Drug addiction is a tragedy. But we could stop so many people dying
I was a drug worker in a London prison when I met Stuart, a guitar-playing Scot with a kind smile and a firm conviction that his life was over. When I met him he was dependent on heroin. His family had disowned him and he was in prison. He was scared, exhausted, and desperate. Over the next few months, with support, he started to make progress. We formed a strong bond. He got in touch with his mum, and opened up to me about the things he was running away from. I offered a listening ear, a roadmap, and no judgment. I was only three years into a career as a drug worker but I was already unshockable. I showed him I was on his side and he started to work to get better. He was three months clear of drugs and alcohol when he was released from prison. I was really hopeful for him.
A few days after Stuart got out, I was told by a colleague he had died of an overdose. I was stunned. Mostly I remember feeling guilty, wondering if I had done or said the wrong thing. Had I talked to him about the risk of overdosing? I knew I had, but it didn’t help to know that then. I felt like I had let him down, that I didn’t do enough. Years later I still think about him. As is often the case with drug deaths, it’s easy to tell how he died but a lot harder to say why. Looking back, I can see he didn’t have access to the some of the support we know works today – the odds were against him from the day he got out.
Stuart wasn’t the first or the last person I knew who died from a preventable overdose. He used heroin and had a very tough start in life, but people from all walks of life can have problems with drugs. I’ve met every kind of person on the road. Yesterday’s drugrelated deaths statistics are the highest on record. Last year, 3,756 people died from drug-related causes. Deaths due to cocaine use are up for the sixth consecutive year. These statistics are a story of preventable tragedy.
We sometimes comfort ourselves by thinking it’s a thing that happens in someone else’s life. After 20 years doing this work, I know that it can affect any one of us, nobody is immune.
So what can we do? First, we all need access to reliable information to help us make safer decisions. That’s just as true about deciding to take some kind of drug as it is about choosing a restaurant. Where are the ingredients sourced, have they got a history of making people sick?
At the moment, people who want to use drugs have very little to help them make safer choices. They might know what the drug is called, but dealers don’t have TripAdvisor ratings – few will ever find out what’s really in the substance. There is something we can do to protect the roughly three million people who use drugs in the UK every year. We can offer testing facilities for pills and powders – The Loop does this at festivals – so that people can find out what contaminants might be in their drugs, and crucially, how strong the drugs are. This reduces the risk for everyone, regardless of the substance they choose.
Second, we all need access at some time or another to safe and non-judgmental advice. There aren’t enough trustworthy places to go to get support around drugs and alcohol. We can fix that by modernising the way people access services. Asking people to show up in person is an important part of what treatment services do, but this model makes it hard to reach everyone. We have a lot more to do to provide safe places online for advice and support.
Third, when people do develop problems with drugs or alcohol, it should be treated as a health issue, rather than a criminal justice one. Lots of countries are starting to think differently about drugs. Taking a healthbased approach, rather than putting people in prison, makes sense for everyone.
And finally, there will always be those who need intensive support. Many of the people who are dying now have had horrible experiences in their lives, years of drug dependence, and very little hope for the future. This is particularly true for people who have multiple complex problems such as substance misuse, mental health problems and poverty. We’re letting them down if we don’t give them the best care and support that we can. That should include access to low-threshold prescribing services (we know opioid substitution treatment works), a supply of naloxone (a safe way to reverse opioid overdose), and regular conversations with someone who is trained to help and has the time to listen.
Tackling deaths related to drugs isn’t easy to do. But we do know what works. Nobody wants to be dependent on drugs, but I know it can happen to anyone. I’ve seen the most improbable comebacks and the unluckiest of tragedies. I also know that everyone can get better with the right support.
Stuart wasn’t a family member, or a colleague, or a close friend, but I still remember him and I wish I could have done better for him. If you need to talk to someone yourself, reach out for help.
• Karen Tyrell is an executive director at drug and alcohol charity Addaction