A game plan to tackle the scourge of drink & drugs

Blameless help more than 900 families in the Hamilton area.

Colin Mcgowan’s work in this area is trying to help stop alcohol and drug addiction from destroying lives and family units, to the extent that he has been invited to speak at the Scottish Parliament next month.

As part of a policy briefing, to share best practice for consideration in Scotland’s Approach to Drugs; Reducing Harm and Risk, Colin will explain what the charity is doing to steer people on the right path.

Colin is an expert in that – he freely admits he is a recovering addict himself.

He said:“i was given my life back because of one of these 12-step programmes and I can’t wait to help lead people out of the darkness of addiction. That’s what drives me.

“We feel that our work in the field of addiction is second to none. I have been asked to speak to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, December 5, on our take on

addiction. We believe we can save the government millions of pounds.

“We’re now launching the Scottish Football: Sowing the Seeds of Recovery programme, because every club has alcoholics and addicts, every family is touched by the pain of addiction and Hamilton Academical are going to proudly lead the way in that and spread recovery through all the clubs.

“Our outreach team will go and visit any club that requests a visit, and show them what we’re doing and exactly how it works.

“There’s little involvement to the other clubs – they only have to sign-post people into recovery groups. At that point in time there will be no government money spent. This will be alcoholics and drug addicts who are in recovery, taking their brothers and sisters into recovery, and that’s the way it has worked for me, for many of my friends, and it’s changing lives.

“The death rate for alcoholism and drug addiction is in excess of 23 per cent up from last year, which is bad, but it’s worse when you consider we’re 80 per cent up in South and North Lanarkshire.

“Two thirds of children picked up for an offence is under the influence of something, 50 per cent or more of every serious crime or murder.

“One of the key objectives we aim to deliver is to share our best practice.

“This is currently evidenced within our effective multi-tier approach, which spans almost a decade.

“We support those in recovery, their children and families, all of whom suffer in the shadow of addiction.”

We feel that our work in the field of addiction is second to none