xoni

I get where you're coming from because my youngest child, she's 3 as well has autism, down here in Aberdeen the cinemas have days set aside for autistic children and those with special needs where they can make as much noise as they like and get up and wander around if they choose. I understand it might not be so easy for something as small as the Garrison to organise this though.

The gov should be introducing STANDARDS for support workers so anyone in the job should be trained and qualified and consequently paid an appropriate wage which would indicate they had a genuine interest in doing the job and wernt just using it as an alternative to working in macdonalds...these people are vile, and IMO sicker than those they are meant to be caring for!

Although I still visit the forum I left shetland with my family this year, we were in social housing for a time there until it was possible for us to afford something better and once we did there was no way I was going to stay brining up teenagers there. Yes Shetland for the lttle ones is a good enviroment I think, but for teenagers Ive never experianced anywhere worse. When I was growing up there were drugs around, if your mates smoked pot you hung together, the ravers and thier pills hung together and the Hardcore users on H...well you'd likely heard of one or two but you didnt really know them, in Shetland theres no segregation like that, trust me if your teenager is hanging around Lerwick in the evenings at peoples houses for parties and the like then they have been in the precence of someone on smack, and if they havent yet.. they will. Shetland is simply too small for it not to have a profound effect. So I removed my family to a place I feel is safer, much bigger schools, but those schools have what I had when I was young, sets of people, you have your popular kids, your pot heads, your goths, your nerds and geeks and because of that there is a place for anyone. Us adults dont need that, we've learned who we are by now but teens struggeling to find an identity do. For what its worth im not with the posters who call heroin users wasters or losers, there by the grace of God go I is more my mentality, Lets not forget a good percentage of these 'wasters' began thier addiction legally with doctors perscriptions or have had such attrocious upbringings that they simply didnt value life like us, they arent people to be berated and looked down upon, more pitied and as hard as that is for some of you to do if you were to treat each person as an individual not as a generalisation it might be possible.

Why not? There are loads of conditions which require the sufferer to depend on drugs to function. very good point, I remember having a chat with my doctor once about this topic, my partner was worried about the drugs I had been prescribed as they have addictive qualities, it was pointed out to me there is a world of difference between depedance and addiction.

Davie could you throw me a PM please, I have sent you one but may have got lost along the way thanks

^^ Well no s**t Sherlock, what do you think the law has been trying to do all this time? One step forwards , two steps back thats exactly how it works with current policy, the police are at a loss and know they have no chance of ever winning. I have children, I want to see them bought up in a safer enviroment. Illegal = dangerous where drugs are concerned for a multitude of different reasons... from the way they are mixed , to the supply and transportation , the alure of the dark side for our young folk, to the methods used to obtain them and the crimes created by this ..keeping it underground opens the door for the very shady characters you are speaking about not the victims and yes I use the word victims. Please dont assume all addicts were born on the street, chances are you likely live down the road from one or two , normal middle class people with the money to support thier unfortunate habit. The people you speak of these 'losers' and 'wasters' have made a bad choice in thier life to go down this path, one bad choice, have you never made a bad choice? I surely have and I've paid for it , and they pay for it too, in the worst of ways. Currently your way of thinking is the law, but blatently your way of thinking is failing dismally, so do you carry on with something thats failing dismally or do you try something else?

Is neither young ..nor a drug taker ..nor a troll. Is however someone who has done her reasearch and a lot of it and found hard evidance to prove that it has and continues to work in other EU countries, the fact that the Swiss saw addiction figures drop by 90 percent must perk your curiosity surely?

Colin I dont think OP8S is attacking anyone, I think what he's doing is pointing out that when educated they would think differently. The frustration comes from knowing something is 'fact' and then seeing people argue black is white without even bothering to self educate. Clearly for many this is a drop in subject that they moan about over a beer in the pub with thier mates , its not something they have spent any amount of time properly researching because its not something they are really that interested in. Not saying that anyone who contributes to a thread should be an expert but simply saying if you want your 'opinion' to be crediable then maybe do some reading first.

lol...commodes? or did you have something a little more dtastic in mind... fit them all with a colostomy bag?

or you could just make them legal , free up the prison system of some 70 percent of its population...and spend the money on something that desperatley needs it instead...like the NHS? ...

didnt think so...

I'm at a bit of a loss here because I dont really understand how armed with the knowledge that our present system is failing everyone , drug users and non drug users alike people can still refute the need for a new look at drugs policy. So if you agree our system dosnt and wont work... If you can clearly see other countires systems DO work... If you have evidence to show you the difference it would make both social and economic to all of our lives... Why wouldnt you be screaming at the top of your lungs for change? if youre just going to harp on inanely about scum/losers/wasters some more please don't bother responding but truly...Im really curious what REAL and logical arguments people might have against this.

Ok well firstly , I'm a girl not a boy..well a woman actually , not that it matters I suppose. You cant compare alcohol to heroin, if after just a few pints you found you were throwing up and feeling like you were on deaths door unless you had another beer , then you could compare it. Interestingly enough if that had been the case , would you still be saying the same? boozers are all wasters? let the boozey scum suffer? You honestly believe people begin to take heroin 'just' for the buzz of it and that there is nothing psychologically deeper going on there?...who in thier right mind takes something which is effectively equates to signing thier own death certficate? Theres plenty of less hazardous ways to have a good time, heroin is last chance street... some drugs people take to explore themselves and altered states , heroin people take to avoid themselves and to numb everything. See this is where I think you've got it all ass upwards , they arent taking it for pleasure anymore so how would it be mollycoddeling them, its not saying go and enjoy yourself at our expense , its saying here you go , now you dont feel sick anymore go contribute something to this world, be a productive member of the community?. You cant give someone who is suffering withdrawls a kick up the ass and tell them to pull themselves together, if only it were that simple! Our youngesters are the ones most at risk here , easily led and bored and many of them impressed by doing somehting a little bit naughty and ilicit. Legalising drugs would remove the 'cool' factor which plays its part. Anyway bobahog I hope you're openminded enough to just look a bit deeper into whats worked in other countries. I get the impression you have your mind made up and no matter how many genuine facts and figures are presented to you , you will never believe them ( or rather admit to beliveing them ) so I shall leave it there and bid you good day x

Its exceptionally sad especially when you consider the majority of drug related deaths are caused by people trying to come clean off a substance and failing . Tollerance builds very quickly with opiates, they try and stop , go through withdrawl which is horrific , they have a weak moment and start taking again thinking thier body can still cope with the amounts they were taking prior to trying to go clean , of course by then thier tollerance had fallen again and they overdose. If you think these people are enjoying thier addiction you couldnt be more wrong , people take drugs for a variety of reasons but mostly because they are blocking out pain, mentally or physically. On Heroin thier first hit takes all the pain away and gives them eurphoria , the second hit does the same , the third hit isnt as good and the forth isnt anywhere as good so they take more. Realising they cant afford this or cant keep increasing the amount they take they try and come off and they get sick physically so they take again and that makes them feel like they did before they ever took it in the first place...so they stop again, get sick again , take it again just to feel normal and so the pattern continues. It's actually that Fast. Police hold up thier hands and know they are losing the battle against drugs ,for every supplier they arrest another steps up to take thier place because there is a fortune to be made. Its not a case of stopping supply its a case of stopping demand , and thats never going to happen. Like it or not this isnt going to change until the goverment address the issue , unfortunatley drugs policy isnt an election clincher and they are petrified even though they have hard evidence to show that legalizing drugs could save them up to 14billon. Many families have lost loved ones and this could have been prevented by supplying addicts with the drug they need to feel -normal- instead of villifying them. If you were to say to an addict heres your drugs now keep that £100 in your pocket and spend it on food , rent , your family, there would be no NEED for them to commit the crimes. Come on folks this is just common sense. And before anyone gets on thier high horse about this, keep in mind those of you who drink alcohol , under current legislation if booze was invented now it would no doubt be a class A substance and be illegal too. The deffinition of maddess is repeating the same action over and over and expecting a different result. Its time for change.

^I have posted this elsewhere but Im going to pop it up again regardless. This short Doc his hosted by a Doctor who was part of Thatchers medical advisory team in the 1980s and directly addresses your questions bobdahog. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7384717343852310100#[/url][/code]