It shouldn't be rocket science to see where that has ended.

NA is not the right choice for everyone. If that had been my only available source of addiction support, I'd be dead by now. NA was not right for me. That's like saying amoxicillin works for all infections. It doesn't.

what worked for you?

So many people so 'hip'to be saying decriminalise all drugs. Oh you're soooo open minded. Anyone who wants to sit around smoking weed and snorting coke is a fucking joke, it needs to be made to look as stupid as it is.

It all depends OP. We've gone from opium to heroin to fentanyl to carfentanil and they get more and more potent and deadly. How much, when, how pure, what else they've used, weight, size, health, if they've been using consistently or not, even place, all have an effect.

I've seen people with blue lips, unresponsive to pain, be administered naloxone and immediately (it's actually amazing to see) come to complete consciousness. It's magical stuff.

If anyone should be in prison, it's the scum pharmaceutical cartels company heads who knew this would happen.

Can I DM you?

Legalise everything now

Why do people's lips go blue when they overdose on opiates?

It shouldn't have been rocket science in the early 1920's, before rockets were even invented, when US Prohibition gave rise to the Mob.

Because your body is in CNS depression and you're not moving enough oxygen about you

'Hip'? Deary me.

It's just good sense. Which is the opposite of 'hip'. To be clear, I am fully in support of decriminalisation and don't take anything illegal at all. I think addiction is already incredibly sad and unpleasant and so adding criminality to that is foolish.

Trigger warning:

BTW I do think people who know nothing about it should think about why they are attributing motives to those who do. I've had to support people with infected injection site wound care, trench foot from self-neglect, seen people injecting into their necks and between their toes, people shitting themselves when they've taken the wrong combination, women sobbing because they have to go and work for their habit. Don't assume you know why I think what I think.

I want to emigrate to Singapore.

You can DM me. But I'm dreadful at responding!

OK. I dm'd you a question I would really appreicate if you could answer, haven't found any info on this matter online.

One thing that might reduce drug taking, even for a short period of time, is if you had to pass drug tests (taken over a period of time) before you could have a driving licence, or if you had been banned from driving.

I also agree about tackling matters which can drive people towards drugs, homelessness, the slow judicial system, prostitution, for example.