Sunday 14 June 2009

Crazy Idea

I have worked in the addiction field for almost 30 years. As a result, it could be argued, I myself became addicted to a substance in a bottle. Very predictable, very socially cool up to a point.

News in a Scottish tabloid Sunday reports today that Phoenix, in Possilpark, Glasgow, is having problems with a teenage drug-dealer next door, who is passing tenner bags of smack through their windows.

I worked in Possil for eight years, and was partly responsible for the first detox/rehab unit in Scotland, together with the first Parent Support Group which met in my dining room, and a 24 hour helpline.

Shortly after I left, Phoenix moved in. (I spent a day at a Phoenix House so I know what they are about) I thought it crazy to set up a house within the community of Possil, with so much addiction, and therefore dealing going on.

Our "clients", once clean and sober were sent to country settings away from the inner-city to rebuild their lives. That seemed sensible. Why Phoenix thought that a rehab in the Drug Capital of the World would be successful I know not.

Maybe they should have asked some of my Parent's Support Group?

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