Comedian Russell Brand has told MPs that he advocates an abstinence-based approach for treating drug addiction.

Speaking to the Home Affairs Committee which is investigating the UK drug policy, he spoke of his personal experiences of addiction and treatment and said there needed to be "love and compassion"

bbc.co.uk

I can't remember the details. Read it at least a year ago, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday.

Yes, but you said...


... so I was just replying to that. Those drugs can become heavily addictive too, depending on the personality of the subject, and judging from his lifestyle he has serious problems with addiction.

Yeah he said that he never liked drugs much until he took heroin though which was when he was a presenter in his 20's, none of the others agreed with him. He had an unhappy childhood and then was one of those people that did smack and found it just took all his pain away immediately, all I am saying is that as great as it is that he has been invited to comment at all, there are probably better placed people to give you advice on curbing the problem. He was a part time addict that could afford to pay for it, not a career junkie.

While that may be true, I dont disagree with anything he said in the video above. He seems to be advocating personal responsibility but also understanding. He also says right at the beginning that if people have broken the law then they should be subjected to the legal system. But the focus should be on getting them off drugs, more so than punishing them for being on drugs.

Agreed, the problem is that a lot of them don't want to get off drugs. You can't help somebody that doesn't want to help themselves unfortunately, a lot of heroin addicts don't view their drug addiction as the problem, they think that doing brown is fine it's just paying for it that causes them issues. If the government wanted to stop crime and help addicts they could give them diomorhpine very cheaply and then focus on getting them better. Apparently this is already happening in some parts of the country on the sly as it is not really government policy to prescribe it but some doctors see the sense in it.

I'm very far from an expert in these matters but surely

combined with


which basically means that the addicts simply look at the prescribed diomorphine (or whatever replacement is used) as free drugs, not a way off them.

Surely this isn't going to help, it is simply going to give the addicts something else to be addicted to...

Aside from possibly resulting in the addict commiting less crime I don't really see what would be achieved.

At best it is little more than a protection racket perpetrated by the addicts... 'Give us free drugs or we will terrorise old ladies!' (which is a bit simplistic but you get the picture)..

Not to mention that if government policy then changed and the 'free drugs' stopped the addicts would simply return to crime...

There must be a better way to deal with the issue, for example how was the issue dealt with in history?

Whilst I'm sure there were various types of addicts throughout history I don't remember them haveing anywhere near the stranglehold they currently have over society...

Not quite.

Subs are to stop the cravings, not get these people high in the same way that heroin would.

Oh, ok. I wasn't aware of that..

I never got that impression from addicts I have known in the past although in all fairness I never really made any indepth enquiries in that direction.

While you are a heroin addict it's almost impossible to "get off" it as finding it and taking it is a 24 hour job, they know they're not going to be able to beat withdrawals and they spend all their time when they're not bedded out on skag trying to steal money to get their next hit.


That in itself is a good enough reason to do it. The police will tell you that they know exactly who the drug addicts are in their borough because they are the same people that are responsible for the majority of burglary, robbery and shop lifting. It's £60 for a gram of low grade heroin and that is pretty much what it costs an addict to survive but they need to steal items worth at least 10 times that value to sell it for that. If you lose £2k of your stuff in a burglary, that's a laptop an i pod a phone and a watch. That probably gets traded in straight to a drug dealer for 3 grams of heroin. The amount of burglaries a heroin addict has to commit could be 5-10 a week to get by. The damage that does to society is priceless.

Plus, once someone is out of the cycle of crime (they have a steady and free supply) they can start being treated, slowly weaned off in a safe environment.

While being a drug user is a crime people will never want to come forward for treatment as society is too interested in "getting the bad guy" than they are in actually preventing further crime.

Ok, but if


then surely


means that


Which in my book, is no kind of sustainable solution.

When I say they don't want to get off drugs, what I mean is that there is no viable way of them doing so under the current system really. Methadone doesn't work and it also really fucks people up and turns them into nauseous depressed fucks ups that can hardly leave the house, you can't push on from there because it leaves you in as bad or worse a state as being a heroin addict.

If they had the option of taking something that would actually stop them feeling like shit and mean that they weren't condemned to a life of crime to fund their habit they might have a chance of getting off it, which would be good for them and all of us collectively. Even if they did never get off it but didn't continue to commit crime to fund their addiction, we'd be far better off as a whole society, none of them WANT to commit crime or enjoy it they're just prepared to do whatever it takes unfortunately.

In the beginning, it is also how they make you feel.

There is often a cycle with drugs whereby the user chases the high they first experienced, as sometimes doesn't continue after a certain point. Heroine by many accounts is described as the perfect high, causing a feeling as close to being at peace as, in some cases they may ever get. Highly addictive and aparantly so euphoric, once tried, despite the unpleasant side effects, many want to do it again.

There is a community factor whereby drug addicts, mix with drug addicts, particularly when drugs are rife, or co-operation is needed to source funding. Somebody stops and is pulled back in by those looking for another hit when the drug is rife, or as an assistant in crime. Counterproductive to a drug free mission, one may have to remove themselve from the circle, in some cases percieved support to suceed.