Monthly Archives: August 2009
Farewell to the well of Spas
“I see the old Spawell has closed down”, said Dirty Dave, referring to a high quality leisure and bar complex in the Dublin suburbs and not a deep hole in the earth from which mentalers can be brought to the … Continue reading
Mr Gaga
Loving these stories going around about Lady Gaga being a hermaphrodite. There’s a YouTube video of her/him at Glastonbury and when he/she gets off an on-stage moped you can apparently catch a glimpse of its rather protuberant genitals. This has … Continue reading
Escalation
It started easily. A quick bump in the pub, the top of a pint spilled. “Sorry about that, mate”. “I’m not your fuckin’ mate. Watch where you’re going”. “Jesus, chill out man. It was an accident. Let me get you … Continue reading
The Eircom online phone book is a filthy liar
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Motorway madness
From today’s Independent: Taxpayers will have to compensate the operators of the controversial M3 motorway if the number of vehicles using it falls below target. The ‘minimum traffic level’ clause for the M3 was included in the contract for the … Continue reading
Friday
Friday is easily the worst day on the internet. Traffic is down, visits are down, page views are down, comments are down, forums are slow, interaction is minimal, same thing every week across a wide range of sites. What is … Continue reading
Deliver me from evil
All week I’ve been waiting, all week. Monday afternoon browsing and clicking and adding came after fruitless searching of two stores in Dundrum which are rubbish (my fault, I know). One is vast, well dressed yet offers little but run … Continue reading
Gavin nails it
Gavinsblog – go read. I’ll be over in the corner brushing up on my apathy.
What am I missing here?
From today’s Irish Times comes the story of a former heroin addict called ‘Dave’ who, due to the dispute between the HSE and the pharmacies, is having a hard time getting his methadone. The paper says: The recovering heroin addict, … Continue reading
From today’s Irish Times comes the story of a former heroin addict called ‘Dave’ who, due to the dispute between the HSE and the pharmacies, is having a hard time getting his methadone.
The recovering heroin addict, who has been clean for more than 15 years, was queuing outside the emergency clinic at Dr Stevens Hospital last evening.
Erm … can you really be called ‘clean’ if you’ve just swapped one drug for another? They go on to say:
Dave, who appeared to be in his late 30s and wore a black bomber jacket, slacks and sunglasses, said this was the first time he had had to queue on the street for his methadone in more than 10 years.
So we can assume that since giving up heroin 15 years ago he’s been taking methadone ever since. And that’s at the expense of the taxpayer.
Does he get methadone forever? And isn’t a system which takes drug addicts and makes them better by making them addicted to another drug fundamentally flawed?
I can understand using methadone to wean people off heroin but surely the state has no responsibility to do any more than that. I know heroin is addictive but the responsibility for that addiction lies with the person who took the drugs. They shouldn’t be provided with drugs by the government forever and ever, nor do they have any right to expect that kind of treatment.
If a smoker insisted that the HSE provide them with nicotine patches every day for the rest of their lives after giving up smoking they’d be told to fuck off and the public would not accept its money being used in such a way. So what makes heroin addicts special?
By all means help them but surely there has to come a time when they’re expected to kick all drugs, methadone included.