Baby, take a walk on the wild side

I am in the post-Yuletide dead zone slump. I know it’s 2008, but my mind and body still believe it to be 2007. It’s anticlimax time. I’ve always preferred pre-climax, but that’s entirely another matter.

What I am contending with in this neutral time is awaiting the beginning of things for the forthcoming year. One of those ‘things’ that is meant to begin shortly is a contract offer that, while it seemed like a good idea at the time, now doesn’t exactly fill me with enthusiasm.

A couple of months ago I was approached by a woman (whom I know quite well) who manages a local job-search business. This is one of those places where they take the jobless (for various reasons) and try to match them up with suitable employers. A noble quest and one that is probably pretty thankless a lot of the time.

In her work it had become apparent to her and others in the field that there are two categories of unemployed folk: 1) those for whom this is a temporary bit of misfortune in which they had been downsized, had suffered an illness, the firm had closed its doors, and so forth – and 2) those for whom unemployment fit hand-and-glove with ‘personal issues’ that were rendering them ineligible for the job market. In the latter category there might be reasons as diverse as lack of education, lack of marketable skills, attitude problems, mental illness or – and this is the biggest one – abuse of a substance at a chronic level.

In other words, active junkies and alcoholics do not make primo potential employees.

No doubt.

However, she is also wise enough to know that alcoholics and drug abusers in genuine recovery can and often do make superb employees, and many of them populate virtually all levels of the economy with great success. So, she thought, if somebody could help show these unfortunates ‘the way’ then they might be able to get away from their unproductive lifestyle.

She thought that maybe I could be that someone.

As I have said before, I used to be an addictions counsellor. Well, actually I still am, I just haven’t done the job for a few years. So, she offered me a contract position on a per-client basis. And I agreed to give it a shot. Now, I’m not so sure that I want to head back into that fray. But, I’ll do it, just to see how it works out. One advantage of doing contract work is one can walk at any time.

Part of the reason for my apprehension is that I do not accept the current ‘wisdom’ in addressing addiction. The current wisdom – generally expressed by those who have never actively and directly worked in the field -- is a thing called ‘harm reduction.’

I don’t buy the premise. What I buy is you get off whatever substance is disabling you and you become a functional human being again – or you don’t. There is no middle ground.

Here in British Columbia the harm reduction premise has gone nuts. Rather than providing viable treatment options for those afflicted with addiction, the harm reduction folk have opted instead to make life much more pleasant for addicts. This includes providing them with so-called ‘safe’ injection sites so they don’t have to shoot up in alleyways. And, they can shoot up with nice, clean and sanitized syringes, that are also provided gratis (except to the taxpayer, who pays for the fucking things).

And now, get this, please GET THIS; the provincial health authority is going to provide clean and sanitized crack pipes for those who choose to rot their brains in that manner. And the pussies in provincial health maintain this is a good thing because this allays the spread of HIV and Hep-C amongst crackheads. My first thought is, HIV and Hep-C among crackheads: I should give a shit? My second is, why in God’s name are you not doing something to get these poor sods off the crap rather than enabling them? After my fit of pique is over I opt for my second thought.

So, when I go back counselling I trust they will be comfortable with me not propounding harm reduction, because if they want me to, I will be gone.

Anyway, I can attest to dozens of people I know who have successfully kicked addictions and have become functional and productive citizens.

Oh, and as an aside, this provincial (so-called) health authority does ‘not’ provide free syringes to diabetics.

And that is my rant for January 4th, 2008.