A TALE OF TWO ADDICTS

By Alex Thain
Contact the author via Chris Johnstone by e-mail at christopher.johnstone@ntlworld.com

“Golden brown texture like sun…
...never a frown with golden brown”

The Stranglers - 1981*

It had been a strange spell in an ordinary surgery in the North of Scotland as we struggled to cope with an outbreak of substitution dissent. For inexplicable reasons, an unrelated cohort of our opiate dependent patients started a guerrilla campaign with ambushes of duplicity, deceit and dishonesty. Oh aye, and there were always the memories of those who died of heroin overdose…

At times like these, our thoughts turn to the appropriacy of our input against the background of escalating demand, increasingly hostile messages from the politicians and rampant public indignation fuelled by the media and that's before the in-house hassle. The strident headlines of “Methadone Scandal of Schoolboy (7)” (who had none in his system) and “Dead toddler had drunk Methadone” (his parents have now been charged his murder) have a sub-text of “Careless Docs put lives at risk”. It seems that again we find ourselves in politically motivated crossfire which is concerned with “points scoring” and hyperbole rather than measured debate. Perhaps it's a little early to throw out the methadone baby with the heroin bathwater.

But surely not in the Highland capital…? Many visitors to the Highland capital are slightly deceived by the apparent idyll of a lovely city embracing the Moray Firth and shepherding the River Ness and Caledonian Canal to the sea. However, like all cities we have a hard drug culture in addition to our legendary alcohol misuse.

All of which is cerebrally interesting, but what about the patients? A typical death was the lad with the accidental overdose even after completing a number of jail terms and rehab programmes. He appeared to be coping well and had disappeared from our radar- until we reported his death to the Fiscal and tried to support his distraught family. The death of any young patient is tragic.

The antithesis is a patient of roughly the same vintage who has now been in continuous employment for 5 years who is delighted to pay the prescription charges for his methadone. The stability and freedom brought to his life are the inspirations to keep me “chaavin' awa” ** with this group of people because they are people first and addicts second.

I'm not sure of the answers, but I'm sure we need the debate…

* Lyrics referring to heroin or toast depending who you believe

** “chaavin' awa “- Doric-“diligently persevering on a prolonged task” often more generally used to denote “getting on with the job” in a quiet but effective way.

Other hoolet online articles by Alex Thain can be found at:
hoolet edition 50 - A Fairy Tale
hoolet edition 49 - A Tale of Two Addicts
hoolet edition 48 - The Supporter
hoolet edition 47 - Cannon Fodder
hoolet edition 46 - The Commercial Imperative Alternative
hoolet edition 46 - The Commercial Imperative Assassin
hoolet edition 45 - A Lateral Thought
hoolet edition 44 - The Watching
hoolet edition 43 - The Child Within
hoolet edition 42 - If Kipling were a GP
hoolet edition 42 - Of Directors, Philosophers and Poets
hoolet edition 40- Of Knees and Knickers
hoolet edition 39- Neighbour meets Norton
hoolet edition 38- Embarrassment
hoolet edition 37- From the Book of Negotiators
hoolet edition 36 - Practice Visit By WH Audit
hoolet edition 35 - The Bells, The Bells. . . .
hoolet edition 34 - Talking Urine
hoolet edition 33 - Reflections on Reggie Perrin
hoolet edition 32 - Myth 1 Logic 1
hoolet edition 31 - Poems
hoolet edition 30 - One Size Fits All
hoolet edition 29 - Downwardly Mobile
hoolet edition 28 - From the mouths of babes
hoolet edition 27 - On Losing Their Child

hoolet is the magazine of RCGP Scotland. It is supported intellectually, financially and emotionally by RCGP Scotland.

This issue maintained by Robert Hallam.