Dear Angela
I AM totally over the moon you have went out your busy day to contact me.
I have been an addict all my life just about. I’m 52 now, still on methadone but have reduced myself from 130ml down to 30ml over 17 years – and, I kid you not, there’s been no end in sight.
I’ve asked continuously for something better than what is on offer, which is more methadone.
I’ve been told I can stay on methadone for the rest of my life but that’s not what I want.
I’ve got two beautiful daughters, my wife, who is teetotal, and my grandson.
Francis was recruited by evil Dunblane killer Thomas Hamilton’s Sea Rovers club at eight and suffered serious sexual assaults at his hands, which he has never discussed in detail with a therapist. Here is his letter to Scots drugs policy chief Angela Constance
They, along with myself, haven’t seen the real me. I started taking drugs when I was 11 or 12 after leaving Thomas Hamilton’s club.
I was physically and sexually abused by Hamilton, my parents divorced and I was left with my alcoholic/drug addict father who beat me up so bad one time he was charged with assault.
So I ended up in approved school while taking pills and sniffing glue, then into young offenders and into adult prison carrying all these demons from my childhood.
You do what you can to block it so your drug intake increases. You’re in total chaos not knowing who to turn to for fear of not being believed or taken seriously.
I tried twice to inform authorities of Hamilton and what he did to me and my friends but wasn’t believed.
At the moment I see my drug worker for lip service and a prescription. I haven’t even met the doctor who writes out the script. They offer nothing.
I was seriously thinking of committing a criminal offence to get help in prison – that’s how desperate I am. What I’ve gone through reads like a horror story; self-inflicted, yes, I 100 per cent agree.
But not every addict takes drugs because they like it and the majority of people I know with similar issues don’t take them because it’s enjoyable.
I’m hanging on by a thread just now, please can you help me and others in same predicament that we are in.
All I want is a normal life to spend with the smashing wee family I have. They deserve better.
I would go into rehab tomorrow if it came to it.