It seems poignant to bring this up. Last night Thomas Heatherwicks Olympic flaming flower was relit to launch the Paralympics. Perhaps it is down to the recession but the Olympic party caught the imaginations of many more than expected. Of course some still remain closed minded to sport as many do to art but many new faces found out that great rewards were there for those who cared to look. The whole period has offered respite to what otherwise would have been a miserable summer, financial collapse, festivals rained off. There seems a genuine attempt to learn about the different bodily condition people find themselves in. Children growing up watching the Paralympics will have far greater spread of references, all positive from whence to view people different from each other in body.
This leads me in to the one group it seems society continues to shun. Mental illness may no longer have asylums and the attempt to drag the deviant off to be locked away from sight but the public fear remains. Considering one in four will see a doctor during their lives with mental health issues this is shocking. The mind is a fragile balance. Most people will have experienced feelings of loss of confidence in their thought patterns yet it remains taboo. And it is this taboo, this reluctance to try to understand that lies behind our attitudes to addiction.
Smoking. We all know smoking is very dangerous. Arguably more dangerous than most illegal drugs. It is always odd to look and see who smokes or has smoked. Why are these people attracted to do something that harms em so much? Many carry on till it kills them. Roughly 25% of adults smoke. 75% of schizophrenics smoke. Clearly smoking either relates to mental illness or could be considered a mental illness in itself.
Many were surprised when Kate Middleton chose Action on Addiction as one of the charities to be the public face of. I was greatly impressed, not just because this is a charity I do work for but because her clean cut image offers acceptability to a charity that struggles to find backing amidst the army of good causes. Why is this? Herein lies the problem. We still haven't found quite how to think of addiction. Graylings despisal of addicts got me thinking does he despise all addicts or just those he specifies, those dependent on heroin and cocaine. Some speak as if addiction were a disease, using that language. Others apply thinking towards a negative habitual behaviour. No one in their right mind buys unspecified powders of dubious origin from strangers on the street, goes home and injects it int o their veins. Let us dismiss the idiocy of blame and take a pragmatic approach to a problem responsible for many peoples deaths, 75% of all crime and huge damage across most sections of society.
Graylings appendage to his call for drug legalisation may be a disclaimer so he doesn't appear libertarian. Whilst altering supply of heroin from street dealers to doctors may well help, legalisation is not the whole answer. Of course it would be better to have heroin supply taken out of the hands of criminals. The simplicity of the idea begins to fall away once crack cocaine comes in to the mix. Heroin, to an addict can be seen as like insulin to a diabetic but no am mount of crack brings satisfaction to the addict. People spend as much as they can get, committing highly dangerous actions to get the money from crime to prostitution. What does Grayling advise here? A doctor to be on call 24 hours a day handing out pipe after pipe? Clearly the problem is not a simple one that could br solved by legalisation. Too many who have little or no experience of drugs are stepping vocally in to a debate that seems stuck in a logjam.
The answers may be far more complex than we can yet know. Abstinence must be the goal.
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