Drugs Are Bad

<< Kermit needed to lay off the methadone

It's not a pleasant subject, but I learnt something about it, so here goes:

Methadone is green.

I'd like to state, perhaps unnecessarily, that this isn't from personal experience; rather, from my delightful line of work, where I all too frequently encounter poor individuals who have fallen into the clutches of Shanghai Sally (to quote J. Peterman). I always imagined it to be purple, which oddly is also the colour that I imagine Special Brew to be. But both these nasty substances are of some sort of greenish hue - presumably in the case of methadone to make it more appealing to it's prescribed users. Personally, I would think that if you're a recovering heroin addict, a free heroin substitute available on prescription was appealing enough, but there you go.

From what I understand, methadone is perhaps even more addictive than heroin, and even worse, dries your mouth right out, like too many cups of tea. Working in an office where most people have no experience of working with drug users, I hear far too many ill-informed comments about 'druggies' knocking around. I'd think if you're working in social housing you should receive at least some drug training - to be honest, I don't think it'd be that bad an idea for everyone to be a lot less ignorant about drug addiction. It can be bloody frustrating working with people who care about nothing more than their drug of choice (and that very much includes alcohol) but at the end of the day, drug addicts are just people with problems, like anybody else.

Society is also very hypocritical when it comes to drugs; the masses are quick to pour scorn on heroin addicts getting support from the NHS, yet are happy to immerse themselves in the world of cokehead celebrity idiots. For me, it's hard not to feel sympathy for someone who has fallen into a crippling addiction because of their horrendous present or past situation; if you're rich and famous and still can't resist blowing your money on substances that make you marginally more arrogant and irresponsible, I can only shake my head at you, in Daily Mail reader fashion. How bizarre that the main factor in people's judgement on drug addicts is the social status of the drug they happen to be addicted to...