orcainn

 

I may be missing something here, maybe just being over simplistic.

Dogs against Drugs,

the Shetland charity,

set up in memory of a Shetland son,

who lost their fight against heroin.

This charity is instrumental in causing the heroin problem in Shetland??????

Absolute rubbish. The charity was set up well after heroin had landed in Shetland and the only people who think different have something to hide or something to gain.

The handlers and dogs spend more time in the schools, educating the young and preventing others falling foul of a path of pain than any police officer or health worker. I would suggest their actions prevent a lot more people from becoming addicted than any expensive rehabilitation treatment can "rehabilitate". Does anyone ask the Betty Ford Clinic for famous cures? No way, because the next day the named individuals would be pictured hoovering coke up their noses. Epic fail. How would they get their client list and funding then?

Instead of apportioning blame on a dog, how about we just take responsibility and do our best to rid Shetland of anything or anyone who causes so much pain.

First of all, I don't think anyone is saying that the drugs dog charity has been instrumental in causing the heroin problem in Shetland, so yes that statement would be absolute rubbish, what has been discussed is the possibility that since the drugs dog started operating in Shetland, that there appears to be an increase in heroin use that could be caused by a shortage of your so called softer drug.

 

The drugs dogs may be spending a lot of time in schools educating youngsters to the dangers of drugs but there are still plenty of school leavers deciding that despite what they've been warned about drug use, they want to find out in person what the attraction is.

 

I found this article about heroin use in Shetland, it's from a magazine called Druglink, Sept-Oct 2010. Here's an interesting quote from it,

 

http://www.drugscope.org.uk/Resources/Drugscope/Documents/PDF/Publications/DruglinkSept-Oct2010.pdf

 

"Figures from community alcohol and Drug services shetland (caDss), the isles’ main treatment agency, highlight the extent of heroin’s penetration. in 2001, caDss treated a small pocket of heroin users, around three-quarters of whom were incomers from elsewhere. nine years on, around 70-80 per cent of its heroin-using clients have been born or brought up in shetland.

contrary to sensationalist headlines slamming shetland for having ‘scotland’s worst heroin problem’, the numbers are relatively low. caDss now treats around 100 heroin users, a fraction of most urban caseloads. Yet worryingly, while treatment agencies across britain are witnessing an ageing heroin-using population, shetland is bucking the

trend. under-25s now account for around half of caDss drug treatment clients, compared to a quarter in 2006."

 

These stats from the community alcohol and Drugs services shetland would suggest that up to 2010 there has been an increase in heroin use and that it has predominantly in the under 25s. In fact nearly every stat in this article would suggest that young heroin users have increased throughout the period the drugs dog have been in use. So maybe the education needs to be worked on.

 

As I left CADSS on Monday and had worked as a substance misuse worker for 4 years I can assure you that things are very different in 2013.  I am not aware of any 'new' users coming into service in the last year and the under 25s are now over 25s.  Heroin is still used in Shetland but the whole scene has changed and more people are on substitute prescribing which takes the chaos out of users lives and improves the chances of accessing the services that lead to recovery.  I spent 4 years working with drugs and alcohol clients and sharing their journeys so I do know what I am talking about.