Subscribe to the print edition and enjoy The Republic in
your bathroom!
Plus, your subscription goes a very long way in helping to support The Republic and its writers and produces. It's like paying for the music you like.
Click here for details
|
Addiction
Neo-Conservatism, not drugs, causes addiction
It’s a radical notion, but wait till you see the evidence
By Bruce Alexander
|
The UK, which had no significant drug addiction problem until the 1960s, has now moved to the top of the drug addiction charts in Europe. There were 670 registered heroin addicts in the UK in 1968 and over 100,000 by the year 2000, a 150-fold increase. Dependent heroin users in England and Scotland increased from 5,000 in 1975 to 231,000 in 2007.
Heroin is not the only drug addiction problem that is lurching out of control in the UK. Whereas ecstasy and amphetamine appear to be falling out of fashion, “crack” is coming on strong and the addictive use of alcohol in the form of grotesquely excessive binge drinking has become a national problem among young adults, especially women.
The explosive increase in British drug and alcohol addiction naturally ignites policy arguments. British physician and journalist Theodore Dalrymple argues that the problem arose because of too much soft treatment and harm reduction for junkies, and not enough discipline of the old fashioned sort, such as letting addicts die on the streets or rot in jail. The 2007 UK Drug Policy Commission report suggests the opposite conclusion: too little treatment and harm reduction but lots of law enforcement is not cost effective.
But what if both Dalrymple and the UK Drug Policy Commission are both wrong? What if the explosive increase in drug and alcohol addiction in the UK is not a result of a failure of drug-control policy at all, but of deeper issues in British life?
Historically, there is no reason to suppose that drug policy has much effect on the incidence of addiction or of recreational drug use. For example, rates of drug addiction and problem drug use in Sweden and the Netherlands are similarly low, yet Sweden’s and the Netherland’s drug policies are worlds apart. Sweden’s policies are tougher than the UK’s while the Netherlands’ policies are less tough than the UK’s, but both countries have much lower rates of problem drug use and recreational drug use than the UK. Another illustration of the lack of influence of drug policy is that the UK essentially decriminalised marijuana use in 2004, amid fears that without the threat of arrest, marijuana use would increase. Instead, it has decreased. If drug policy is not the explanation, what did set off the explosion of addiction in the UK between 1975 and the present?
It could have been Margaret Thatcher.
The quality of life has changed dramatically in the UK over the same period that drug addiction has increased so explosively, although not in way that, at first, seems connected to drug addiction. Margaret Thatcher became head of the Conservative party in 1975 and Prime Minister of England in 1979, one of the first of the Neocons to gain national power in a rising tide of global Neoconservatism. Thatcher’s political skill, iron will-power and charisma enabled her to produce an abrupt change in British life that was so profound that it is still known as the “Thatcher Revolution.”
Thatcher’s regime committed the UK to privatisation, free trade, individualism, the Falklands war, and the first Iraq war. She crushed labour unions, welfare, and public ownership. Her heroes included Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, Augusto Pinochet and our very own Conrad Black, whom she proposed for a peerage later in her life.
When Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister in 1990, the UK had been transformed from an economically weak welfare state to an individualistic bastion of free-market economics. The gap between the rich and poor had greatly widened, unemployment had increased dramatically, and the social safety net was tattered. The UK had traded in the social solidarity built up during World War II and during the welfare state era of the post-war decades for economic growth. During Thatcher’s regime, the unprecedented epidemic of drug and alcohol addiction had also begun.
Thatcher’s policies were continued by her Conservative successor John Major and by her Labour successor Tony Blair following his election as Prime Minister in 1997. Blair had turned the Labour Party toward a philosophy called the “third way,” which is little more than Neoconservatism gussied up with compassionate rhetoric and some welfare spending. Margaret Thatcher loved Blair’s policies so much that she proclaimed during a Conservative Party leadership contest, “The Conservative Party does not need someone that can beat Mr Blair, they need someone like Mr Blair.” The Thatcher Revolution had become the Thatcher-Blair Revolution.
Could the breakdown of the supportive culture of a welfare state have caused the increase in addiction? Psychologists know that people who are not accepted by their family and their society often turn to addiction to soothe the pain and provide a kind of substitute community. When masses of people are excluded because society has abandoned the mission of taking care of human beings and instead devoted itself to cultivating intense personal competition in the Neoconservative business world, perhaps people turn to addictive substitutes by the thousands.
There is not enough evidence in the history of the Thatcher-Blair years to prove or disprove the hypothesis that the insecurity and alienation of extreme Neoconservatism instigated the UK’s current epidemic of alcohol and drug addiction, but other historical evidence is relevant. The most obvious historical parallel is the transformation of socially secure, traditional aboriginal societies around the world into competitive, individualistic societies as a consequence of European colonisation over a period of several centuries. Everywhere that this happened, including British Columbia, the native people suffered an explosion in addiction to alcohol (and, later, drugs) that was even greater than that experienced in the UK during the Thatcher-Blair years. Although there is too much other historical evidence to review here, much of it is summarised in my forthcoming book, The Globalisation of Addiction: A study in poverty of the spirit, due to be published by Oxford University Press in 2008.
The cause of spreading addiction in a Neoconservative world will also be the subject of a 10-week seminar entitled “Addiction: It’s not about drugs” to be offered by myself and my teaching partners Terry Patten and Frank Harris beginning September 17 at Britannia Centre. Please call 604 718-5800 to register.
If the Vancouver City strike is still on, contact Terry Patten at tpatten@look.ca for alternate times and location.
|
Read more by this author
The Republic
print version is generously supported by the following regular advertisers:
Storm Brewing
604-255-9119
Dan's Homebrewing
692 E Hastings
Co-operative Auto Network
604-685-1393
Turk's Coffee
1276 Commercial Drive
Dutch Girl Chocolates
1002 Commercial Drive
Magpie Books and Magazines
1319 Commercial Drive
Artrageous Pictures & Framing
1256 Commercial Drive
Bouzyos Greek Taverna
1815 Commercial Drive
Magnet Hardware
1575 Commercial Drive
Uprising Breads
1697 Venables
Highlife World Music
1317 Commercial Drive
Mark's Pet Stop
1875 Commercial Drive
Abruzzo Cafe
1321 Commercial Drive
Our Community Bikes
3283 Main Street
Does Your Mother Know
Magazines Etc
2139 West 4th Ave
Kali
1000 Commercial Drive
Uncle Don
Freelance Curmudgen
on CFUR Radio, Prince George
Receptive Earth
Hemp & other Earthly delights
4168 Main Street
Geist
Magazine of Canadian ideas & culture
Momentum
Bike magazine
West Coast Seeds
Where to find the print version of The Republic:
Vancouver
Aboriginal Friendship
1607 E Hastings
Bean Around the World
10th & Trimble
Benny’s Bagels
Broadway & Larch
Big News Coffee Bar
2447 Granville
Black Dog Video
Cambie & 19th
Book Warehouse
550 Granville
632 W Broadway
2388 W 4th
Cambie Hostel
300 Cambie St
Capers Community Markets
2285 W 4th
1675 Robson
Carnegie Comm. Centre
Hastings & Main
City Square Mall
Cambie & 12th
Cuppa Joe 189-175
E Broadway
Dadabase
Broadway & Main
Danny’s Coffee
Denman & Pendrell
Denman Community Ctr
Denman & Nelson
Denman Mall
Denman & Nelson
Drive Organics
Commerical & Napier
Does Your Mother Know?
2139 W 4th
Duthie Books
2239 W 4th
East End Food Co-Op
1034 Commercial
Elysian Room
1778 W 5th
Food Stop
Commerical & Venables
Gemeral Store
312 Cambie St
Gold Coin Laundry
B-way & Waterloo
Granville Island
Public Market
Grind
4124 Main
Higher Ground
Broadway & Vine
Il Mercato
1641 Commercial
Joe's Café
1150 Commercial
Laughing Bean
Hastings & Penticton
Lugz
2525 Main Street
Magpie Magazines
1319 Commercial
Our Town Cafe
245 E Broadway
Pacific Central Station
Bus Depot
People's Co-op Books
1391 Commercial
Polonia Sausage
Nanaimo &Hastings
Rebound Health
Hastings & Kamloops
Receptive Earth
Main & King Edward
Rhizome Cafe
317 East Broadway
Simon Fraser
Downtown Foodfair
Soma
2528 Main Street
Sweet Tooth Cafe
Nanaimo & Hastings
Turk's Coffee
1276 Commercial
UBC
Student Union Building
Union Food Market
810 Union
Uprising Breads Bakery
1697 Venables
Vancouver Community College
250 W Pender
Vancouver Public Library
350 W Georgia
1661 Napier
2425 MacDonald
370 E Broadway
West Vancouver
Capers
2496 Marine Dr
West Vancouver Library
1950 Marine
Duncan
Community Farm Store
330 Duncan St
Victoria
Bean Around the World
533 Fisgard
Munro’s Books
1108 Government
University of Victoria
Graduate L0unge
Victoria Public Library
735 Broughton
Powell River
River City Coffee
4801 Joyce
Local Loco’s Music & Arts Cafe
Flying Yellow Breadbowl
4698 Ewing
Powell River Library
4411 Michigan
Kaslo
Blue Belle Bistro
302 Fourth
SunnySide Naturals
404 Front
Nanaimo
Nanaimo Public Library
Harbourfront Br
Port Place Shopping Ctr
650 S Terminal
The Green Store
Port Place
Mermaid’s Mug
357 Wesley St
Nelson
Mountain Pass Imports
402 Baker
Toronto
Moonbean Cafe
30 St. Andrew St
Future Bakery
483 Bloor St West
Oakville Peace &Ecology Centre
148 Kerr
|
The Republic of East Vancouver masthead
The Republic of East Vancouver supports no party, advocates
for no cause, represents no group, serves no master, and considers
problems with no preconceived notions. We hope to afflict the comfortable,
both materially and intellectually, and comfort the afflicted—of
both kinds as well, and we are trying to do both things at the same
time.
Publisher, Editor
Kevin Potvin
Managing Editor
Kara Foreman
Copy Editor
Janis Harper
Website
Chris Lavigne
Advertising
Chris Richmond Kevin
Potvin
Support
Dan Crawford, John Daigle,
Jack Etkin, Janis Harper, Carl Johnson, Hilary Jones, Chris King,
James Mecham, Albrecht Meyers, Peter Miller, James Pope
Contributors in this and recent issues
Bruce Alexander, Dan Adleman, Toby Alford, Kevin Annett, Santo Barbieri, Bob Broughton, Mike Bryan, Stephen Buckley, Matthew Burrows, Maria Calleja, Ron Carton, Chad Christie, Joshua Corber, Dan Crawford, Gail Davidson, Eric Doherty, Joe Donaldson, Lorena Jara Patty Ducharme, Shadia Drury, Taivo Evard, Reed Eurchuk, Farnaz Fassihi, Thomas Feakins, Anthony Fenton, Reza Fiyouyzat, Andrew Gordon Fleming, Ryan Fugger, Sasha Gagic, Matt Goody, Guy Hawkins, Spencer Herbert, John Irwin, Nick Istvaniffy, Junius, William Kay, Mike Keep, Kate Kennedy, Donald Kropp, Chris LaVigne, James Lindfield, Brian Lindgreen, Karen Litzke, Keith MacKenzie, Michael McLaughlin, Sonya McRae, Rafe Mair, Sonia Marino, Jennifer Matsui, Michael Millard, Isaebel Minty, Michael Nenonen, Wendy Nylund, Derrick O’Keefe, Stephen Osborne, Sean Orr, Evan Augustine Pederson III, Stephen Peplow, Kim Peterson, Kevin Potvin, Mary Rawson, Andrea Reimer, Erin Riley, Phil Rockstroh, Becky Scott, Jason Scott, Chris Shaw, Jeff Steudel, Alex Tegart, Scott Turner, Elbio Grosso Trentini, Patrick Vert, Chris Walker, Sean Wilkinson, Brad Zembic
For comments or suggestions, please contact the
Republic Webmaster
|
