quote:

---

Heroin-addicted women should be pressured to take contraception with their treatment, according to a senior back-bench Labour MSP who argued yesterday they were not fit to be parents.

---

quote:

---

Tommy Sheridan, of the Scottish Socialists, said it was "stupid, pathetic and ignorant of the real problems that exist in drug abuse"

---

I'll eat my shoe if any clinic, especially any methadone clinic (exceptions for state governed clinics helping the indigent...but I know of NONE here in the states who will give ANYONE methadone) because of it's expense. The methadone clinics that I know of are quite expensive; and yes I've heard all of the arguments back and forth on how it is better, to clean up; not be always trying to score; settle down, yes. It's still damn expensive for most people who can't work, can't find a job; or just won't work and have no income coming in, except a minority of those who have some kind of money coming in from the government in the form of aid; which is slight and hardly covers the cost of living yet alone eating; bills; insurance; you name it.

I can imagine counselors in these expensive methadone clinics, who by the way in my opinion and I'm sure I will be spurned in many directions for saying this; are happy to not just "stabilise" their patients and lead them to reform; but get them on such high a dose that they just trade one addiction for another; and from what I've heard the methadone is a much, much harder drug to "kick"...leading in more desperation and despair...these counselors who stabelise their patients so that the government now controls their "disease" (at a cost from about 75 dollars a week upwards to over 100 bucks a week nowadays)...are now going to suggest to their patients to get contraceptives...are they going to hand out free samples? I doubt it. Why even suggest it? And of course, a baby born to a methadone addicted mother is better off than a baby born to an alcoholic mother; that point wasn't even questioned...because of the obvious (to me, anyway) contraindications to the neonate and alcohol is one of the substances that can cause significant fetal abnormalities; the other one most widely recognized are the class IV anxiolytics, benzodiazepines. Which are catagorized D in the Physicians Desk Reference for risk in fetal abnormalities.

Would be wonderful if we could all help set up some kind of funding that would pay for their methadone; open up a soup kitchen on every corner and help feed them; give free samples for contraceptives and antibiotics; and we haven't even reached the more provocative issue of the possibility that some of these patients might be HIV positive and wouldn't it be more important to keep them alive so that their babies CAN be born? And then the question comes in how do we manage to take care of the child that is born into this life?

There is VERY little out there to help. I go to a clinic these days and I have seen it with my own eyes. Not a methadone clinic; I go to a clinic with a sliding scale and I pay twenty bucks when I have it. They remind me of my bill but do not stop my treatment because I don't have it every two weeks. And I am only on two medications now; neither are addictive. And in six weeks I will be done with it. And all this after a relapse of body, mind and soul. Hell who do I care telling you? I'm only human; and I've made mistakes. But I see the need...everywhere. It's staggering.

Ken Burch:

This sounds like more of the New Labour obsession with seeming even more psychotically heartless than the Tories.

Did you mean to say:

"This sounds like more of the New labour's obsession -- and seemingly being even more pshcyotically heartless than they were with the Tories."

? If this is what you meant to imply, then I can understand it better. I understand heartlessness; but nowhere in my post do I think that I demonstrated any heartlessness.

I want to just add too that I also post largely from personal experience; and so that makes it very, VERY personal to me whenever these subject matters come up.

I only meant to bring up the issue that sure; it would be great to offer up these services. But just not likely; the methadone clinics that I have personally worked with and have seen first hand the despair and unhappiness that patients find themselves in only switching addictions; but I'll go one further and also add that in alot of case scenarios it is a better alternative. Still, it's expensive. And it's still just a way that the government can control you.

quote:

---

Originally posted by erroneousrebelrouser:
do you mean to say that the "post" was psychotic; or that it was "heartless"

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by erroneousrebelrouser:
I'm sorry. I did not understand your post at all. Could you please reiterate; do you mean to say that the "post" was psychotic; or that it was "heartless" -- I didn't really understand you, to be quite honest. I read your post over and over, and I just didn't get it.

.

---

And Sineed, sigh. You have no idea! I've worked really, really hard. Looks like the hard work is going to pay off, too. Thanks.

Talking about adoption vs. the subject matter we were discussing; that's a good point. There's no way that they would give me a baby, because I certainly have a few flaws and imperfections here and there. And I consider myself a very good mother; I've never spanked my child; and I talk to him all the time. About EVERYTHING. Kids are smart; you can't get by with anything without them knowing. So it's best, imo; to just out with it and let them know you've got their back. They'll have to go through the same stuff; peer pressure; ect. To think that we can protect and shield them from the world, is just naieve. But we can do what we can.