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As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

nytimes.com

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Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#21

Post by C1sc0cat »

Theodores wrote: post #18
jdietrich wrote: post #3

Not mentioned in the article: The Scottish heroin epidemic started in Edinburgh, the more prosperous of Scotland's two largest cities. This was largely due to the presence of MacFarlan Smith, which was at one point the world's largest producer of pharmaceutical opiates. That initial cohort of heroin users in the 1980s predominantly used drugs that were diverted from the legitimate pharmaceutical supply rather than sm…

That is rare information. Never heard of MacFarlan Smith before. To add to the cocktail of drugs there is also glue sniffing. South of the border you will never see anyone sniffing glue and I doubt there are many people in England who wake up in the morning with a burning desire to sit in the street sniffing glue. But this goes on in Glasgow. I found this shocking to see. There is also 'Bucky' that alcohol that is no…

I recall talking to a colleague from Edinburgh (with a PHD ) who commented she as considered a lightweight as she cut her bucky with lemonade.

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#22

Post by C1sc0cat »

_Understated_ wrote: post #4

My late brother used to talk about an area outside Glasgow called Springburn and how it is consistently listed as one of the poorest/deprived places in Europe (not sure if that was the correct term but it gets the point across). Yet each election term they voted in either the same politicians or politicians with the same manifestos. Nothing will change!

Its Scotland :-) when Donald Dewar died suddenly (senior Labour MP) the was no question that his agent (who I know) wouldn't be the next MP.

Made a change to have an MP who had done a non political job for 20 years plus before becoming an MP.

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#23

Post by shellac »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #10

This is a particularly active political issue too – drug policy is at present a reserved matter of the UK government, which means the devolved government of Scotland is missing some important tools they could use to help deal with the issue. This something that the pro-independence Scottish government are making quite a bit of noise about now; some of it is probably opportunism, but Scotland's drug culture is differe…

The UK used to prescribe heroin for addicts, which I understand inspired the Swiss treatment of addicts. Rolling that back as part of the war on addiction seems to have been counterproductive in terms of overall health.

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#24

Post by krageon »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #16
anm89 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just a list of unrelated facts. Totally incoherent.

It was crystal-clear to me. Maybe your judgement is clouded because of bias?

The bias that the only country that has regular large-scale shootings also makes it easy for it's citizens to buy guns!

And then there were a bunch of other facts not at all related to guns that have no bearing on it, culminating in an ill-advised moralising conclusion that it (it being a lot of deaths and what I have to assume is bad policy) is deserved because of all those things.

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#25

Post by cstross »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #10

This is a particularly active political issue too – drug policy is at present a reserved matter of the UK government, which means the devolved government of Scotland is missing some important tools they could use to help deal with the issue. This something that the pro-independence Scottish government are making quite a bit of noise about now; some of it is probably opportunism, but Scotland's drug culture is differe…

A secondary issue is also policing culture.

As a cost-saving measure due to Westminster-imposed spending cuts, the Scottish government merged all six regional Scottish police forces into a single force, Police Scotland, in 2013.

This involved a game of musical chairs at senior rank as posts were merged, so the senior officers with the best resumes (most people working for them, biggest budgets) ended up getting the plum jobs. In practice, this meant that Police Scotland lost its distinctive regional specialities and became dominated by senior cops from the former Strathclyde police force (i.e. Glasgow). This force was culturally presbyterian and prone to a puritanical zero-tolerance culture, which they exported to the rest of the nation, damaging local initiatives such as Edinburgh's unofficially sanctioned brothels (attacks on sex workers spiked) and setting relations with the LGBT community back by a decade. They also clamped down on tolerance of cannabis, which didn't help, and were notoriously unsupportive of harm reduction initiatives such as shooting galleries.

Police Scotland seems to be improving these days as they re-learn a lot of hard-won lessons about how to do policing in places that aren't the west end of Glasgow, but the combination of an intolerant, harsh policing culture and Theresa May's Home Office calling the shots on drugs was utterly toxic.

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#26

Post by DanBC »

arethuza wrote: post #2

Scotland is a tiny country but it never ceases to horrify me at the depth of the social and health divisions between different parts of the country, Scotland is often described as the "sick man of Europe" and Glasgow in particular has a remarkably bad life expectancy - the "Glasgow Effect": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_effect I can strongly recommend Darren McGarvey's Poverty Safari a personal account of a d…

Something similar to SIMD for England is the Atlas of Variation: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/atlas-of-variation

Fingertips also provide a range of useful information: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#27

Post by arethuza »

cstross wrote: post #25
matthewmacleod wrote: post #10

This is a particularly active political issue too – drug policy is at present a reserved matter of the UK government, which means the devolved government of Scotland is missing some important tools they could use to help deal with the issue. This something that the pro-independence Scottish government are making quite a bit of noise about now; some of it is probably opportunism, but Scotland's drug culture is differe…

A secondary issue is also policing culture. As a cost-saving measure due to Westminster-imposed spending cuts, the Scottish government merged all six regional Scottish police forces into a single force, Police Scotland, in 2013. This involved a game of musical chairs at senior rank as posts were merged, so the senior officers with the best resumes (most people working for them, biggest budgets) ended up getting the p…

The only time I've encountered someone who displayed open sectarian bigotry was a (distant) relative who happened to be in the Strathclyde police force!

Mind you this was going back a bit (1980 or so) but someone who ranted about the evils of Catholicism to anyone in earshot probably didn't get many counter arguments from their colleagues.

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#28

Post by feu »

Theodores wrote: post #18
jdietrich wrote: post #3

Not mentioned in the article: The Scottish heroin epidemic started in Edinburgh, the more prosperous of Scotland's two largest cities. This was largely due to the presence of MacFarlan Smith, which was at one point the world's largest producer of pharmaceutical opiates. That initial cohort of heroin users in the 1980s predominantly used drugs that were diverted from the legitimate pharmaceutical supply rather than sm…

That is rare information. Never heard of MacFarlan Smith before. To add to the cocktail of drugs there is also glue sniffing. South of the border you will never see anyone sniffing glue and I doubt there are many people in England who wake up in the morning with a burning desire to sit in the street sniffing glue. But this goes on in Glasgow. I found this shocking to see. There is also 'Bucky' that alcohol that is no…

Buckie is definitely sold south of the border. I've moved from Scotland to England and I see Buckie for sale in cornershops here with the same frequency I would in Scotland. Buckfast is made at an abbey in England, it doesn't originate in Scotland.

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#29

Post by smackay »

arethuza wrote: post #2

Scotland is a tiny country but it never ceases to horrify me at the depth of the social and health divisions between different parts of the country, Scotland is often described as the "sick man of Europe" and Glasgow in particular has a remarkably bad life expectancy - the "Glasgow Effect": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_effect I can strongly recommend Darren McGarvey's Poverty Safari a personal account of a d…

I don't want to make this overtly political but there is often good news on https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/

The Scottish Government is at least trying to address the problems with some degree of success and a certain amount of innovation, which the posts on the above blog often feature. However there is clearly a long way to go.

Re: As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up

#30

Post by petepete »

For the record, I love Scotland and visit at least once per year. The North East coast is beautiful.

For people outside the UK, I'd recommend tracking down a BBC documentary called The Scheme. It's quite old now (~2010) but still pretty relevant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scheme

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