As Scotland's 'Trainspotting' Generation Ages, the Dead Pile Up • Hacker News Board

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

#51

Post by Theodores » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 2:41 PM UTC

welly wrote: post #46

Theodores wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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 This is quite an unsubstantiated claim. Never? Of course you will, and do. > There is also 'Bucky' that alcohol that is not sold south of the border. This is patently false. It's made in Devon at Buckfast Abbey, so of course it's…

You are nit-picking here.

I have spent a lot of time in the scummier parts of London and yet to step over some kid sniffing glue. In Glasgow it is an all too common sight. You can check the health statistics and I am sure there are a few parts of North England and Northern Ireland that are similarly blighted but glue is not a problem south of the Watford Gap in the way that it is in Glasgow.

Sure Bucky is now stocked by Booker and therefore available in corner shops in England, however this is a recent development. Five years ago it was near impossible to buy the stuff in England. As for today, good luck buying bucky in a normal supermarket - Tesco, Waitrose, Asda, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl etc. or even in a pub. It isn't marketed in England in the same way it is marketed in Scotland.

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

#52

Post by sokoloff » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 2:57 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #51

welly wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 This is quite an unsubstantiated claim. Never? Of course you will, and do. > There is also 'Bucky' that alcohol that is not sold south of the border. This is patently false. It's made in Devon at Buckfast Abbey, so of course it's…

You are nit-picking here. I have spent a lot of time in the scummier parts of London and yet to step over some kid sniffing glue. In Glasgow it is an all too common sight. You can check the health statistics and I am sure there are a few parts of North England and Northern Ireland that are similarly blighted but glue is not a problem south of the Watford Gap in the way that it is in Glasgow. Sure Bucky is now stocked…

Maybe the glue point was nit-picking as it's fairly unreasonable to interpret your text as "literally exactly 0 people sniff glue in England", but "is not sold south of the border" -> "um, yes it is here and here" does not seem at all like nit-picking to me as it's far more reasonable to read that text as absolute.

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

#53

Post by billfruit » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 3:05 PM UTC

I do feel that the book had the effect of popularizing the insinuation that trainspotting is a futile, otiose pursuit, where as for many people it is a pleasearuble, fulfilling hobby with some of the same evocations that birdwatching does.

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

#54

Post by ensmartha » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 3:29 PM UTC

Maybe there’s just no solution to the drug problem. We’ve tried everything already at great cost. Sometimes it’s better to admit a war is not winnable and to pull out before wasting more resources.

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

#55

Post by thedudeabides5 » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 3:29 PM UTC

yostrovs wrote: post #11

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…

Redheads are known to have greater pain tolerance. Perhaps there's a relationship to that phenomenon here.

Watch out @yostrovs, HN is not a safe space for humor attempts.

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

#56

Post by AnotherRainyDay » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 3:38 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #51

welly wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 This is quite an unsubstantiated claim. Never? Of course you will, and do. > There is also 'Bucky' that alcohol that is not sold south of the border. This is patently false. It's made in Devon at Buckfast Abbey, so of course it's…

You are nit-picking here. I have spent a lot of time in the scummier parts of London and yet to step over some kid sniffing glue. In Glasgow it is an all too common sight. You can check the health statistics and I am sure there are a few parts of North England and Northern Ireland that are similarly blighted but glue is not a problem south of the Watford Gap in the way that it is in Glasgow. Sure Bucky is now stocked…

> I have spent a lot of time in the scummier parts of London and yet to step over some kid sniffing glue. In Glasgow it is an all too common sight.

I studied in and now live and work in Glasgow. I've been here for a total of 7 years. I walk to and from work across the city. I'm out late in either the City Center, the west end, Finnieston or the Merchant City at least once a week. I'm maybe out twice a month for past 1am nights and I'm up early for the gym a few mornings a week too. I have not once seen anyone sniffing glue or doing any kind of drugs openly on the city streets.

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

#57

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 3:41 PM UTC

thedudeabides5 wrote: post #55

yostrovs wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Redheads are known to have greater pain tolerance. Perhaps there's a relationship to that phenomenon here.

Watch out @yostrovs, HN is not a safe space for humor attempts.

[deleted]

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

#58

Post by sleavey » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 3:49 PM UTC

ensmartha wrote: post #54

Maybe there’s just no solution to the drug problem. We’ve tried everything already at great cost. Sometimes it’s better to admit a war is not winnable and to pull out before wasting more resources.

There is a solution, but it involves the rich paying more tax to rebalance society and boost social mobility. We've not tried everything, we've just tried most of the things that don't involve rocking the boat.

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

#59

Post by gnulinux » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 3:54 PM UTC

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…

> Scotland is often described as the "sick man of Europe"

Off topic. So I thought the "sick man of Europe" was used exclusively to describe the Ottoman Empire and dig into this and turns out there has been multiple countries in different eras called the "sick man of Europe". Read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sick_man_of_Europe

> Scotland has been called "sick man of Europe" several times, but for health reasons instead of economic.[26]

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

#60

Post by derriz » Fri, Aug 09, 2019, 3:57 PM UTC

kenneth wrote: post #45

shellac wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Swiss experiment was a massive disaster. Wish we had never done it, and it certainly took a few decades to clean up its effect on parts of Zürich. It attracted junkies from all over Europe and with it brought crime and violence. I spent a few years going to primary school near the epicenter of it in the late 90s. The number of times I saw people shooting up in broad daylight right in front of my school… is shocki…

I don’t think the parent is talking about the heroin free-for-all experiment in the Landesmuseum park but rather the supervised injection clinics which continue to be a component of Swiss drug treatment policy. Compared to other cities of similar size, it’s rare to see actual junkies in Swiss cities.