Party Vibe

a few scary bits in here.

especially blunkett’s comments about addicts having one chance at getting clean or going to prison.

Fact: many more people are addicted to hard drugs when they leave prison than when they go in.

do the math, as they say.

Another important point about the treatment available to addicts: for most people trying to get help, there isn’t any. Some cities have got their acts together, but projects are underfunded or can’t cope with the numbers needing help.

The Primary Care Trust in Devon has just announced it wants to cut £3 million of its’ mental health budget (including working with drug and alcohol addicts).

All this flys in the face of Blunkett’s comments. If he’s real about providing the help needed to alcoholics and drug addicts, why are services being cut as we speak (or read, in this case)?

I also work closely with one of the best youth action projects imaginable. however, they have just issued redundancy notices because their is no funding available. At no point have they been funded by Local authority or government, only by charitable trusts etc. I would welcome proper funding of the youth projects Blunkett mentions, yet the only projects recieving funding at the moment are top heavy activity centres which don’t have the staff experienced in dealing with young people at risk of social exclusion.

So, are the government really going to make the world a happier, safer place to live? or is this just political manouvering to win back those wavering middle england tory/neo labour/same thing votes by promising lots of police action?

Personally, I don’t believe the root problems of ‘drunken thuggery’ can be solved with more police, arrests and threats of prison. While city centre bars are paying plenty of tax they will continue to be able to serve tons of piss to the already-too-drunk. Take their money and bang them up, nice plan.

While we have the longest working week in the EU, and the lowest disposable income, many parents don’t have enough time to spend with their children. Perhaps a shift away from the work-to-live way of life would help sociaety move away from the live-to-drink mentality.

Anyway, mines a pint

disagree with your flatmate. In rural france there are some of the highest levels of alcoholism.

I lived in Montpellier for about 3 years. Society is quite divided, but there was a lot of heroin addicts, and a lot of alcoholics. The kind of images of Brits spewing and fighting their way down the High Street on a friday night wouldn’t really fit in France tho… people tend to get pissed around a dinner table (generalisation), although many of the clubs (which are all conviniently placed out of town at driving distance) are packed with young people who think nothing of drinking an entire bottle of spirits and agressively groping women.:(

In my limited experience (i’m a bloke), I think (and this is dodgey territory full of genralisation) that in Italy and Spain, although lots of men make cheesy remarks to women, it’s a bit more tongue in cheek… ‘ciao bella’ or ‘hola guapa’ could easily be directed at an old woman as well as a young woman.

Anyway, kids these days, not like when I was young.