Dont Label them Junkies

listermint

There is PC and there's PC, where will it end ...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11067028

Don't label heroin users as 'junkies' - Drug Commission

People should stop calling heroin users "junkies" or "addicts", an influential think tank on drugs has said.

The UK Drug Policy Commission said such names stigmatised users and made it more difficult to get off drugs.

Its report suggested that the policing of drugs on the streets and methadone programmes forcing users to go to chemists were "publicly humiliating

Instead, the study said that British society needed to show more compassion towards drug users.

Authors of the six-month report said the terms "junkie" and "addict" were distrustful and judgmental and led to feelings of low self-worth among drug users.

They said these hostile attitudes only added to the stigma of drug addiction and made it harder for users to give up.

'Chemical bondage'

Colin Blakemore of Oxford University, one of the report's authors, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme drug addicts faced stigma "as damaging as similar attitudes to gay people, and people with mental health issues, were 30 years ago".

He added that hostility towards drug addicts failed to recognise how difficult it was for them to quit, describing what they faced as "chemical bondage".

"The crux of this problem, I'm afraid, is the persistent view that drug addiction is the problem of the addict," he said.

The report said the government must tackle what it calls the "extreme prejudice" against drug users if it is to succeed in getting addicts off benefits, back into work and playing a full role in society.

Deirdre Boyd, chief executive of charity Addiction Recovery Foundation, criticised the study, saying it did not focus enough on drug rehabilitation programmes.

"I think the greatest stigma against addicts is to not believe they can't recover, to not believe they can give up drugs," he said.

"People are absolutely desperate to give up… and instead they are diverted onto over-prescription programmes, anything other than the rehab that gets them drug free."

ancapailldorcha

Yes, because calling them poor innocent darlings with a disease will help so much.

kfallon

I will call them 'scum' instead!!!

mikom

listermint wrote: »

'Chemical bondage'

Sounds like an EMO band.

Craebear

Chemical Bondage?

Sounds kinda kinky...but no I'll stick to junkies.

chin_grin

So "junky" = "knacker emo"?

Dravokivich

Don't call people who drink Alchos!

El Guapo!

Senior narcotic technicians

.

El Siglo

I can see this now on Lower Abbey St. on a Friday afternoon, "Ah will ya giz a bit change, I'm undeh chemical bondage"...:rolleyes:
Reminds me of the "Free Hat" episode of South Park where Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas kept remaking their films to make them more PC; "the soldiers' guns have been digitally changed to walkie talkies, and the word "Nazi" has been changed to "persons with political differences"."

syklops

Thread title should be "British QUANGO make statement to justify their funding".

We have the same craic here with the likes of the NRA/NERA/HSE and the other 2 million odd Quangos we have. They need to show something for the piles of cash the government gives them, so they make statements, that were the results of "research". Most of which they made up the day before.

fakearms123

Don't call child molesters pedophiles because it puts a bad label on these people, we should instead call them "kiddie love injectors", this will help child molesters feel less guilty and feel less depressed when they are rape choking their young prey... idiots! :rolleyes:

Sykk

Well the retards knew what they were doing when they started didn't they. Fúck them, junkies.

recylingbin

We should call them T-Rexes due to the way they carry their arms/hands.

Sanjuro

Sideshow Bob: Bart Simpson, that mischeivous little scamp that twice sent me to that dank urine soaked hellhole.

Parole Officer: Uh...We object to the term "urine soaked hellhole," when you could of used "peepee soaked heckhole."

Sideshow Bob: Cheerfully withdrawn.

cruiser178

Dravokivich wrote: »

Don't call people who drink Alchos!

agreed,lets call them soberly challenged.

Sykk

Dravokivich wrote: »

Don't call people who drink Alchos!

Not all people who drink are addicted to it. Now I've not heard of people who like the odd line.. JUNKIES! :pac:

rubadub

such names stigmatised users and made it more difficult to get off drugs

I would have given up cigarettes 4 years before I managed to, if only those cruel heartless animals had not called me a smoker. I think some goverment TV ad campaign even went as far as to say "smokers are jokers", christ- I was on the verge of suicide after that, what with my low self worth and all.

listermint

rubadub wrote: »

I would have given up cigarettes 4 years before I managed to, if only those cruel heartless animals had not called me a smoker. I think some goverment TV ad campaign even went as far as to say "smokers are jokers", christ- I was on the verge of suicide after that.

Where you not just an air purification obsolver.?

seamus

I'll just continue to call them "gougers" so. Works for me.

My name is URL

I can kind of see the reasoning behind it tbh.. but the words people use to describe them is fairly low on the list of problems that they have I'd imagine

Irish Guitarist

People should stop calling heroin users "junkies" or "addicts", an influential think tank on drugs has said.

The article calls them "addicts" at least four times.

actuallylike

fakearms123 wrote: »

Don't call child molesters pedophiles because it puts a bad label on these people, we should instead call them "kiddie love injectors", this will help child molesters feel less guilty and feel less depressed when they are rape choking their young prey... idiots! :rolleyes:

Did you really just invent a new this child molester reference, attribute it to someone else and then call them idiots for it all in one sentence?!?

I also can see some reasoning behind it. Whenever I hear a think tank suggesting something I always think about it in the grand scheme of things, that is after all what they think. More understanding and acceptance to their problems may help a lot of them pull themselves out of the gutter. I know there are a lot who don't seem to want help but maybe treating them in a different way may just change their minds? It is after all just a suggestion, may work and may not work, who knows?

Myrddin

This whole PC thing is gone beyond a joke. Pretty soon, referring to somebody as a Human will be frowned upon. If we can't call drug addicts junkies, then I presume we can't call killers killers? Is a rapist still a rapist? Is a boiled egg still a boiled egg?

starbelgrade

EnterNow wrote: »

This whole PC thing is gone beyond a joke. Pretty soon, referring to somebody as a Human will be frowned upon. If we can't call drug addicts junkies, then I presume we can't call killers killers? Is a rapist still a rapist? Is a boiled egg still a boiled egg?

Well, a door is not a door when it's ajar, so....

mickydoomsux

EnterNow wrote: »

This whole PC thing is gone beyond a joke. Pretty soon, referring to somebody as a Human will be frowned upon. If we can't call drug addicts junkies, then I presume we can't call killers killers? Is a rapist still a rapist? Is a boiled egg still a boiled egg?

My big problem is that people think that changing the name of something makes any difference to these situations.

A junkie is a junkie no matter what you call them. They're not going to change their ways just because you give them a nice new pretty name.

actuallylike

EnterNow wrote: »

This whole PC thing is gone beyond a joke. Pretty soon, referring to somebody as a Human will be frowned upon. If we can't call drug addicts junkies, then I presume we can't call killers killers? Is a rapist still a rapist? Is a boiled egg still a boiled egg?

In fairness, the word junkie adds a stigma to the person, a bad stigma that most people don't want top be associated with. Eliminating it may (I'm just saying may now, I completely understand that it may also not work) give the users a bit of a boost to turn their life around?

EnterNow wrote: »

If we can't call drug addicts junkies, then I presume we can't call killers killers?

Well, why can't we call black people n*ggers? It's just a variation on the spanish word negro for black. Why can't we call Spanish people spics? It's just a shortening of Hispanic. Why can't I call a person from Pakistan a Paki? It's just a shortening of their origin?

Reason is that they have over the years been deemed offensive and a slur and I think that is what the author is suggesting, that the word 'junkie' has or is becoming a slur also.

mickydoomsux

actuallylike wrote: »

In fairness, the word junkie adds a stigma to the person, a bad stigma that most people don't want top be associated with. Eliminating it may (I'm just saying may now, I completely understand that it may also not work) give the users a bit of a boost to turn their life around?
.

It won't work. We're far to precious in this country when it comes to junkies and alcoholics. They're not useful members of society. They are a drain on the economy.

I can appreciate the very few who do get clean but the majority will spend their usually short lives with their hand out for their government money and their other hand in someones pocket stealing their wallet.

Utter scum and we shouldn't have to suffer because of their existance.

actuallylike

mickydoomsux wrote: »

It won't work. We're far to precious in this country when it comes to junkies and alcoholics. They're not useful members of society. They are a drain on the economy.

I can appreciate the very few who do get clean but the majority will spend their usually short lives with their hand out for their government money and their other hand in someones pocket stealing their wallet.

Utter scum and we shouldn't have to suffer because of their existance.

So just out of curiosity, what do you suggest?

seamus

actuallylike wrote: »

Eliminating it may give the users a bit of a boost to turn their life around?

Somehow I think social stigma is the last thing a junkie piece of **** is worrying about. If they cared about their social appearance, they wouldn't be on the stuff in the first place.

Well, why can't we call black people n*ggers? It's just a variation on the spanish word negro for black. Why can't we call Spanish people spics? It's just a shortening of Hispanic. Why can't I call a person from Pakistan a Paki? It's just a shortening of their origin?

For a start because you can't choose to be black, Spanish or Pakistani so ethnic slurs have connotations of discrimination, as well as the obvious racism. You choose to be a junkie scumbag.

that the word 'junkie' has or is becoming a slur also.

Good. We should we holding these people up in public as perfect examples of everything that you should never become. Show kids pictures of gaunt and dying junkies with needles hanging out of their arms, blood seeping from the sores on their body. It should be a social stigma, you should be left in the gutter and treated with contempt until you make the decision to get yourself off the junk and get some help.

kfallon

actuallylike wrote: »

Well, why can't we call black people n*ggers? It's just a variation on the spanish word negro for black. Why can't we call Spanish people spics? It's just a shortening of Hispanic. Why can't I call a person from Pakistan a Paki? It's just a shortening of their origin?

For the record I have no problem with people calling me a 'Paddy'

mickydoomsux

actuallylike wrote: »

So just out of curiosity, what do you suggest?

There was a thread a couple of days back about an scheme being suggested, in England i think, where an addicts state benefits would be taken from them if they wouldn't stay off drugs. The argument that this will cause them to get desperate and start stealing to get their money is redundant because they already do that.

We should be doing that here because at the moment, in a recession, the state is giving these people free money every week to buy illegal drugs, housing them for nothing as well as providing them with free travel and all the while these scumbags are still mugging people and robbing houses. There's something fundamentally broken about a society that operates in that manner.

These people should either be made to clean themselves up or they should just be abandoned. We need to stop being babysitters for grown adults.

actuallylike

seamus wrote: »

For a start because you can't choose to be black, Spanish or Pakistani so ethnic slurs have connotations of discrimination, as well as the obvious racism.

A fair point.

seamus wrote: »

You choose to be a junkie scumbag.

In fairness, I don't think anyone chooses to be a junkie scumbag, they choose to do drugs, obviously the wrong decision but they're upbringing, circle of friends or just general ignorance to the consequences will play a factor in this decision.

seamus wrote: »

We should we holding these people up in public as perfect examples of everything that you should never become. Show kids pictures of gaunt and dying junkies with needles hanging out of their arms, blood seeping from the sores on their body. It should be a social stigma, you should be left in the gutter and treated with contempt until you make the decision to get yourself off the junk and get some help.

That's your view and that's fair enough, I personally am on the fence about it. Obviously there are some people out there that are the lowest of the low, don't want to change while there are government handouts and will rob their mother without an iota of care but there are also a number of addicts who fell into their drug spiral due to varying uncontrollable circumstances that hate their life and want to change but find it extremely difficult with this stigma attached to them.
I personally would want to do whatever is possible to help these get back on their feet and by treating them with a bit of kindness and understanding will help them, then so be it.
Again, it's all just a theory or an idea. Whether it would make a difference is anyone's guess. It really is up to the users but I think there's merit in the idea.

Myrddin

actuallylike wrote: »

In fairness, the word junkie adds a stigma to the person, a bad stigma that most people don't want top be associated with. Eliminating it may (I'm just saying may now, I completely understand that it may also not work) give the users a bit of a boost to turn their life around?


Well, why can't we call black people n*ggers? It's just a variation on the spanish word negro for black. Why can't we call Spanish people spics? It's just a shortening of Hispanic. Why can't I call a person from Pakistan a Paki? It's just a shortening of their origin?

Reason is that they have over the years been deemed offensive and a slur and I think that is what the author is suggesting, that the word 'junkie' has or is becoming a slur also.

Well if they don't want to be associated with drugs, they should stop using them. The fact is they DO use drugs, so association is going to happen. Theres a member of my family who I would quantify as a Junkie, its what he is, I'm not going to pamper him. I suppose joy-riders don't want to be associated with stealing either? Should we just call them "disadvantaged people who are bored and decide to travel fast in an exciting manner"? "Oh one of those disadvantaged people who are bored decided to use my car to travel fast in an exciting manner last night, I'm so p1ssed off now because of their selfishness".

Junkies earned their tag, robbing handbags, stealing money, lying on the street half baked with kids around, story bud ha yar gor eh uro for me bus fareh etc. Thats a junkie. Someone who uses drugs recreationally @ weekends or whatever, holds down a job, provides for their family etc - well that's something different.

Your other arguments hold no merit, as it's a completely different ball game. Local slang/tags for people is a long way off interpreted racism. My point initially was, where do we draw the line?

candy-gal1

Fecking PC brigade! :rolleyes:


What happened to telling it like it is?!

Myrddin

candy-gal1 wrote: »

Fecking PC brigade! :rolleyes:


What happened to telling it like it is?!

The Celtic Tiger had it for breakfast

seamus

actuallylike wrote: »

but they're upbringing, circle of friends or just general ignorance to the consequences will play a factor in this decision.

The factors leading up to their decision may explain why they did it, but it doesn't excuse it or make it any less their own problem. The Irish justice system has the same problem - they treat people from poorer or less educated backgrounds as being less responsible for their actions by virtue of that poorer background. Whatever happened to "All citizens are held equal before the law"? Their background is irrelevant - we all have to lie in the beds that we make and play the hand that we're dealt. (I'm resisting the urge to put a Zaph Branigan quote in here).

I personally would want to do whatever is possible to help these get back on their feet and by treating them with a bit of kindness and understanding will help them, then so be it.

I will pump millions into treatment centres, education centres and rehab centres. But I wouldn't waste a single euro on anyone who didn't seek out help themselves, because you cannot force your assistance on anyone. They have to consciously choose to take the help and arrive at a rehab centre, asking for help and willing to be locked away for 6 months to deal with it.

Half of them in rehab or on methadone continue to take drugs while on their rehabilitation courses and end up back on the streets within weeks, with thousands in taxpayer money wasted on nothing.

Lemegeton

funny pisstake about this subject

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/junkies-to-be-renamed-'heroin-buffs'-201008243031/

recylingbin

seamus wrote: »

. Whatever happened to "All citizens are held equal before the law"?

Ask Eddie Halvey.

bazmaiden

heroin injection technician

WindSock

If people from the lower classes get treated more fairly by the justice system, then why are the majority in prison and on the streets from these classes?

seamus

WindSock wrote: »

If people from the lower classes get treated more fairly by the justice system, then why are the majority in prison and on the streets from these classes?

Because the majority of crime is committed by these classes...

Pauleta

Is Smack head ok?

WindSock

Certain types of crimes. There are criminals from every class, some are easier targets than others.

henryporter

Wonder what William Burroughs would think if he were still around "hmm I think I'll call my book 'Drug Addict' that'll really sell...." more like "What the bloody F*ck are these ar$eholes talking about"

actuallylike

EnterNow wrote: »

Well if they don't want to be associated with drugs, they should stop using them.

Not that easy, it's all well and good for someone who isn't addicted to say "well just stop using them". Heroin addiction I imagine is one of the hardest addictions to beat.

EnterNow wrote: »

The fact is they DO use drugs, so association is going to happen. Theres a member of my family who I would quantify as a Junkie, its what he is, I'm not going to pamper him.

Nobody's asking you to pamper him, the issue is to stop reffering to him as a junkie. Maybe (and I use this term again, I'm not saying it will or won't work) it might change his outlook if he's not categorised as a scurge on society? It's just a maybe now, that's all.

EnterNow wrote: »

I suppose joy-riders don't want to be associated with stealing either?

Do they all steal cars? No, and that's my point. Some use their own cars. Admittedly, thay all break the rules of the roads but they don't all steal their cars to do it. Same way, all heroin addicts don't rob and steal. Some just find it extremely hard to break the habit and try to their best but they are labelled amongst the same people who rob and steal as you describe.

EnterNow wrote: »

Junkies earned their tag, robbing handbags, stealing money, lying on the street half baked with kids around, story bud ha yar gor eh uro for me bus fareh etc. Thats a junkie. Someone who uses drugs recreationally @ weekends or whatever, holds down a job, provides for their family etc - well that's something different.

Of course it's something different, I wouldn't deny that at all. I don't recall saying anything about that, sorry if I gave the wrong impression.

EnterNow wrote: »

Local slang/tags for people is a long way off interpreted racism.

I don't know about that, you are interpreting someone who is addicted to heroin as a robbing, stealing degenerate that doesn't want help when I'm positive that there are people addicted that want to change but just can't get the mental attitude to commit to it.

seamus wrote: »

The factors leading up to their decision may explain why they did it, but it doesn't excuse it or make it any less their own problem. The Irish justice system has the same problem - they treat people from poorer or less educated backgrounds as being less responsible for their actions by virtue of that poorer background. Whatever happened to "All citizens are held equal before the law"? Their background is irrelevant - we all have to lie in the beds that we make and play the hand that we're dealt. (I'm resisting the urge to put a Zaph Branigan quote in here).

I'm not looking for excuses, you're right they made their bed (albeit a manky, crusty foam mat probably) but all this is is about stopping a reference that is deemed a slur.
Bear in mind, the thread is about stopping the use of the word junkie, that's all, and I for one can see the point in this.
That Zaph Brannigan quote would have sold me

I'm going to stop with this thread now cause I don't think it's really going anywhere productive, I have my views which I stand by and others have...well others. There's no universal right or wrong answer to this, just personal opinions ("Mars bars are lovely","no they're not they're manky", etc.) which I find pretty futile to continue with.

Dudess

Are people here being disingenuous/deliberately obtuse? I don't have a problem with the word "junkie" but the reason there is an appeal for people not to use it is: it's a derogatory term. Nobody says they can't still be referred to as drug addicts, so the "I suppose we can't call paedophiles paedophiles and rapists rapists" comments are moot.

Sykk wrote: »

Well the retards knew what they were doing when they started didn't they. Fúck them, junkies.

You'd have done things differently if you were one of them eh? Easy to say that from your comfortable ivory tower.

Sykk wrote: »

Not all people who drink are addicted to it. Now I've not heard of people who like the odd line.

I have.

um7y1h83ge06nx

I hate to way people just use bullsh*t excuses to absolve themselves of personal responsibility. People need to grow up and live in the real world. We've all had set backs in life but we didn't all decide to stick a needle in our arms and inject sh*t into ourselves.

My mother HATES people that blame their situation on their upbringing whne they're dragged into court etc. Her mother died when she was 12 and her father ended up in hospital long term with Polio two years after that. When she was 14-15 she was looking after a household of kids while her two older brothers kept the farm going. None of them ended up as junkies or addicted to other substances.

strobe

Sykk wrote: »

Not all people who drink are addicted to it. Now I've not heard of people who like the odd line.. JUNKIES! :pac:

You would be in a minority there then.

Degsy

Dudess wrote: »

it's a derogatory term.

Good..i wish i could think of a more derogatory term for people who've dedicated thier whole lives to the selfish and criminal pursuit of injecting themselves with drugs soo THEY can feel good..if only for a second.

I think junky is too leniant a term for people who drag two year old children around town with them while they beg,steal and deal in order to satisfy thier cravings.

I hate the scum who think that doctors and chemists are there primarily to look after them and stop them feeling "sick" while everybody who works for a living has to pay for a doctor's visit,and often will forgo seeking treatment for a genuine illness because of it.

What about the lovely people who inject drugs on the luas in front of commuters,tourists and children?Should they be dignified with a less-derogatory term for fear of offending them?

The sooner people wake up to the fact that junkies are an ever-increasing menace,a state-sponsored subculture and not some sort of forgotten-victims of our social concsience the better.

Myrddin

Dudess wrote: »

Nobody says they can't still be referred to as drug addicts, so the "I suppose we can't call paedophiles paedophiles and rapists rapists" comments are moot.

Well what about paedos, scumbags etc, are those words next? I see what your saying Dudess, but in my opinion there is a difference between a Junkie & a drug user. As I said earlier, stealing, & lying on the streets in front of people out of your face fully justifies someone being called a Junkie. They ARE a scourge to society, and should be made fully aware how much of a scourge they are.

A genuine user with responsibilities who harms nobody, & enjoys it on their own time, well no, live & let live in that case. So it's more complicated than the "if you take drugs your a junkie, but thats a bad word" debate. I seriously wonder if Irish society has the intelligence to even BE politically correct sometimes. People will whine & moan about junkies/head shops/heroin all week, & then come the weekend, spend their wages getting blitzed on alchohol.

Dudess

Yara Grumpy Reactivation wrote: »

People need to grow up and live in the real world.

I agree.

We've all had set backs in life but we didn't all decide to stick a needle in our arms and inject sh*t into ourselves.

We've all had setbacks in life but some people have had FAR worse setbacks than others.

My mother HATES people that blame their situation on their upbringing whne they're dragged into court etc. Her mother died when she was 12 and her father ended up in hospital long term with Polio two years after that. When she was 14-15 she was looking after a household of kids while her two older brothers kept the farm going. None of them ended up as junkies or addicted to other substances.

Fair play to your mother - not an environment where there's heroin though, to be fair.
I despair of people being so dismissive of heroin addicts when they have no idea what brought them to that point, and never will - when a person who was born to a teenage heroin addict and spent their life in and out of care posts to this thread their negative views on junkies, I'll pay heed, but until then: you've no ****ing idea what you're talking about.
And yes, I know many people don't go down the road of heroin despite horrific lives, but only because they are a lot stronger than your average bear.