The Drugs Don't Work (27/03/14)

A young man sidled up to me the other day as I walked along Argyll Street in Glasgow - he announced apropos nothing that he was 'shit-faced' out of his head on drugs and then struck up a conversation, during which he told me his name was John.

In my personal experience people on drugs are seldom belligerent or aggressive whereas the opposite is often true when too much alcohol is involved, but I had an amiable chat with John as we strolled along a busy street in the middle of another rainy Glasgow day.

My new chum wanted to know what i did for a living and he seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.

I wanted to know why a smart and pleasant young man spent his days completely wasted on drugs and the answer was he didn't really know - he was in a rut and a way of life that he couldn't break away from, so it was easier just to carry on and fund his drug habit from thieving and begging.

Now I said to myself afterwards that John was bound to have encountered the criminal justice system at different points in his relatively young life, so the obvious question to me was why was he not required to get clean at some point and break the cycle of drug taking, as a hard headed alternative to a long spell in prison?

My impression of the criminal justice system is that people like John are in and out of prison through short sentences which have no deterrent effect and no impact on his drug habit - either because he can access drugs in jail or is offered the methadone, as an artificial alternative to heroin.

In other words it's a cycle of despair that doesn't change anyone's life and instead allows hopeless drug addicts like John to remain at large where they spread misery within their local communities as a result of their chaotic lifestyles and habitual thieving.

So it seems to me that if anyone wants to do anything about the situation, the only strategy that will work is more direct intervention which combines very tough love as well as kindness  towards the poor souls involved - because just writing your hands or wearing your political heart on your sleeve won't make a jot of difference to someone like John.