Last week I responded, in part, to a letter by Disgusted (Letters, Evening Telegraph, December 28) to address his/her concerns regarding the “antisocial behaviour” of those prone to substance misuse.
In part two of my response, I hope also to address his/her concern, raised last Thursday (Letters, Evening Telegraph), that it is “hypocrisy” for former users to criticise “failed government policy”.
Getting down to answers: While I do not believe there is one single bullet to remedy drug deaths, there is a fundamental approach which has set a productive policy precedent in Scotland and I believe would lead us there.
It is an approach used to develop social security and address historic child abuse in Scotland and created two organisations worth looking at – Social Security Scotland and The Promise Scotland.
Both organisations gleaned input from those with experience of claiming benefits or suffering abuse to develop approaches to respond to both issues and are now leading the way.
I believe those who have entered, experienced and exited addiction have a vital contribution to make in addressing the drug death crisis in Scotland yet, until now, this approach and lived experience has been excluded from the process.
If it is “hypocrisy” for a former drug user to criticise government policy, is it also wrong for ex-smokers to speak about the smoking ban?
Read more from Ewan Gurr here.
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