Too many junkies in Brixton

[Choc]

haven't got much time to post...

but i want to add that i have realised that there seem to be a very large number of "new to the area" junkies recently in brixton...in fact i haven't seen so many in ages round here...it's sad really.

brixton definitely needs an decent oficial shooting room, preferably away from the centrum so things won't get to ideal round here either..

in my hometown (germany) we have got a shooting gallery with staff and clean needles etc...it still doesn't keep junkies form shooting in parks, reusing/sharing old needles though. but at least they have got somewhere to turn to or to take a shower, have a cup of tea and talk to people...police is harsher here too with street shooting etc and in general as well. still doesn't stop the drug problem in general either.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Your advice has been taken on board, Choc....

http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.u...erupts-over-heroin-clinic-plan-name_page.html

 

[bmd]

Interesting discussion and whilst I have no 'stake' whatsoever in Brixton I do take an interest in heroin addiction issues.

Mrs Magpie, that article is actually about giving out diamorphine to up to 60 heroin addicts, it's not a shooting gallery.

Everything I've read on here is pretty much a common sense approach to what looks like a severe problem for the residents of this area but what the editor said about nimbyism is the top and bottom of it and whilst I can understand the residents feeling burned out compassion-wise for heroin addicts if the problem is in their area then the solution needs to be in their area.

What does too many junkies mean anyway? If there were as many junkies but you weren't bothered by them would that be too many? 1 junkie is too many and really the only reason that heroin addiction is on any agenda is because of the problems it causes other people not the problems junkies cause theirselves because anyone who's never experienced addiction has the attitude that 'they've done it to theirselves, let them rot'.

The problems in your area are caused by the govts crime based approach to drug addiction, everything talked about on here is health based but as that's not the road the govt wants to go down it's taking a lot longer to get any health based measure in place.

 

[editor]

What does too many junkies mean anyway? If there were as many junkies but you weren't bothered by them would that be too many?

"Too many" is when the local parks are rendered more or less unusable for local residents because of junkies activities and when attractive walled gardens have to be demolished to stop them turning into a shooting gallery and hang out for aggressive crack heads..

"Too many" is when you have to step over filthy, discarded needles on the play area outside your block (even though there's a sharps box metres away) and "too many" is when local shops and residents have to put up with a constant stream of low level crime/mugging/shoplifting as junkies try to fund their desperate habit....

 

[newbie]

What does too many junkies mean anyway? If there were as many junkies but you weren't bothered by them would that be too many? 1 junkie is too many and really the only reason that heroin addiction is on any agenda is because of the problems it causes other people not the problems junkies cause theirselves because anyone who's never experienced addiction has the attitude that 'they've done it to theirselves, let them rot'.

When Paddick used to post here he talked in terms of 'chaotic drug users', which I always thought a useful way of approaching the issue. 'Let them rot' isn't, but then most people around here approach the whole issue of drugs as being a personal choice and personal decision. So long as it doesn't impact unduly on everyone else. The problem is that we do feel that impact.

The problems in your area are caused by the govts crime based approach to drug addiction, everything talked about on here is health based but as that's not the road the govt wants to go down it's taking a lot longer to get any health based measure in place.

Why blame the government? The problems are caused by people whose ideas of personal responsibility and socialised behaviour are far removed from the rest of us. That many of them are from outside the area (or country) means that they have few of the normal communal pressures which restrain behaviour.

An area of grass down Brixton Hill recently had railings put across one corner. The reason, I believe, was that the people who gathered there to shoot up were flinging their used needles over the fence into nearby gardens. There was and is a sharps box within a few feet. 'Health based measures' for those individuals may well be the nucleus of some longterm resolution, but meanwhile the rest of us have a stake in this as well.

 

[newbie]

BMD- how many sharps boxes does your area have in public places? How many council people are employed specifically to clear local gardens and parks of discarded needles, crack pipes and condoms? Do they have a van specially labelled up because theirs is a full time job?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Mrs Magpie, that article is actually about giving out diamorphine to up to 60 heroin addicts, it's not a shooting gallery.

It's still a radical departure from what's been offered up to now.....

 

[miss minnie]

How about spending money on the real causes of drug problems, ie.....the disillusioned, misplaced kids who live in terrible conditions, with parents who don't give a fuck, an education system which is failing them, day in day out?

not all junkies come from such backgrounds, some come from very stable, middle-class backgrounds. heroin cuts across all classes in society. i don't know why people try it, my sister became an addict (thankfully she detoxed herself) while i've never touched the stuff. there is no 'single reason' why people try the stuff in the first place, other than perhaps curiosity.

 

[bmd]

It's still a radical departure from what's been offered up to now.....

The article says that they will prescribe diamorphine, twice a day to be taken on site. That won't work and I'm at a loss to understand how any Dr thinks it will. Diamorphine is a short acting drug, it last 4 hours at most so say they open their doors at 9pm, give a dose then, the next dose eight hours later at 5, what does the person who's withdrawing inbetween doses do? Buy some smack. The article says that if any person on the scheme is found to be intoxicated they'll be thrown off, so how does giving a drug twice a day that only lasts for four hours keep any addict from using?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

not all junkies come from such backgrounds, some come from very stable, middle-class backgrounds. heroin cuts across all classes in society. i don't know why people try it, my sister became an addict (thankfully she detoxed herself) while i've never touched the stuff. there is no 'single reason' why people try the stuff in the first place, other than perhaps curiosity.

I think it's often about blocking out misery...



<edited to add>
A cursory glance in the drugs forum reinforces that belief.

 

[miss minnie]

I think it's often about blocking out misery...

it can be for some people, for others it's just a case of trying something new that feels nice. sometimes just wanting to be 'part of the group' - mates and peer-pressure. i've known some upper-middle class junkie-squatters for whom the whole trip was just a walk on the wild side.

i think that the only reason i didn't try it was, by the first time it was offered to me i'd already witnessed punks on skag sitting around the walls at parties, vomiting and staring inanely into space and had decided that it wasn't for me. i preferred dancing, talking and generally using up lots of energy. my sister had a boyfriend who tried it and liked it so she gave it a go too, she wanted to do the same things he did. i channelled my youthful disillusionment into producing a fanzine, putting on gigs, printing t-shirts and posters, getting my hand into anything and everything that was going on. she helped me for a while until she got sucked in by heroin.

anyway, point i'm making is that parents, education and money don't necessarily make that much difference when it comes to who will end up as an addict and who won't. whilst spending money on improving the lot of children growing up is by all means a good thing, it won't necessarily eliminate the chances of them trying or liking heroin.

 

[OpalFruit]

If you have a lot of trouble with needles etc, there's a Brixton charity - landmark? - who will bring you a sharps box, or come and clean up for you.

 

[newbie]

anyway, point i'm making is that parents, education and money don't necessarily make that much difference when it comes to who will end up as an addict and who won't. whilst spending money on improving the lot of children growing up is by all means a good thing, it won't necessarily eliminate the chances of them trying or liking heroin.

Nor will it address the immediate problem of areas like Brixton acting as a magnet for addicts from elsewhere in the country or the rest of Europe.

 

[editor]

Here's the kind of delightful scene I can see most nights from my window:

 

[Epicurus]

Editor: there was a problem like this where I used to live and you can get it sorted, the trouble is it will have to be you and others living around it that do all the work and make all the running and this is always another big problem as there is no quick fix.

It took 18 months of local people pushing and we involved a local drug project, the local council services, the police and a local hospital.

The biggest problem we had once it was started was keeping local people involved, schemes like this often start and fail because local support for it wanes once people stop seeing junkies outside their front door.

You clearly have what it takes to force such a change but do you have the time and energy to spend on it and do you have the local support that will stay with it and see it through.

There are millions of pounds available for project like this all you need to do is tape into it and be prepared to spend maybe 8 hours a week setting it up.

I have a number of names and addresses of people who helped in the scheme in Mitcham that I can pass you I’m sure they will have contacts in Brixton, but again I have to say YOU and other local people would have to do lots of the work.

If you look at the areas that have this kind of problem it is often where there is no active local community group, in Mitcham it was around one big estate where they didn’t have an active tenants associations on the estate where they did have well supported tenants groups they didn’t seem to have the same level of problems.

It is always the groups that push the hardest that get the goods from the local authority, but it also takes a lot of your own time.