Shifting from Moral to Effective Models in Addressing Addiction
Addiction Economy Thought for Today - the 'Moral Model' of addiction is behind Britain's treatment of illegal drug addicts as well as those harmed by addiction to legal products such as cigarettes, alcohol, gambling and unhealthy or ultra-processed foods.
The Moral Model says that addicts are bad people, weak people and don't deserve help, and should be shunned and locked up. (See here our 5 Models Framework which outlines the Moral Model alongside the Economic, Psychological, Biological, Social Models, which show the different lenses which dictate how addiction is treated.)
https://lnkd.in/eYMPjEej
Nice points made here by Martha Gill in The Guardian warning about the new Opioid epidemic which will get worse if we don't change that mindset.
Basically the Taliban has banned the production of opium, and so those sub-Addiction Economies have moved to synthetic opioids. Some, called nitazenes are many times more addictive, and harmful, even than the Fentanyl which is killing so many in the US and all can be produced in ordinary premises. They are often cut with ordinary medical drugs as well as with other illegal drugs.
"But as this disaster approaches, the UK’s severe, moralistic approach to drugs – once declared as a war – is blocking all the escape routes. It is one of the few places in Europe, for example, without overdose prevention centres, in which people can take their own drugs in the presence of healthcare workers and treatments. Drug users in the UK are 13 times more likely to die than their European counterparts. These rooms are cheap to run, and points at which addicts can be directed into treatment. But they are resisted – although one is due in Scotland. Rishi Sunak has said they “condone use of drugs”.
"Drug-checking services are crucial, too. The UK’s first, the Loop in Bristol, was licensed only this year. Such a service might have prevented the death of 16-year-old David Celino, who died after taking ecstasy in 2022. But the Loop had been fighting government reluctance for years. There should be many more like it."
Hopefully this mentality will die with the vicious moralistic Tory mindset and Labour will be more focused on an approach that is effective and understands the drivers of addiction - which we term as 'self-care gone wrong'. More to come on that.
https://lnkd.in/em2WYZtV