Drug Addiction

Experts say South Africa’s contradictory approach to drugs — treating addiction as both a disease and a crime — is fuelling a worsening crisis in places like Westbury, where…

Focus policing on drug cartels and not the users, say newcomers to the political space, identifying the need for rehabilitation programmes

It took years for parents to speak up and form communities for treatment… because it was “shameful” to have your children hooked on heroin

Conventional therapy is relied on when social and peer-to-peer interventions may be the answer

COSUP’s interventions are all part of a harm reduction approach to substance use

Scotland’s biggest city, is the epicentre of a substance abuse crisis, which saw an unprecedented 1187 drug-related deaths last year

Programmes letting people swap illegal highs for medications are popping up all over the country. Here’s how they work.

It is not just the person who drinks alcohol in excess who is harmed; the family suffers too

Puffing away on nicotine is unhealthy and socially no longer acceptable, but people do struggle to give it up

Readers write in about the auditor witch-hunt, and drug policy

”Most drugs users have a pauper’s burial. On very rare occasions the family buries them.”

Outreach workers say the practice making headlines isn’t as widespread as it’s been made out to be as they rush to prevent more from trying it.

Common cough, flu and pain medicines can be addictive. Codeine addiction is an increasingly well-known problem in South Africa.

Addicts try and try again to break the habit but, with no real prospects, they can’t win the battle.

Introduce harm-reduction and HIV programmes – especially for heroin users – before it’s too late.