Drug abusers are to be treated like they have “a health problem” rather than a propensity to indulge in self-destructive and sometimes criminal behaviour in Scotland, with terms like “alcoholic” and “addict” scrapped in favour of woke alternatives.
The Scottish Government, roughly equivalent to a U.S. state government, wants alcoholism and drug abuse to be treated as a health condition in the belief that this might do something about Scotland’s problem with drugs deaths, with fatalities up 5 per cent in 2020 to 1,339 — the highest annual death toll yet recorded.
To that end, the left-separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) which has charge of the government and much of the public sector is leading a politically correct campaign to have terms such as “alcoholic”, “addict”, and the more pejorative “junkie” replaced with obfuscatory bureaucrat-speak terms like “person with problematic substance use”, “person with harmful alcohol use”, and “person with problematic drug use”, the BBC reports.
A drug or alcohol problem is a health condition. People should receive help and support, not judgement. Stigma is damaging to mental health, self-worth and is a barrier to treatment for individuals and their families. Let’s end the stigma of addiction pic.twitter.com/c4uUBXQfNd
— Angela Constance (@AConstanceSNP) December 6, 2021
“This is a hard-hitting national campaign which encourages people to see the personal story behind the stereotype,” waxed Angela Constance, the Minister for Drug Policy in First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s administration.
“Stigma is damaging not only to the individual in terms of their mental health and sense of self-worth but it also discourages them from coming forward to get the help they need. It also impacts on friends and family members,” she continued.
“By addressing stigma, and the silence and alienation it causes, we make it easier for people to seek help and that is to the benefit of each and every one of us.”
The drive will include a variety of posters bearing such slogans as “No, I’m not well. I have an alcohol problem” and “No, I’m not well. I have a drug problem,” followed by the explainer: “A drug or alcohol problem is a health condition. People should receive help and support, not judgment. Let’s end the stigma of addiction.”
In fact, illegal drug use and, in some circumstances, excessive drunkenness are both criminal offences, although the authorities seem to be less than enthusiastic about punishing them.
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