The Wisdom Of The Clueless

Heroin users in the county of Carmarthenshire are being encouraged to smoke the drug by a 'community partnership' (whatever that means) in an attempt to cut down the use of needles among drug addicts. Utter madness ! And a perfect example of how removed from reality some people are. Well intentioned they might be, in tune with addicts they are not. But I am, and can safely say without fear of being proved wrong that trying to get junkies (or recreational users, there are a few) to inhale heroin rather than inject it is like trying to control a hurricane.
The kind of people who are out to get high don't care much how they achieve it and I know there will be old friends reading this local news report with mile wide grins on their faces. Just as I would be if I were still filling my arms with that rubbish. Its like trying to preach the virtues of beer drinking over spirits but at the end of the day it will ALL kill you DEAD no matter how you achieve your blotto.
In fact the more I think about it, the mpre dangerous this idea is; drug users are none too bright to begin with so this could be a green light for them to go out and get blasted on smack. 'I saw it in the paper,' they'll slur. 'Its okay to use foil as long as its not needles.' Mark my words, someone somewhere WILL use this while attempting to justify their drug use.
However most of them will ignore it and carry on shooting up. There is already a mistrust (even contempt) toward 'suits' among the users and this will only further the animosity. Who wants to listen to advice from people who clearly have NO IDEA about taking drugs? The general consensus would be 'get back in your company Mercedes and leave us the hell alone!'
Sure their barmy ideas make the councillors and yoghurt knitters feel good about themselves and thats fine, tap yourselves on the back dears, but don't carry on like these ideas will do any good. They won't, believe me. As I have already said, things like this are only good for supplying the addicts with just more excuses to use.
Replacing foil with needles is like giving alcoholics benzodiazepenes (valium type drugs) to take instead of booze, effectively cutting off one dragon's head and replacing it with another. Addiction is addiction is addiction! You can never hope to help people caught in this type of vicious whirlwind by keeping them in the same toxic broth, or giving them the OK for one method of abuse while dismissing another.
One of the people who supports the 'needle for foil' scheme told the Llanelli Star newspaper. 'It's actually a step down. It sounds ironic in a way but it is encouraging people out of using needles and taking the first tentative step into getting treatment.'
My goodness, really? Does he really believe this gumph? Surely 'getting treatment' requires the addict to make an honest decision to get clean and seek the relevant help, not just switching from injecting to inhaling the drug. The first steps should NOT be toward snorting heroin fumes off foil but finding professional help in opiate withdrawal. The methadone route had very limited success (most of the people I knew where using heroin on top of their methadone prescription) and I don't hold a much better forecast for this idea.