Bill White in the UK

Bill White recently visited with some recovery advocates in the UK. There are several reactions posted at Wired in to recovery. Here's an interesting one on the cultural gap between the US and the UK:

I think I am right is saying that being welfare dependent carries more social stigma in the US than it does here. I think what I am trying to say is that there is a different social context for self-help and mutal aid and therefore recovery.

In the UK’s welfare state, there is a large body of middle class professionals (including drugs workers) who are charged with managing the lower orders of addicts. They may unwittingly “infantilse” the people in their care when they say things like, “You’re not ready for detox”.

I was reminded of something that was said to me a few years ago in a heated debate about harm reduction. “Sometimes, liberal minded people do the wrong things for the right reasons and their conservative opposites end up doing the right things for the wrong reasons”.

I'm still chewing on this and I don't really buy the right/wrong reasons--I think there are people with good and bad motives on both ends of the political spectrum. I started to write more, but I'll leave it at that.