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THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS

Chapters: Acknowledgements - Definitions - Introduction - 1.The Size of the Drugs Problem - 2.The True Cost of Drug Addiction - 3.Addicted to Pleasure - 4.Caffeine, Alcohol and Tobacco - 5.Cannabis - 6. Cocaine Addiction, Crack Addiction and Heroin Addiction - 7.Amphet amines, LSD, Ecstasy and the Rest - 8.Why Governments are Scared of Prevention - 9.Treatment of Drug Addiction Works - 10.Legislation and Decriminalization; The Arguments over Marijuana - 11.Conclusions; What We Must Do - Appendices

Book on drug addiction by Dr Patrick Dixon - published by Hodder 1998 - pages are copyright but may be reproduced for educational purposes with acknowledgment and links as appropriate. 5.5 million hits in 12 months on our site.

Jerry was a heroin injector in Edinburgh for a number of years.He used to sell vegetables in the market, until his life began to fall to pieces.After that he existed on benefits, with help from friends and whatever he could make from selling small quantities of Marijuana, temazepam, heroin and whatever else he could get.

Jerry hit a very bad patch, ran out of money and was too ill to steal. He was so desperate to get help that he overcame his fears of being identified and went to the local clinic to register as an addict.That meant he could turn up once a day for methadone.

The clinic used to hand him enough for a day but he was always trading it on the streets for the real thing.So they told him to drink it right there while they watched. Methadone lasts longer than heroin, but Jerry always craved the comfort that only the needle would bring.

A fellow-addict called Dave came to see him, broke, in a terrible state, begging for help, anything, but refusing to go to the clinic, suspicious and hostile to anyone representing authority. Dave's paranoia had got worse since taking a cocktail of other drugs. He could not and would not go.So Jerry made a decision.He went down to the clinic, got his methadone, swallowed it and left.Once outside he made himself vomit into a bag, and gave the vomit to Dave to drink. That is the power of addiction.

Addiction is a significant threat to civilisation. There has never been a time in human history when so many lives have depended on finding the next dose in time. Illegal drug trafficking is already 8% of total international trade, and has the power to wreck governments and economies as well as millions of individual lives. As a result an increasingly aggressive war against all kinds of drug misuse will dominate the first decades of the third millennium, including tobacco and alcohol.At the same time there will be calls for legalisation from those who say the war is lost.

I began this book several years ago with a set of conclusions in my mind.All that has had to change in the face of new published research and after seeing more of the brutal reality of addiction in places as distant as North East India and Scotland.

We stand at the dawn of a new age, whose fashions, standards, consciousness and cultural norms will be very different from our own. The lesson of history is that the pendulum always swings, but which way will it swing on drug use?Will we see a new world order where mind-altering drugs are widely accepted and encouraged - or a new draconian Puritanism?The answer is that we will see both, depending on where we look.

Company managers, school teachers, factory workers, public service employees, doctors, teachers, nurses, other health care workers, parents, passengers, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, police officers, judiciary, armed forces - all are now affected by the addictions of those they work with, whether they realise it or not.

Drug abuse is hitting productivity and profits. Market forces will provide the most powerful anti-drugs drive over the next twenty years, at a time when many communities are feeling more relaxed about the morality of drug use.Companies and communities which root out addiction will win orders and jobs from those that take no action. The process has already begun.Market forces will bring changes no government could ever achieve.

Today the drive to take drugs is out of control.As we will see, drug use among teenagers is sky-rocketing in many countries despite huge health campaigns.Even smoking is becoming more widespread in the young of wealthy nations, after earlier falls in consumption.For millions of people, perhaps the majority in some countries, addiction is a part of everyday life.Those in emerging economies are spending their new wealth on tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.

Of course, use is not the same as addiction, but use always precedes addiction.Use does not mean that a person is going to havehealth problems.Some drugs can have beneficial effects, for example alcohol has a protective effect on the heart in small regular doses.But the same drugs can kill.

Drug users, addicts, pushers, alcoholics - all these words create images but the reality is often far removed from the stereotype. You cannot tell by looking who in your office, street, school or hospital ward is using heroin for example - or selling it.Even if the person is "under the influence" it can be very hard for the inexperienced to tell exactly what is going on.

Many cocaine or heroin users are currently holding down executive posts in the City.A trained observer might notice the tell-tale line of old injection marks on a favourite vein of a colleague after a game of tennis, or the unmistakable pin-point pupils of someone using opiates, but those might be the only outward signs.

"Once an addict, always an addict" is worse than a dangerous myth, its a curse.And it's not even true.The fact is that most people who take potentially addictive illegal drugs are not taking them twenty years later, nor have they died of their addiction.As we will see, success rates are impressive in residential treatment programs.They may be long and expensive but they work. However, while there are ways out of addiction, help is often hard to find and harder to take.

Chapters: Acknowledgements - Definitions - Introduction - 1.The Size of the Drugs Problem - 2.The True Cost of Addiction - 3.Addicted to Pleasure - 4.Caffeine, Alcohol and Tobacco - 5.Cannabis - 6. Cocaine, Crack and Heroin - 7.Amphet amines, LSD, Ecstasy and the Rest - 8.Why Governments are Scared of Prevention - 9.Treatment Works - 10.Legislation and Decriminalization; The Arguments over Marijuana - 11.Conclusions; What We Must Do - Appendices

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