Sunday, June 07, 2009

Empower Yourself--with naloxone

Empower yourself? With naloxone?

This can only be serious within a palliative framework or one that views addiction as a lifestyle choice. In this framework, even a worker's hope for freedom from addiction is considered judgment-laden.

From the presentation: "For many of our clients overdose is a fact of life..."

Preventing death is a good thing, but there is NOTHING about recovery or treatment in the presentation. NOTHING.

It reminds me of a story last year about Vancouver, where a client said, "the only way to quit drugs is to move far from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where there are scores of services for addicts." He feels his only hope is to get away from the professionals that are trying to help addicts!!!

Time also has an article on naloxone in the U.S. Again, no mention of recovery or the need for treatment. Presenting the matter without the context that decent treatment is unavailable to most people fails to give readers the frame of reference needed to consider policy and social issues involved. Not surprising, given that the writer has been pretty plain about her biases. She is a frequent critic of treatment, AA, and the disease model.

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