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DRINK & DRUGS NEWS :: Q&AYou ask the questions - you answer the questions. Please keep your answers coming, and feel free to email a new question. Thanks to this issue's respondents for their contributions. Question:I'm an ex-service user, clean now. I feel that my experiences
could deter young people from taking the route that I did. Do readers
have any suggestions on how I can get involved? [Paul, Nottingham] Your replies...Dear Paul Well the first thing I will say to you Paul, is that you say you are 'clean' - but you were not dirty before. It may be picking hairs but I had the same said to me, it is the language of the prejudiced that we adopt because at the time we have little or no self-esteem. Now you are in a wonderful position of being able to tell your story from the horse's mouth. Now you have a few avenues you can take, getting involved in the education department and talking to students like I have done, or maybe children. But I cannot emphasise this enough: if you have an opinion on something you must be able to back it up with evidence based material, which most of us get from documents off the net. The site to go to which has one of the most comprehensive lists for drug websites is the Alliance's www.m-alliance.org.uk/index.html You may want to go and work with drug users. Go and see your local drugs team and ask them if there is a users' group - if not start one. Lifeline and DrugScope are good for that information. Whatever you do Paul, keep at it and you will get there, people like you who are stable ex users are sought after for your ideas and points of view. But please remember there is no right or wrong path, it is horses for courses; some people will benefit from a methadone maintenance script while someone else will benefit from a 12 step rehab. Keep all doors open. David Wright, service user
Hi Paul, Aside from offering to share your life experiences so that others may benefit, you would probably gain a great deal also. I too am an ex-service user. Since leaving treatment two years ago I have become involved in several different aspects of drug treatment and education. I was very fortunate, in that the workers at the rehab I was in were very inclusive in their approach to treatment, always explaining the roles of different agencies in my local area as I constantly badgered them for information during my programme. I attended many seminars and presentations, eventually becoming involved, constantly meeting people in the drug field as I went. If I were you, my first step would be to find out what is going on in your local area first. I'm almost certain that there will be a few different agencies near where you live who are looking for people to get involved. More often than not, if you contact these places and arrange to pay them a visit in order to get a feel for what they do, you will find ex-service users working there. Those are the people you really need to ply for information as they will be aware of exactly what's going on in the Nottingham area. I myself am working on putting a substance misuse education programme together for kids. I met up with a chap who works with kids who've been excluded from school. He works for a statutory agency that runs a 'pupil re-inclusion scheme' in my local area. As far as I'm aware schemes of this nature are operating in a lot of areas (especially cities), so I would consider that as a possible starting point. I wish you all the luck for the future. Don't be disheartened is it turns out to be less straightforward than you first imagined. You have highly sought-after knowledge to offer the drug field, so don't be afraid to apply it! Neil, Lancaster
Dear Paul Firstly I would like to say well done for coming this far, as I know how hard it is to get clean, just keep going! Like you I am a former user and now clean and have been for nearly five years now. When I came out of prison I found it hard to get a job because of my past, and felt like I was going nowhere and was getting quite depressed. I then decided to do something positive with my life but didn't know where to start! I was visiting a friend in prison when I saw one of my workers from rehab and explained that no one would give me a chance with employment. They recommended that I contact the local drug services to do some voluntary work, which I did. I then started doing voluntary work for the organisation Energy and Vision, which specialises in drug education within schools. I started off inputting stats from the schools that they visited, then they started to put me on courses to learn more about all drugs (effects to the body/brain etc) and I really started to feel self worth again and decided that this was for me. I did this for about eight months then a position came available, so I went for it. I have now been employed for over three years. I now head up all the school programmes as well as delivering them by educating young people about the consequences of the drug culture and giving life story input - hopefully steering them away from drug use, as there was nothing glamorous about my drug use. I get so much out of it, but without doing voluntary work and going on courses this would not of been possible. All I can suggest is get yourself some voluntary work and stick at it. It does pay off - I'm proof of that! Ok it's hard at first as money is tight, but I'm now on a good wage and really enjoy what I do. I haven't looked back; I've turned all my negatives in to positives and now buzz in a different way... naturally! You have so much to give, go for it! Winston Smith, substance misuse educator - head of schools,
Energy and Vision
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