We all know the state of the country's finances..!
Greedy politicians have systematically fucked the UK up the ass since time immemorial, but over the last few years things have gotten worse.
There are cases going through court now, politicians claiming 'expenses' they are not entitled too.. evidently £80,000 a year isn't enough!
A politician went to prison just today for claiming expenses for a house he didn't even live in!
Add this to the bankers loaning and mortgaging the public with money that doesn't exist, and the government borrowing money that doesn't exist, the UK national debt now stands at a trillion pounds!
We are paying £120,000,000 (that's 120 million pounds) a day just in interest!
Long and short of it, we're fucked!
local authorities are having they're budgets cut drastically and the services being hit the hardest are grass roots and community organisations, hospitals, charities, police and fire services and DRUG SERVICES!
Unemployment has hit record levels, people are loosing they're properties and assets yet they're cutting funding to essential services that help people in desperate situations like the citizens advice bureau.
Personally, I can't find a job, no matter how many interviews I go to, and we are struggling!
Recently my psychiatrist that I've seen for years, and had a great relationship with, told me she's leaving work.
She was the consultant at my local Specialist Addiction Unit.
Budget cuts meant the hospital had decided to merge the alcohol and drugs units, and they wanted her to take a new role overseeing the whole department. No longer seeing patients and basically managing everything.
She decided it wasn't for her, and gave notice.
At my last appointment with her we were discussing upping my MST dose, and she had no problem with it, we decided I would try another week at 180mg twice daily and if I couldn't manage we would increase the dose.
When I went for my next appointment I discovered that I no longer get to see a real doctor, I now have a 'key worker'..
Basically someone with no qualifications and little experience in the addiction field who has power over me and my treatment.. I was getting flashbacks of the incredible incompetence I experienced at 'Addaction/lifeline' - our local Drug Dependency Unit.. (The name changes every year when the contracts are issued... the only thing that changes is the name, and a lick of paint)
I left Addaction years ago, sick of the endless stream of useless 'key workers' and demanded a referral to the hospitals SAU, but that's a whole other story!
Anyway, basically, my 'key worker' (hell, I'm probably more qualified to do her job than her with my NVQ3 counselling diploma and drugs awareness certificates), has absolutely no power to make a decision regarding my medication and treatment so now has to take it to the team... (a weekly meeting of doctors and key workers)
I've been waiting nearly three weeks now for a decision, I ended up having to meet with the new consultant to get it a 20mg increase!
I was hoping the MST would help with cravings as well as withdrawals but the dose im on barely keeps me well...
I was hoping the MST would help with cravings as well as withdrawals but the dose im on barely keeps me well...
Now I understand I'm just another junkie, and most people probably don't see addiction services as the highest priority when it comes to hospital budgets, but we are people too, and we deserve equal treatment..
I have and always will fight for my rights as a patient, it seems sometimes these 'drug services' go out of they're way to stop you getting on with your life, it's difficult to hold a job down when your on daily pick up at the chemist or have to go to a counsellor every two weeks, then see your GP just to get a methadone script!
These services are set up for your average 'junky' - Im talking about the ones that shoplift and mug old ladies for they're drug money.
If you decide you want to provide for yourself, hold down a job and contribute to society it seems they will put as many barriers in the way they possibly can.
These services are set up for your average 'junky' - Im talking about the ones that shoplift and mug old ladies for they're drug money.
If you decide you want to provide for yourself, hold down a job and contribute to society it seems they will put as many barriers in the way they possibly can.
13 comments:
These are scary times we live in,i think these cuts are verging on abuse,my 3 year old is being deprived of free play facilities,i can't get advice when the housing get it wrong and send me an eviction notice,and my teenage daughter can't get the help she needs to get training cos they are cutting funding for that particular agency....I want to do something but i don't know what and as a junkie on a script i suppose i shouldn't rock the boat in case THEY decide to withdraw my script(it happens...)Aaaaargh.Sorry,rant over...
Annie.
Ps you say you firebreathe,do you also do staff,poi..?
Yeah, the shit's hitting the fan big time.. it's pretty scary actually.
Im suprised we haven't seen more protests!
I do poi, and staff.. I haven't used the staff for a long old time though.
Ill post some pics when I get a chance!
It's ironic really, my script is the one thing that has enabled me to get off my ass and get a job but now it's the one thing that's causing me problems with my job - appointments week after week, there's no compromise with them and most junkie's do as they're told for fear of loosing they're script.
Isn't it frustrating!
The system just isn't set up for 'functioning addicts'!
And as the first 'anon' poster commented, you don't want to rock the boat for fear of loosing the script altogether.. crap system.. doesn't work.. when on earth will they stop going round and round in circles with treatment models that DONT WORK!
Before Cameron and Clegg were elected part of they're manifesto was to move treatment for addicts forward.
They both supported diamorphine prescribing until they got in power and now we are moving towards an 'abstinence not maintenance' based model.. shown repeatedly worldwide not to work.
Forcing addicts off methadone will not work!
Do you know, there are the same number of heroin addicts in the UK as there are jewish people!
And they have a huge voice and political sway... as a group we need to fight for our rights, but addicts, especially heroin addicts are inhernetly laxadasical and the government know how to keep us quiet...
Hellow people!
To be fair we really cannot blame goverments and non-addicts who don't care about us that much. End of the day they made their life, they got their education, they're civilized, got their Wives/Husbands, children, going on holidays, got their career etc so why should they give a damn about junkies? in their mind we chose to be addicts, they believe we are the rejected people of society so they ask themselves why should they help any of us? they think of us as below them, and to be honest can we really blame them? they dont know how it is to be an addict, far as they know we are the same as criminals.
I think we can only help ourselves. I met an addict recently who has quit heroin, methadone and morphine for many years now.
He said his family kicked him out, rejected him, he was left homeless, nobody wanted to know him, and he thought to himself this is not the life he wants and can handle, he didnt have no money come in or anything. He said the point is if money is there, support is there then addicts will carry on being addicts or being addicted to something, he said we need a kick up the backside, so-called tough love, he said when you need food in your stomach, roof over your head and need your self-respect and dignity then the junkie lifestyle goes out of the window.
He said if he still lived in his home or with someone, if he still had access to money, food etc then he would have carried on doing drugs, but since he kind of hit rock bottom where it was impossbile for him to feed his habbit he said enough is enough, he did say if people really want to quit they can, he said some are weak minded yet some are strong, some choose to put their dignity and respect first and quit, whereas some need to be homeless, lonely and kicked up the backside to make them think, and also for them to be starving and desperate to live...
So point is that only we can help ourselves, it's not imposssible, we cannot use excuses and blame goverments or people or even look for so called miricile cures or treatments, if we choose to put our self-respect first, our principles, choose to be real-men, real-women, think of our family and loved ones then we can quit. Many people have been brought up as Orphans, abusive families, many people have struggled early on their lives yet turn out to be doctors, lawyers, end up with a decent career and a decent life, and never do drugs, so again point is we choose to do the things we do, it all comes down to us individuals.
No matter how you been brought up end of the day nobody puts a gun to our heads and forces us to do drugs or whatever. Its just like where some people choose to do wrong i.e steal, murder, rape, bully, sleep about etc whereas some choose to lead a moral honest clean life, point is if we keep relying on medications, treatments, and use excuses such as past then we will always carry on thinking with a addict mentallity and will always be isolated and alone and unhappy..
Goverment only wants to look after their own i.e educated people, thats how life and world is.
I can't believe I of all people am saying this, but it could be a lot, lot worse. I mean if we lived abroad.
No I'm not talking about Russia, where there's no methadone provision at all... or China, where you get bundled off for 2 years' internment, or Singapore where you get soundly spanked and 7 years' imprisonment in "rehab"... I mean the United States where most methadone customers have to turn up between 5:30am and midday to drink their dose supervised (which, work aside, wouldn't suit me at all as I always drink my methadone in bed, at the beginning and end of the night...) or even SWEDEN where the system is so strict you basically sign up on methadone never to use heroin ever again. No prescription for benzos is allowed, no matter how pressing the clinical need, unless your GP gets permission from the drugs service to write these up (ie if you're depressed you're fucked). You can even be chucked off your script for drinking too much alcohol. In other words in Sweden methadone is fine, providing you don't have a drugs problem!
I asked my worker yesterday about the possibility of methadone amps and he just laughed.
Is skinpopping sugar free methadone dangerous? It's basically water, sorbitol and a tiny bit of chloroform water. I wouldn't hit it up properly: haven't the veins left.
The medical profession's attitude to sleeping pills annoys me badly too. I mean how exactly can you abuse zopiclone? Is there some open secret out there to which I'm not privy? All the stuff does is zonk you? There's no point exceeding one pill, because one pill zonks you out, so 2 won't zonk you any more. I NEED sleeping pills from time to time; without them I eventually switch into a 36 or 48 hour day or even longer. I'm reduced to scoring my own sleep medication on the street because it's easier than trying to convince a sniffy dr that sleeping isn't actually a crime. The fact that I'm an opiate addict. Zopiclone is from another class of drugs entirely. So I really don't see how or why I would abuse it. Fucking ridiculous tossers.
Best of luck with the jobsearch. I hope I get you as my worker.
I think at my clinic most medication tweaks have to be approved by the team. But your worker has a big say. One once informed me I wouldn't be allowed methadone pills to go away with "as I was an injector" (I since learned to lie and just said I smoked. Because my bitch worker never listened, she never knew that I went in my legs not my arms ~ which I thoroughly enjoyed showing her, virgial and clean. While my legs looked like a road map of a mountainous 3rd world land...) yeah no pills. So I just didn't go away. I'm not taking litres of swilling fucking methadone with me. Then I remembered most irritatingly of all that I'd come into this clinic with a script for well over 100mg IN phy pills. Which I never injected. If I'd wante to inject, the clinic I got the pills from would have dished out amps. They also did morphine continus and morphine instant-release.
Why on earth the NHS has to insist on this 1-size-fits-all approach on the one hand, while politicians lament never-ending drug crime on the other, I just do not understand.
I'm quite convinced that were it not for this recession and spending cuts we'd be well on the road to widespread diamorphine prescription by now. I made sure my workers always knew how badly I was doing for years ~ precisely so I would be first in line when some decent treatment finally arrived.
Congrats on getting the MSTs though. Lucky bastard!
This is precisly why i pay £100 p/m to see my doc privately - very civilised i get to discuss my needs, if i want to increase my 'done dose or -as i have been looking at switching to MST. One pick up a month and no sodding piss tests.All for 100 quid =5 bags so if your working its totally doable,
Does ibogaine give you brain damage? apparently I heard that iboga does something to brain cells that it makes us kind of crazy? makes us want to push people to ibogaine and all we think about is ibogaine, we lose intrest in TV, work, socializing, sports etc, is this true?
I dont think so Natasha!
I can't work out if your question is serious or you are being sarcastic! Apologies if it is serious..
Iv'e never heard that before, it can cause problems if people have heart or liver conditions (although it has been shown to lower viral load in people with HCV)
Most of the deaths associated with Ibogaine have been put down to the user having a pre-existing heart condition or they have used shortly after the Ibogaine when theyre tolerance is low and have overdosed..
@Sid am serious. Am thinking of going on the Iboga boat too to get off subutex. I only realised now how powerful this opiod is and every time I try to stop I dont feel right for a month or 2 and have trouble sleeping, dont want to go out and basically feel shyte. Then again I dont wean down properly either, but am doing that now. I just registered on a website where other people are also trying to get off subutex and methadone too. Ive heard numerous reports of paws surfacing and withdrawals coming back too after Iboga tx. The most crucial issue am worried about is people claiming of brain damage, lesions and basically Iboga messing up your heart, brain and body in general. Am in 2 minds in what I should do. Is it worth doing the Iboga for a long acting opiod such as bup? I mean if withdrawals are coming back for people who took heroin then isnt there going to be problems for meth or bup users looking to do Iboga?
Hey i can from a another forum and read something about your blog...I took was on methadone and H, detoxed using ibogaine and like you had these paws for months and months, it seemed the WDs just came back. Am not too sure what to make out of ibogaine, i felt find and clean for a week after ibogaine but then the WDs hit and the paws too, i did take small doses of root bark after my initial flood but i felt they were simply holding back the WDs and not taking them away.....I was on methadon for good 3 years using H on top now and again. Ibogaine is nothing something i wanna go through again ever, my experiennce wasnt negative but not positive either, it did take away WDs but they came back, thats what am vexed about. Am on ultrams now, still deciding what i should do on here on in.
I also got depression after ibogaine, i think it got stored in my fatty cells and then when it was evaporating the depression hit. I took ibogaine for heroin and methadone, to be honest i didnt notice if it helped or not, i was out of it most of the time but the lingering depression and paws just got too much for me, am not sure if ibogaine really does help in the long term or if its temporarly repsite for us addicts, or just postpones the aftermath of opiate abuse.
Hi,
I'm a functioning addict too, and have been using daily since leaving rehab 30 months ago, injecting 5-7 times a day for the last six month.
The system is never going to help you if you have a job or responsibilities. The only way to get any help or support is to be a homeless shoplifter, the stereotypical junkie.
If you're a clean, well presented intelligent person that has commitments, researches their addiction and asks questions, you're fucked.
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