Letters and Comment
DDN welcomes your letters Please email the editor , claire @ cjwellings . com , or post them to DDN , cJ wellings ltd , romney House , school road , Ashford , Kent tN27 0lt . letters may be edited for space or clarity .
significant step
I write to congratulate the National Assembly for Wales on passing the Public Health ( Minimum Price for Alcohol ) ( Wales ) Bill on 19 June . The introduction of a minimum unit price for alcohol in Wales is a significant step towards helping people around the country who struggle with alcohol misuse .
Every day in Salvation Army churches and centres we witness firsthand the damage caused by alcohol dependency to society . Alcohol misuse can have a devastating effect on our sense of self-worth and physical , mental , emotional and spiritual health . It can damage our ability to form and maintain relationships , to hold down a job , and can often lead to financial hardship , isolation and loneliness .
Since the nineteenth century , The Salvation Army has worked with women and men with problematic substance abuse . Today our support services for people who misuse alcohol include preparation , detoxification and aftercare services along with psychosocial support , education and training .
We are a long-term supporter of the Welsh Government ’ s attempts to tackle the devastating effects of alcohol misuse on individuals and communities and have given evidence to the Health and Sports Committee about the need for a minimum unit price for alcohol .
The Salvation Army has also developed an addictions strategy for 2018-21 which sets out our clear commitment to continue to bolster the Welsh Government in its delivery of extensive social programmes helping
‘ Every day in Salvation Army churches and centres we witness firsthand the damage caused by alcohol dependency ...’
individuals , families and communities to make positive choices about the role of alcohol in their lives .
Major Lynden Gibbs , territorial addictions officer , The Salvation Army UK and Northern Ireland Territory , London
Don ’ t put us Down supporting and we don ’ t need outside money to function . No one will turn up and say your funding has come to an end , like lots of other services .
Going to a programme of complete abstinence is hard work if you still want to use , so people who don ’ t get it then blame the fellowship instead of looking at their own patterns of behaviour . Let ’ s keep encouraging people to find people they identify with at the level they need .
I hear these criticisms regularly but it ’ s hard to criticise the second largest fellowship in the world when so many people not only get clean , they work through a programme to feel clean inside as well . Dealing with things from the past and amending things is a wonder ful way of making sure you don ’ t return .
Some people , and I include some of the resentful readers who emailed you , obviously have had bad experiences and , in my experience , it ’ s usually they who cause more damage in these places .
Where else offers phone numbers to use 24 hours a day , people who open rooms freely , turn up when the support is asked for , and don ’ t turn you away for being under the influence like lots of other services ?
If anyone new read that article , it highlighted mostly negative aspects . When people see something working well they always want to bring it down . Why not try a meeting or two yourself as it ’ s open – no secrets and definitely not a cult who chant in rooms . So please stop putting that out there – we work in co-operating with all . Allan Houston , by email
on course ?
What happened before treatment courses were available in prisons and specifically to ‘ lifers ’? My view is simple – lifers were released without interven - tions of any kind . If the historical perspective is to be believed , lifers as a released group reoffended in a minority of cases . This has continued to this day . But we do not hear this view , do we ? All I ’ m hearing is to complete this course , then this one . I ’ m writing to get my view challenged – did or did not lifers get released quicker before courses hit custody with a vengeance in the early ’ 90s . And if so , what ultimate use are the courses ?
John Burns , HMP Frankland
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In response to ‘ Cracks in the mirror ’ ( DDN , June , page 6 )
Good piece , and accurate I think . Certainly in the mid North . Kelly-Marie Nettleton
Local authorities who hold the purse strings need to get with it and recognise the importance of outreach teams and health . Sheila Passmore
Our local council , it its wisdom , recently introduced a 59 % funding cut for drugs / alcohol services , including outreach . Neil Angus
In response to ‘ A patient worth saving ’ ( DDN , June , page 8 )
Raised this article with my national SUI lead and my regional director . Good work , DDN . Simon Morgan
Nick hits nail on head – an excellent piece that we need to keep in mind .
My own education means I ’ ve concentrated on medical interventions and I am embittered by the fact that improved treatments are known but it is just too costly to introduce a new medicine if the only market is by its very nature to reduce and then withdraw its use in patient groups .
I would like to ask why dihydrocodeine seems to have been dropped . I ’ ve seen it help a LOT of people , it ' s cheap and it doesn ' t require any special licensing ( as far as I am aware ) so what has happened ? S W Dunlevy
/ DDNMagazine @ DDNMagazine www . drinkanddrugsnews . com
16 | drinkanddrugsnews | July / August 2018
The ‘ all or nothing ’ article ( DDN , April , page 12 ) appeared to slate people ’ s choices of going to NA or other fellowships etc , which account for the majority of people reaching abstinence through 12 steps . It ’ s the usual argument that people are vulnerable and new comers preyed upon , which happens everywhere – churches , work places etc .
The 12 steps allow people who are addicts to recover the parts of themselves they have lost .
For the last 25 years abstinence has proved to be the only way for me , as someone who was a chaotic drug user and addict . Some people are just drug users , they are not addicts – there is a difference , and if they think they can successfully go and use after a period of abstinence then either they ’ ll be back or dead , or they were never addicts in the first place .
I have watched many people , including close friends , try controlled drinking , only to see them die or use for years and struggle because of the traits of an addict – shame , pride , etc – and refuse to ask for help , which is a sad reflection on society , never mind fellowships .
NA continues to save many lives and will do forever , as we are fully selfwww . drinkanddrugsnews . com