Substance Misuse

So I'm currently on a placement in the community as part of a module I selected myself. The choice wasn't great and so I put substance misuse down as my second choice because I thought it might be interesting. As it’s not ‘proper medicine’, not my words, it was fairly low down in the popularity steaks and so it was me who got given this opportunity. Well that's fine by me and so far I'm quite enjoying it and not just because of the fairly light workload. It’s also a very enjoyable experience and I’m learning a lot about those on the periphery of society.

I have had the opportunity to talk to those whose lives have been affected by drug use and I admire those health professionals who work with them. The service deals with all kinds of clients including sex workers, domestic violence victims, domestic violence perpetrators, rape victims and childhood abuse victims etc. One particularly disturbing new phrase I’ve come across is in referring to a sex workers significant other as ‘boyfriend/ pimp’. Hmmmph!!!

Anyway let’s have some drug and media related cynicism from Charlie Brooker a rather good columnist in the Guardian, also with a brilliant show on BBC Four.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/22/charlie-brooker-newspapers-dangerous-drug

Also because nobody is born with extensive knowledge of recreational drugs their effects and side effects I would recommend the book ‘street drugs’ by Andrew tyler. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Drugs-Andrew-Tyler/dp/0340609753/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269281042&sr=8-1