Don't call them Junkies or druggies!

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  • I am going to put my liberal hat on here.... (waiting to duck!).

    I've said before in other threads that I think drug addiction is a disease. It starts off as something innocent, ie a kid trying a bit of cannabis (smoking a spliff) but for a minority they go onto to harder drugs and become addicted to them.

    I was born into a world where everyone used all sorts of labels ie like spastic. That word along with many others is totally unacceptable today, especially on here. So, I do think labels matter.

    As you say Ron, no mention of alcoholics which is odd.

    So yes, I agree in theory with Branson, but the thing is it is a negative thing, what else would you call them? Can you really refer to someone as a "aspirational achiever" when they spend most of their time on the streets with needles dangling out of their arms?

    But Branson and others are trying to change the way we look at these people and so that's why they want the labels changed or eliminated completely.

  • Maybe they haven't given it that much thought that is why they haven't mentioned calling someone who has a addiction to alcohol an "alkie" is negative?

    Or maybe its to do with the legal side, drinking alcohol for someone over the age of 18 is not illegal whereas someone taking heroin. cocaine or whatever is, maybe they consider that just the fact they are doing something illegal is enough stigmatisation or whatever without the need to label them as druggies junkies or whatever, who knows?

  • For my part, I don't stigmatise anyone addicted to anything. It should be defused as something to judge folk by and on and treated as the disorder that it is. And that goes for the battered souls who become the victims of addiction.

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