Anthrax & Heroin

Anthrax has been found in some heroin supplies in Glasgow, this has killed two users and left another seriously ill.

Police and public health officials in Glasgow are checking to see if the rare but deadly infection has emerged either from a batch of the drug or a cutting agent mixed with it.

"It's highly conceivable that it could have been contaminated either from the source in the [heroin's] origin country or it could have been contaminated as a consequence of subsequent cutting when it arrived in this country," said Dr Colin Ramsay, of Health Protection Scotland.

Anthrax can be found in animals abroad, especially herbivaceous mammals such as cattle, sheep and goats, and also some carrion birds. It is highly unusual for people to be infected.

Drug addicts in Glasgow are being told to be ‘very careful’ though how they can manage to do so, beats the hell out of me. They don’t test the powder for abnormalities before they put it into their bodies, they posses no means to go checking. How many addicts do you know has a laboratory and equipment for drug testing?

Addicts are being told to watch out for swelling and feverish symptoms after a hit and have to contact the hospital if worried.

The majority of addicts will still use the drug despite the warnings, as heroin is an addiction and the potential threat of dying is always a risk they take with regular heroin.

I had a cousin called Sammy, he was dearly loved and grew up with me in the 80s and early 90s, and we lost touch when he got into smack (heroin). He died in 2000 by the contaminated drugs back then that cost the lives of 15 addicts during that particular spate.

This brings me to believe that heroin should be prescribed and controlled by a drug programme throughout the UK. Studies have shown that in some areas where pharmaceutical heroin is supplied under a doctor’s supervision, addicts do eventually get clean and the crime rate drops.

Right now there are thousands of young UK soldiers protecting the Helmand Province of Afghanistan where the majority of the world’s poppies grow. They are dying over a war on drugs, as Opium is king in Afghanistan, and nowhere more so than in volatile Helmand Province, where the government is attempting to wean farmers away from winter poppy cultivation by making wheat an attractive alternative crop.

As I write this article there are service women and men fighting to stop the insurgents who need the poppy money to prop up their war against the west. The trail of drugs comes right through from there to here in Glasgow and now with the Anthrax issue, maybe its time to tackle it head on?

Drugs will always be a part of society, just like alcohol, since time began, humans have making potions to alter their state of mind. There is no argument over that, where the argument lies is whether the UK is a big enough nation to accept that the drug laws don’t work and they should do something about it.

Drugs drive people to prostitution, theft and criminal activity to get their hit. A public campaign, some education and a whole heap of youth work can reduce the harm, but nothing will actually cure it.

The UK government already supplies Methadone in its gallons as a heroin substitute, that has never worked and its time to stop making the pharmaceutical companies who make Methadone rich.

We need to work alongside addicts, reduce crime, sex workers and deaths by prescribing pure heroin in a proper medical programme, its harm reduction and will save lives.

It will also drive the dealers from their nests from Helmand to Glasgow.