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Welfare for addicts

  • 09-08-2011 05:58PM
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,571 ✭✭✭


    Should they be entitled to welfare?,is this a problem with our system,we give them the treatment,but thanks to the usual bureaucracy shíte in paperwork and management there does not seem to be any much help to go around.

    i think there are two cases,those who are tragically caught in the grip of addiction,and others who might use it because they just seem to have no way out and use the system for advantage.

    As i said i understand the tragedy it puts on families and siblings who might have parents or brothers/sisters caught in the terrible cycle.

    Instead of the usual jail them or shoot them all replies,i would like to hear some methods you would recommend.

    my own thoughts would be put more money into treatment of these addictions instead of giving them the temp fix of welfare until the next day of treatment arrives.

    Should addicts be entitled to welfare?. 37 votes

    Yes
    0% 0 votes
    No
    100% 37 votes


«1

Comments

  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 34,567 ✭✭✭✭Biggins


    O' good, a welfare thread.
    We haven't had one of these in a while.
    I'm outa here.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,443 ✭✭✭Bipolar Joe


    In a humane society, we look after our weakest.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Legalise heroin for addicts, let them use it in the clinics with clean needles.

    Their welfare can be used to pay for it (or part of).

    Probably too radical an idea but it would keep the money out of dealers hands and the addicts can take heroin safely.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 17,918 ✭✭✭✭orourkeda


    Too simplistic a "solution" to a less that simplistic issue


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,751 ✭✭✭Saila


    SW is a treatment for Alco's now :confused:


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,739 ✭✭✭✭starbelgrade


    I think junkies should be given make overs - they always look so shabby & have really bad skin.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,018 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    I think junkies should be given make overs.

    At this stage it ranks as one of the better suggestions made on AH lately


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,718 ✭✭✭Taco Corp


    I think junkies should be given make overs - they always look so shabby & have really bad skin.

    Do you remember that show on TG4 where 3 lads would pick an outfit for some girl? And they'd all speak in a language that most people couldn't understand. They could do something like that with junkies. They should team up with Lifestyle Sports and get this show on TV.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,915 ✭✭✭MungBean


    All well and good to point the finger at junkies and alchos but any person who spends their dole on feeding a habit is the same. Whether it be fags, fast food, drink, drugs, gambling, clothes, games. Why is someone addicted to alcohol a worse person than someone who's addicted to sitting on their arse playing games ? When its in relation to welfare then all of the above are a waste of money.

    If you want to deny a junkie his dole because of what he might spend it on then you have to deny EVERYONE else too if they might spend their on something pointless. I know buying illegal drugs with state money is worse than buying the new GTA or whatever but in relation to welfare it all boils down to wasting state money.

    Lots of people get caught in cycles and get further and further from society and rejoining the workforce.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 273 ✭✭Tehachapi


    Surley wrote: »
    Do you remember that show on TG4 where 3 lads would pick an outfit for some girl? And they'd all speak in a language that most people couldn't understand. They could do something like that with junkies. They should team up with Lifestyle Sports and get this show on TV.

    Paisean Faisean


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,212 ✭✭✭WonderWoman!


    Whoever created the above poll .You disgust me !.

    Of course they deserve welfare they are vulnerable people ,they need to live too
    Everyone in our society is equal whether you like or not and everyone has the right to their independence


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,116 ✭✭✭starviewadams


    IBTL.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,030 ✭✭✭✭Chuck Stone


    Do people ever even try to think out how stopping welfare for addicts would be achieved if it were deemed desireable?

    You would need huge amounts of resources to set up a complex statutory apparatus to micro manage the lives of addicts.

    That would mean more public sector workers and 'experts' who would have to be paid by the the tax-payer.

    Also, at least when the addict is spending his/her welfare money on their vice there is less need for them to commit crimes against persons and property or take up prostitution or drug dealing.

    The alternative to allowing addicts to continue collecting their welfare payments, it appears, would be much worse than the status quo.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,933 ✭✭✭Logical Fallacy


    Should they be entitled to welfare?.

    Given that their are no laws about what people spend their welfare on then yes, they should.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 238 ✭✭Doublin


    Shoot them all, waste of space, then lets move onto the next section of society not pulling their weight..


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18 tmi


    of course addicts should get welfare if they never how would they get their fix


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 778 ✭✭✭UsernameInUse


    orourkeda wrote: »
    Too simplistic a "solution" to a less that simplistic issue

    Actually, it's a very simple solution.

    The criminalisation of heroin keeps the street value very high. Therefore, addicts may go through hundreds per week to fund their habits. This means that society in general suffers from criminality in order for the addict to get his/her fix. The drug dealer in general is the good guy - although the media will tell you otherwise. Dealing in an illegitimate business means there are no barriers to entry. Thus, there may well be thousands of heroin dealers on the street at this very moment. All these dealers are competing and in turn, keep the cost of heroin as low as they can. It is, for all intents and purposes, the government who is prolonging the criminality by keeping these narcotics illegal in the first place.

    Regardless of whether or not a substance is illegal, the sudden legalisation of it would not encourage sound minded people to go next or near what they understand to be an addictive drug. Truth be told, it wouldn't matter if it was illegal or not, if someone wanted to try heroin, they would find it. The teenagers, the dealers and the murdered are very much the innocent victims in this situation - they are playing the hand they have been dealt; there is a product in demand and they are supplying it for a wage. The person who willingly injects an addictive substance into their body is not an innocent victim - and I have far more sympathy for the people being mowed down by a drive-by shooting than an addict that, by consent, used a dangerous substance.

    Heroin should be legal. It would kill gangland and all the criminal activities that go along with that. It would stop the murders and violence on our streets.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,377 ✭✭✭Warper


    Actually, it's a very simple solution.

    The criminalisation of heroin keeps the street value very high. Therefore, addicts may go through hundreds per week to fund their habits. This means that society in general suffers from criminality in order for the addict to get his/her fix. The drug dealer in general is the good guy - although the media will tell you otherwise. Dealing in an illegitimate business means there are no barriers to entry. Thus, there may well be thousands of heroin dealers on the street at this very moment. All these dealers are competing and in turn, keep the cost of heroin as low as they can. It is, for all intents and purposes, the government who is prolonging the criminality by keeping these narcotics illegal in the first place.

    Regardless of whether or not a substance is illegal, the sudden legalisation of it would not encourage sound minded people to go next or near what they understand to be an addictive drug. Truth be told, it wouldn't matter if it was illegal or not, if someone wanted to try heroin, they would find it. The teenagers, the dealers and the murdered are very much the innocent victims in this situation - they are playing the hand they have been dealt; there is a product in demand and they are supplying it for a wage. The person who willingly injects an addictive substance into their body is not an innocent victim - and I have far more sympathy for the people being mowed down by a drive-by shooting than an addict that, by consent, used a dangerous substance.

    Heroin should be legal. It would kill gangland and all the criminal activities that go along with that. It would stop the murders and violence on our streets.

    Oh good God. Do you remember when head-shop products were legal? The amount of people that were taking the stuff every weekend when they would never have went off and bought coke or whatever was crazy. If heroin was legal it would make thousands of junkies and society would be even more fcuked than it is now. Do you realise how addictive it is? All it takes is a few too many hits at the weekend and the craving starts and then Good night Vienna. I think the people that advocate legalising all drugs really have no first hand experience of drugs and their problems at all.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    As Alcohol-related problems cost Ireland an estimated €3.7 billion a year and rising - that’s a cost of €3,318 on each person paying income tax in Ireland (source alcohol action Ireland)That's more than all the other so called junkie drugs going around put together,So maybe when we tackle the main addiction problem in this country which is alcohol abuse then we can do something about the other addictions or would that be to easy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 852 ✭✭✭CrackisWhack


    We should also cut welfare to the morbidly obese, wasting all their SW on food


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 613 ✭✭✭4Sheets


    How would define an alcho or an addict?
    I reckon welfare should if possible be maintained at least for the next year..could road hedge trimming or replacing the perfectly fine speed ramps on boot rd with other speed ramps type projects be shelved instead..I m glad the biometric cards are coming in..that whole system is a fly trap and needs to tightened up..at least the alchos and druggies will be too xhausted to trash the town


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,725 ✭✭✭charlemont


    rarnes1 wrote: »
    Legalise heroin for addicts, let them use it in the clinics with clean needles.

    Their welfare can be used to pay for it (or part of).

    Probably too radical an idea but it would keep the money out of dealers hands and the addicts can take heroin safely.

    Too clever an idea for this country.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,018 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    Dealing in an illegitimate business means there are no barriers to entry.

    Really ?

    You should give it a try it. Undercut the local competition and let us know how you get on :eek:
    Warper wrote: »
    I think the people that advocate legalising all drugs really have no first hand experience of drugs and their problems at all.
    Hardly.

    I know lots of people who take all manner of drugs and none of them would dream of touching heroin even though they wouldnt have much trouble getting their hands on it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    Whoever created the above poll .You disgust me !.

    Of course they deserve welfare they are vulnerable people ,they need to live too
    Everyone in our society is equal whether you like or not and everyone has the right to their independence
    The OP wants them to be independent of the state.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,456 ✭✭✭✭Mr Benevolent


    Cut people's only source of income and crime will increase. the cost of dealing with the crimes will probably outweigh the decrease in social welfare achieved by cutting them off in the first place. You need to think about this more, OP.
    Oh good God. Do you remember when head-shop products were legal? The amount of people that were taking the stuff every weekend when they would never have went off and bought coke or whatever was crazy. If heroin was legal it would make thousands of junkies and society would be even more fcuked than it is now. Do you realise how addictive it is? All it takes is a few too many hits at the weekend and the craving starts and then Good night Vienna. I think the people that advocate legalising all drugs really have no first hand experience of drugs and their problems at all

    And you don't appear to know much about drug decriminalisation.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,212 ✭✭✭WonderWoman!


    Taking Welfare off them isn't the right way about it .

    A vast majority take drugs because they are board why not give the bank managers and the politicians a significant pay cut and set up a more efficient jobs initiative then tax the rich to the high heavens and Use remaining money to create a better Mental Health initiative to combat depression which often leads to dependancy

    A job could do wonders for some drug addicts
    could give them something to get up for. They need that money to live . Everyone deserves a fighting chance at life .

    What about some teenagers who have no intention of going to college and spend their dole money on cans for the week , why not take their welfare cos to be honest it pays to go on the dole rather than getting a grant .


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,581 ✭✭✭✭TheZohanS


    Did you know that a heroin addict has to be clean for 6 months before they can go on a methadone programme?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    Taking Welfare off them isn't the right way about it .
    Agreed. But paying them welfare ad infinitum with no strings attached also isn't.

    A vast majority take drugs because they are board why not give the bank managers and the politicians a significant pay cut and set up a more efficient jobs initiative then tax the rich to the high heavens and Use remaining money to create a better Mental Health initiative to combat depression which often leads to dependancy
    If people are getting addicted to drugs because they're bored, we might make their lives more interesting by cutting their payments.
    A job could do wonders for some drug addicts
    could give them something to get up for. They need that money to live .
    Who's going to employ an addict in this economy?
    Everyone deserves a fighting chance at life .
    A chance yes. Maybe two or three. But a lifetime of chances?
    What about some teenagers who have no intention of going to college and spend their dole money on cans for the week , why not take their welfare cos to be honest it pays to go on the dole rather than getting a grant .
    C'mon. Anyone who chooses to go on the dole rather than take up a grant to go to college is a bit if a leech.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,018 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    TheZohan wrote: »
    Did you know that a heroin addict has to be clean for 6 months before they can go on a methadone programme?

    :confused:


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,562 ✭✭✭✭Sunnyisland


    The Zohan wrote: »
    Did you know that a heroin addict has to be clean for 6 months before they can go on a methadone programme?


    Not being funny but clean of what ? Do they not go straight onto methadone to get them of heroin and are then suppose to wean themselves of the methadone but in reality the majority of them stay on the doses for ever.


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