Brand on Addiction

A reader asked what I thought of the recent Russell Brand BBC 3 documentary 'From Addiction to Recovery' so I thought I'd better get around to watching it on i-player before it disappears next week.

Now I have to say first off that the guy irritates me, and even though I can't abide the supremely smug and pompous chair of the House of Commons Home Affairs committee Keith Vaz, I think Russell's appearance and demeanor did nothing to help his message. Anyway, back to the documentary and Russell's case for abstinence. I quite agree, but it won't work for everyone, not least because to be most effective as a treatment model it really has to be delivered in a residential setting away from negative community influences.

In recent years, apart from the rich and famous, residential drug treatment is about as likely as winning the lottery. In theory there are NHS beds available of course, but getting your local health commissioning body to agree to funding is nigh on impossible. It will come as no great surprise that the real reason why the government and National Treatment Agency are so keen on community methadone prescribing is because it's cheaper. It doesn't work of course, but since when does a small matter like that affect social policy?

What really shocked me about this film was Russell's encounter with Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners no less. I'm pretty sure I heard her enthusiastic and ringing endorsement for an utterly failed prescribing policy described as "the gold standard" FFS! During a short and understandably tetchy engagement she went on to compare methadone the 'medicine' as being akin to insulin for diabetics! Speaking, as she presumably does, for General Practitioners nationally, we really are all doomed.

Upon reflection I've been unfair to Russell in the past and this film is to be welcomed as shedding a bit more light on the whole sad and depressing business that drug policy has become. Politicians still dare not speak openly on the subject for fear of public and media outrage, so the charade continues in the form of an unwinnable  'War on Drugs' coupled with a failed prescribing regime of legal opiate substitutes. But as I've said before, there is no magic bullet solution. 

Common sense should dictate that there has to be a range of responses that include a return to legalised and controlled prescribing as prevailed prior to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. A quick perusal of wikipedia on the subject throws up this:- 

"Before 1971, the UK had a relatively liberal drugs policy and it was not until United States influence had brought to bear, particularly in United Nations circles, that controlling incidental drug activities was employed to effectively criminalise drugs use." 

I seem to remember that the US had a go at alcohol in the past too, and just look what prohibition led to - a massive boost to criminal activity - hang on a minute........