A prominent UK psychiatrist has stoked the flames of the drug debate there by claiming that the only “solution” to the drug problem is abstinence.
“If I am on methadone, I can’t practice as a doctor, I can’t drive a railway train. You might not want me as your car mechanic or teaching your children in school,” said Dr Alasdair Young.
Young goes on to make the argument that reforming addicts with methadone treatement does still not allow the individual to lead a normal existence in society in any conventional sense.
While the starkness of Young’s opinion, as well as his decision to very publicy air it may raise a few eyebrows, the ideas he is espousing have been around for a long time.
In fact the idea of abstinence is the basis on which several anti drug and alcohol groups are based, including the most famous of all - Alcoholics Anonymous.
No matter what your opinion on the use of drugs, or strategies for reducing the prevalence of associated problems within society, it is pretty difficult to refute the argument that disassociation from drugs will also lead to disassociation from problems caused by them - at least on a personal level.
The success of groups such as AA should at least tell us that this message should be part of the strategy in combatting drug associated problems. Arguments will really only start when people start espousing it as the only solution.