A new Approach to Addiction Treatment is Necessary

Having been on methadone myself now for 5 months and decreased my dose from 15 mls down to 6 in that time I am now a firm supporter of Opioid substitution as a means of treatment for heroin addiction. In that time I have only used methadone as prescribed by a doctor and have not used any other mind or mood altering substance. I was initially sceptical. I know it can be abused and it doesn't work for everyone, but there is no form of treatment that isn't open to abuse and does work for everyone. I think it is particularly an option for those on the street who have no resources and cannot afford rehab.

This does not mean I no longer believe or practice the 12 step program . I am as committed to it as ever. It is the only thing that worked for me to stay off drugs. I have have tried countless methods to get there ( some worked others better than others)., but always relapsed. The only thing that kept me away in the long term was practicing the 12 step program. They are certainly not mutually exclusive as some people believe. OST is, or should be, a treatment option. The 12 steps is a recovery program for long term sobriety. They each have a role to play. I go to meetings.I work a program. I take my methadone everyday. I don't put up my hand for clean time. I don't do any service beyond bringing coffee or putting out chairs, but i do claim to be (and I am) in recovery.

The government needs to be pressured to make methadone (or suboxone..or both) an essential medicine, available for free in the hospitals. We also need sponsored housing made available to those who are willing to go on OST programs, so they can get off the street.

This is what I envisage and am calling into reality: (I know it is a wild fantasy right now but i also believe it can become a reality. all we need is a property and some money ( people would need to be fed and housed) and a few committed people. this is the reason I am doing my doctorate... to be able to motivate for funding from government and/or private sector.)

Imagine a run down old property, abandoned. unused, in disrepair, stripped and useless for the purpose of living in. Such properties exist in their number in all of our cities and towns. Imagine that people from the street could start moving in to one of these houses.. Not in large numbers , just a few. those that are ready and willing to make a change in their life.... They could be provided free housing (depending on funding) for the first 3 months, and free methadone, if they need it, (again this relies on the government coming through or getting some funding) providing they stay off all drugs during this time that they are there. (testing would be essential). Their first project would be to begin fixing up the property, growing food, making it livable.

What I would call a reintegration program (as opposed to a rehabilitation program) should be put in place which would focus on the relearning of social skills, adjusting to normal life , deprogramming people from the addicted lifestyle of hustling and skarreling, reintroducing them to community and some form of spirituality (in the broadest possible meaning of the word- a sense of connectedness, rather than religiosity) Psychological counselling should also be available to those who need it. They could also receive training in one or more skills (depending on availability of instructors who would either be volunteers or paid through raised funding) these could include driving training, computer skills, arts and crafts, electrical repairs. etc. Other projects could be encouraged to raise money. (a recycling project, a food garden/ nursery, a repair hub where people could donate broken objects to be fixed and re- used, starting a coffee shop etc are possible options and i am sure there are others, depending on the skills of people involved. (Music art and drama should definitely be encouraged.). The centre could also operate as a community hub for recovery, hosting meeting, workshops and social events. . On completion of their three months residents would be expected to pay back and contribute by acting as mentors for new comers. If they wished to stay on they would have that option, but would be expected to pay rent through getting a job or doing work in kind around the centre. (we would need office workers, drivers, councellors, cleaners and would use people in recovery wherever possible).

These are just some of the crazy ideas I have .I know you probably think I'm mad by now, but most good ideas were started by someone who was first thought crazy.

So who want to join me make it happen?

Anyone know an abandoned property we can use?

The Biggest Thieves of all (published in The Underminers, 9 December 2019 https://www.theunderminers.co.za/the-biggest-thieves-of-all/?fbclid=IwAR3TNVCbpcKdnsoiuZ5w4emVHdUJ0nqUn-e6FZoz7fb_KnUFdMQeA4Cct7I

White people like to blame the ANC for the problems of the country. Some of the common phrases we hear when white people gather around the braai.. “Its been nearly thirty years now, can’t they just get over it. We have a black government. The playing fields are now level and we need to forget the past and move forward".
They like to portray the corruption within the ANC as evidence of the corruption and inferiority of all black people. This is just another form of racism. The ANC has never truly represented the people of SA. It has always represented an educated elite. Since 1994 it has not served as true representative or servant of the African people but has been bought and controlled by their corporate slave masters.....and has acted as their house slaves to keep the population in check and prevent any real revolution or re-distribution of wealth. It is a puppet regime serving white interests. And the puppet masters are the Oppenheimers and the Ruperts and the other white owners of the multi-national corporations – they are the true bosses of South Africa. They have deliberately put inept cadres in position in charge of state owned enterprises, to run them into the ground and to use that as an excuse to privatize them. First to steal the resources that these entities profit from from their true owners, the people of the country, and secondly that the corporations can then take over and continue to profit by selling back to the people what was stolen from them in the first place. This is not an accident. It is by design.
Zuma is condemned, not because he was captured, but because he allowed himself to be captured by the wrong people. Instead of the usual masters of the mining and tobacco companies, (the Oppenheimers and the Ruperts) he allowed himself to be controlled by a group of upstart Indians. (The Guptas). Our present government and leaders are back in the right (white) hands.
But white people like to be the victims. They even talk about “reverse racism”. But the whole idea that humanity is made up of different races is a European invention. That is why we hear it said, with some truth I believe, that black people cannot be racist
In truth the source of corruption has always been the white corporations that control our leaders and governments. They like to portray black people as natural criminals. But their thievery is minor compared to what the colonial governments and their corporate sponsors have stolen over the centuries. They have stolen entire continents, their people and their wealth. And now that is not enough anymore they want to dig up the earth and steal everything underneath it as well. The biggest diamond ever found, so big it had to be cut into 9 smaller pieces, was found in South Africa and today adorns the jewellery of the British monarch. Who gave it to her? The white bosses of mining corporation. This is just a start. A recent Aljazeera article estimates that Britain stole 45 trillion pounds from India alone. It is the wealth of the colonies that made the colonial powers wealthy in the first place. And yet they have the audacity to claim they bought progress and civilization to the colonies. What they actually bought was slavery, corruption and poverty.
Today in this country they are using new land legislation not to return land to its rightful owners, as feared by most white people, but to remove communities from the land they are living on so they can mine for precious metals. The politician involved will get the blame, but they are only getting a comparatively small bribe to make it happen. Once again the only ones who will profit are the (white ) mining companies and their owners. While people die of thirst and the dams of the country are drying up, they are selling the rights to our water to Nestle and other international corporations. This is part of a trend by international conglomerates to privatize the world’s water supply. At the same time they are limiting the individual’s right to harvest water. In the United States a number of cases have been brought recently against private citizens for collecting water. Golman Sachs has identified water as one of the top five investments of the 21st Century and predicted that it will soon become more productive (ie profitable) than petroleum.
In South American the corporations are taking over whole countries. In Brazil, Bolivia we see democratically elected leaders overthrown by right wing demagogues in the pay of the corporations. It is not by chance that Bolivia has the world’s biggest lithium deposits and that lithium is crucial for storing energy in the new green technology. They are moving to ensure that once the fossil fuels are finished they will own whatever replaces it. They also spend vast amounts of money undermining socialist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. One day they will own the very air we breathe. Already in India and China there are “oxygen bars” where a client can pay to breath fresh oxygen. It is time now not only to stop them, but to start demanding the return of wealth stolen over centuries of plunder.

We shall never eat at the table of the 1% (publised in The Underminers Sept 25 2019 https://www.theunderminers.co.za/we-shall-never-eat-at-the-table-of-the-1/

White and State Monopoly capital represent the 1%, and are allied to create confusion and division among the rest of society.

There are a number of terms that are thrown around in this country that people have little understanding of. One of these is White Monopoly Capitalism. What does the term refer to and why do white people see it as an implied threat?

WMC does not refer to wealth and money of the average white person, who does earn and own a lot more than the average black person. (For those who need facts and figures the Living Conditions of Households in South Africa survey, published in Bussinesstech, 20 Jan 2017 found white average household income ( +- R300 000) to be five times higher than the average of black households.(+- R69 000)) What WMC does refer to is the massive amount of wealth in the hands of a very small sector of the population ( the infamous 1% of the population who control 80 per cent of the country’s (and the world’s wealth)) and who do happen to be mostly, but not exclusively white. The average salary of the top 1% of earners in SA (according to a March 2019 Bloomberg report courtesy of Bussinesstech, 29 May) is R2.21 million. The bottom 55% of the population (that’s +- 30.4 million mostly black people) earns an average of R992 per month. ( 2015 Statics SA study reported in Quartz SA 25 August 2017). According to the same study less than 1% of white South Africans fall into this group.

Further research by Econ 3×3 reported in Inquistr May 7, 2017, found that 10 % of the population owned 90-95% of the country’s wealth while the next 40% (the middle class) owned the majority of the remaining 5-10%. The poorest 50% of the population own little or no measurable wealth.

In the private sector 70% of senior management positions are held by still held by whites, with only 13% being held by blacks. What has changed with the end of apartheid is there has been a rise of what could be called “State capital”. This comprises a group of elite (largely black) businessmen who own about 30% of the country’s capital though the State. This group, however has close ties with White capital, and forms a part of the 1% elite that controls the economy, and are allied with it with the purpose of maintaining the status quo.

The real owners of South African capital are found in the stock exchange. Of the top 100 companies listed on the JSE, 22% are white owned and 23% are black owned local companies. Foreign companies, largely European- (and white-) owned, make up around 40% of the remaining investors. (courtesy of the same Inquisitr article). In spite of post-apartheid changes the economy of the country is still largely in the hands of white people.

The real problem behind such shocking disparity, in terms of relations of peoples in the country, is not that white people earn, and own, far more than their black counterparts for doing the same job and consider themselves superior as a result. The real problem is that most people, especially the middle class, (white and black) continue to support the ongoing agenda and rule of this 1% thus alienating themselves from the majority of humanity. They do this by continuing to buy in corporate owned supermarkets, to consume corporate- made and largely useless, badly made, dangerously toxic, unnecessary products, to use fossil-fuel based forms of energy which poison the environment, to send their children to elite schools and to absorb state and privately owned mainstream media which are designed to brainwash them into accepting the disparities of wealth and the culture of consumerism with its perpetual growth and spending.

Through the cult of the celebrity, and through accident of birth which ensures they share a common skin tone, people imagine themselves to be connected to this elite class. In reality they are not and will never be part of the monopoly capital class. They are conned into believing that that this group of people (the 1 per cent) is somehow looking out for them and represents their best interest. Yet they are no more than cannon fodder to them; useful idiots who will continue to support them in their quest for world domination. We need stop identifying with and supporting the agenda of people (the true owners of monopoly capitalism, state or white) who don’t give a thought for us, but only for their own survival. Stop identifying with the agenda of supremacists and racists who represents the interests of this class. They survive only because they have succeeded in dividing the rest of humanity. These are the real enemy of humanity. They have corrupted our police forces, and set us against each other. Our governments are now headed by billionaires who have little regard for the ordinary people and care only for their own profits. They have convinced people that the drug user in the streets and the foreigner are the cause of their suffering, when they are but a scapegoat to distract us.

Their agenda is precisely to divide you and convince you that you are one of them, when you can in reality you can never be. Yet you are seen as one of them because you choose to put their interest above the interests of your fellow humans. As long as you do this you will be on the side of monopoly capital, the 1 %, and against the rest of humanity . If you are a working class or middle class white South African your true allies are other working and middle class people, no matter their colour or ethnicity, not the elite who only view you as fodder to achieve their own ends. It’s your choice and it’s time to choose.

The Corrupt Nature of Capitalism

Capitalism is at its core corrupt. It is a system that is designed to profit off the labour and suffering of those deemed as lesser beings. It reduces everything to a monetary value and corrupts everything and everyone it touches. It is designed to ensure that wealth will forever be concentrated in the hands of a small minority who deem themselves superior to the rest of us mortals. With its values of endless growth it will necessarily end with the destruction of all that is natural in the world. It thrives off , indeed cannot survive without corruption and greed. It corrupts the very soul of humanity to value profit over humanity and nature and ensures in the end that people cannot even survive without money to buy what should be their's by right of birth. It survives by stealing what nature has given us as a free gift and selling it back to us . It is an evil system whose time has come, indeed must come, to an end of humanity is to survive.

We Are All Addicts (published in The Underminers 23 August 2019)

The first thing you think of when you hear the word addict, is of drug addiction. Actually the word refers to a far broader range of social behavior than drug use. The word itself dates back to Roman times and was used in law to refer to a person who could not pay debts and was given over as a bond slave to his creditor. Today it has come to mean a passionate dedication to any activity. In the modern world addiction, in this sense, has become prolific. People are addicted to shopping, the internet, sport, games. Any activity has its passionate devotees and these are termed addicts. But addiction has a darker side. When the dedication to an activity becomes an obsession and begins to have harmful effects, not just on the devotee, but to those around him and also to the society.

Bruce Alexander (In his book “The Globalisation of addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit”) attributes this darker kind of addiction to inadequate social integration or dislocation, caused by globalization. The problem as he sees it, is that addiction in all its forms, not just drug addiction, is a way of adapting to the sustained dislocation of globalisation. Our society, he believes deliberately obscures the link between free markets, mass dislocation and addiction. Mass media and political leaders celebrate the achievements and innovations of the free-market, while attributing its failings to individual immorality and weakness. Advertising urges people to keep consuming, regardless of the consequences. Millions are spent distracting people from the truth. Research funded by government and industry is designed to confuse and obfuscate reality. Educational institutions no longer teach critical thinking. Fake news abounds, to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to find the truth. In this milieu, drugs become the scapegoat, the reason for all that is wrong in the world. In truth it is dislocation that is at the core of what he refers to as “the modern poverty of the spirit”, and is the root cause of addiction.

If we take Alexander’s thinking to its logical conclusion then our society is sick from the disease of addiction; we are all addicts to one degree or another. In fact there is a deeper alienation that affects us all: an alienation from nature. Everything in this world is interconnected: one species relies on another to provide its food, its air, its sustenance. But we have forgotten that. Addiction stems from this alienation. It creates a feeling in us that something is not right in our world, an emptiness, a desire for something more, something we feel we can’t have. Some see it as a spiritual malady: a searching for something beyond ourselves. Others see it as an existential pain, a search for completeness and wholeness. We all suffer from it to some extent, but we all react to it in different ways. Some seek to fill the emptiness with money, with power: they seek power over those they see as less then themselves, they become judgmental of anyone not like themselves: they turn to war and violence. Others seek it in work. Others in helping people less fortunate than themselves, often to their own detriment. But it is the world, our society that is sick. Our society runs on natural resources that are quickly running out, but we refuse to change, to find other ways to live. We are killing the very thing that sustains us: our natural world; the planet that gives us life. This is the dark side of addiction.

Some people turn to taking drugs to find relief from the chaos and pain, and in turn create more pain for themselves and the people around them. They are cast as the villains of society: but are they really? Who is creating more pain and suffering? The world leaders who are putting children into cages, fighting wars, spending trillions to create weapons of mass destruction, and then claiming there is no money to feed the hungry people of the world? Or the drug user on the street who has turned to drugs because there are no jobs for him: no hope … none of the pieces of paper we supposedly need, to eat, pay rent, and there is none because others are stealing and hoarding it all, creating vast domains of luxury and pleasure for themselves. And the ordinary people strive for that. They become obsessed with celebrities and the mega rich, and t buy into the fantasy that one day they too can be like them. So they buy the clothes that they wear, the food that they eat: they model their lives on them, and in doing so they empower them and continue their own oppression They don’t realise that it is all a big con, that they can never be one of them.

Gabor Mate (in his book “ In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts”) says all addiction stems from pain . “We question we should be asking” he says “is not, ‘Why the addiction?’ but ‘Why the pain?’. We all have stories of pain, of suffering, of trauma. But no matter what I (or you) have been through in our personal lives there are always people in the world that have suffered far worse. Children that have had to watch their parents being blown to smithereens, little girls raped by their own fathers or sold into sexual slavery. This is the world we live in. It is sick. So we indulge in our addictions, and turn a blind eye to the reality of the world, and blame the drug addict, the foreigner, the gays, whoever is different to us, saying that they are the root of all evil in the world. And this is just what the real rulers of the world want you to think. It divides us and distracts us from the truth.

So, if you want to know the truth, instead of blaming the addict, the other ask yourself: “What is my addiction? What am I using to make the world seem a more tolerable and less painful place?.” We despise the addict, because he is the one who carries the symptoms of the disease. He reminds us of how sick our world is. Instead of blaming the addict and the drugs, which for him are his solution, just as yours may be shopping or the internet or sex, we need to find a way to heal the sickness of the world. It is the world, our society, that like the individual addict needs to find recovery. The first step is to stop the denialism, to wake up to the realisation of just how sick the world really is. To say to ourselves: “I will no longer part of this blind rush to destruction.” To stand up and take to the streets if necessary to demand change. This includes the realisation that essentially the drug user on the street is no worse, or less human than anyone else, (including the so-called leaders of the world), and to start to treat them with the empathy and respect they deserve as human beings. (I have certainly met people on the street that are more likeable, honest and human, more worthy of my time than the President of the United States). To say the corporations and the people destroying our natural environment: “No we will not let you steal our water, and put it into bottles to sell to rich people, while our children die of thirst. No we will not let you take our oil and use it to drive machines that kill us, No we will not let you put our children in cages, No we will not let you kill any more of the beautiful wildlife with which we share this planet in, the name of greed and addiction to wealth.” What are you doing to make the world a better place, so that we don’t all need to hide away in our little bubbles of addiction and pretend that everything is OK while the world burns?

We are more than just residents on this planet, we share with all the living beings on it a deep and real connection, and as long as we treat it only as a source of wealth, rather than what it truly is, the divine and glorious life- giving Gaia, we will remain dislocated and alienated and addicted to our own eventual destruction.

What is White Minority Capitalism

My take on White Minority Capitalism: WMC does not refer to the average white person (who by the way does earn a lot more than the average black person and not because they are naturally superior and better in any way but because inequality is built into the system) but it refers to that class of people (,who do happen to be mostly white) who control and run the finances of the world.( the 1 per cent of the population who control 80 per cent of the world's wealth.) 

The real problem is not that white people on average earn far more than their black counterparts for doing the same job and consider themselves superior because of this accident of birth. The real problem is that most white people continue to support the ongoing agenda and rule of this 1 per cent....(with whom the only thing they have in common is this accident of birth) thus alienating themselves from the majority of humanity. In reality they are not and will never be part of the WMC class (the 1 per cent who control the finances of the world) but imagine themselves to be part of it because they are conned into believing that because they are white ( like most of the 1 per cent is) that this group of people (the 1 per cent) is somehow looking out for them and represents their best interest. Get over yourself . .. you are no more than cannon fodder to them ..useful idiots who will continue to support them in their quest for world domination...stop identifying with and supporting the agenda of people (the true owners of WMC) who don't give a toss for you but only for their own survival. 

Stop identifying with the agenda of supremacists and racists who represents the interests of this class. They survive only because they have succeeded in dividing the rest of humanity. They are the real enemy of humanity. Their agenda is precisely to convince you that you are one of them when you can in reality never be. You are seen as one of them because you choose to put their interest above the interests of your fellow humans. As long as you do this you will be on the side of WMC, the 1 pc, against the rest of humanity. It's your choice and it's time to choose.

My First attempts at journalism

UCT Student receives award for plastic waste research.

University of Cape Town PhD student Takunda Chitaka recently won the PETCO 2019 Excellence in Academia award for strategic intervention into the broad area of recycling and sustainability. Chitaka won the award for her important contribution to the understanding of marine plastic waste. Her research involved cleaning a beach entirely and than observing what waste was washed up over a 24 hr period. She looked at 5 beaches in the Cape Town area and found that the most common items, comprising 60% of waste, were items associated with the fast food industry—plastic straws, chip and other snack packets, and polystyrene containers. The important of this knowledge is it can be used to develop evidence based interventions. Chitaka commented “My hope for my research is that it helps to inform the way forward for the plastics economy in South Africa.”

Studying While Black tackles the challenges of black students in South Africa.

Studying While Black is the result of a research project undertaken by the Human Sciences Research Council. This project is part of a larger study being conducted by the HSRC into higher education in South Africa, which looks at the need to transform the country’s universities into learning spaces which are more inclusive and responsive to the needs of the majority of the country’s population. This is part of a trend in higher learning circles to focus on the study of African learning, people, spaces and problems.
The study tracks 80 students from 8 universities and documents their experience of higher learning at a South African University over 4 years. The purpose of the study was to show the obstacles and challenges black students face in accessing higher education in this country and their response to these: to find out who succeeds, and the reasons for their success. As the universities in this country seek to adapt from the elitist spaces they previously occupied, this will prove to be useful knowledge indeed.

Durban’s Urban Futures Centre tackles street level drug use.

The UFC at Durban University of Technology is an interdisciplinary research hub which tackles the social issues of living in 21st century African city.
One of the big social issues, especially in Durban is the use of cheap heroin-based drugs by a growing number of homeless street dwellers. In 2014 clashes between the police and people living in one of the city parks inspired the UFC to call together stake holders from the university, the police, city officials, NGO workers, doctors and others in the health and drug treatment profession. As a result of that meeting the KZN Harm Reduction Advocacy Group was formed. Since then a number of initiatives have been taken. These include:
• A number of meetings with street level drug users to learn about their lives and engage with them about a possible treatment program.
• A number of workshops and seminars with police, health workers and people who work with street level drug users addressing the rights of people who use drugs and other issues.
• The development of a play, Ulwembu, based on participatory action research into the lives of drug users which toured around Durban and surrounding areas in 2016.
• The setting up of a low threshold Opioid Substitution Treatment program, in conjunction with the NGO TB/HIV Care, which was also the basis for a research project which documented the lives and experience of those involved and monitored their progress over 18 months in treatment. 42 heroin users took part in the treatment program. That research is now in the process of being written up and should appear over the next few months. It is hoped that the success of this program will inspire government and NGOs to begin rolling out Opioid Substitution Treatment programs on a large scale to make them accessible to the people who need them.

.Black Studio investigates the roots of Qgom in Umlazi township

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A group of students from Joburg and Durban recently undertook a study into the spatial roots of Qgom culture in Umlazi township as part of BlackStudio’s Design Exchange Initiative. This initiative brings together students from Architecture, Planning, Urban Design, Art and Engineering, and is intended to question the way we look at and experience spaces and to challenge the colonial system of planning and designing spaces. They were hosted by the Urban Futures Centre at DUT.
Gqom music originates in Umlazi township and has recently taken the world by storm. This years design exchange investigates the links between the culture of Qgom and the spaces that helped create it, and how Qgom is both shaped by these spaces and in turn helps shape them. Qgom music is very much influenced by the everyday sounds of township life. It has become a lifestyle bringing together music, fashion, dance, language and art in a way that contributes both to individual’s livelihood and to the economy of the township.

You are never too old to study

Jacob Seboko recently became the oldest first year student in the history of North-North-West University at the age of 79.

Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level. 

When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I’m here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.”.
Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level.
When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I’m here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.”

Jacob Seboko with fellow students.

You are never too old to study.

Jacob Seboko recently became the oldest first year student in the history of North-West University at the age of 79.
Since his wife died 10 years ago he had been feeling increasingly lonely and decided to register to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a professional teacher. He already has a BA in Public Administration and Management, from what was then the Pothchefstroom Universiteit vir Christelike Hoer Onderwys. (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education ) which he completed in 1996. In order to gain his Postgraduate Certificate in Education he will need to take some subjects, such as Psychology and Marketing Management on a first year level.
When asked how he gets along with his classmates he said that they respect him and go out of their way to make him feel welcome. He says he dreams of a South Africa where children and young people prioritize education. His message to the youth: "Many who see me think my time has passed but I'm here to tell them that now is their future. Not one day. Today.” 

Living Day- to- Day

Wow-what a day. As I have been sharing, I have been battling recently. I am living day to day as far as work and finances go. Today I had exhausted both and was on the verge of giving up. I have not been to find any work or job in two weeks. There is always one factor that rules me out. I don't have a licence, wrong gender, too old, don't have the right qualifications or experience, don't speak the right language, the wrong skin colour etc etc. Whatever ...there's always something. I was in serious self pity. Telling myself: I have not even managed to pay last months rent, and now the new months rent is due and the landlords going to kick me out.... I ate the last food in the house for breakfast this morning..what am I going to eat tonight....blah blah. The old familiar chorus of self-pity. Anyway I got to varsity and found I have three people contacting me wanting me to work. It might only bring in a couple of hundred rand, but it'll get me through the next few days, until the next job. And there always the chance it'll lead to more work, or a full-time job. Its quite amazing how this works. As long as I am getting up and showing up everyday, putting in the action, something always comes up. Sometimes only at the very last minute, when I'm on the verge of giving up, like today, but it always happens. I believe this is through having faith and practicing a program. I don't always feel it, but I practice it: by turning up, by going to meetings, through practicing the pillars of the program in my daily life, even when I'm feeling shit and don't want to, I do it. I don't have a choice really, the alternatives are to horrible to contemplate.

Don't give up before the miracle happens.

Why I Dont want A "Proper Job"thank you

Hi I have had some people saying that I am oversharing on facebook and that I should get a proper job rather than hustling on social media. I do appreciate that these comments are coming from a place of love and concern for me, and i thank those people for their concern. I feel, however that what am doing here in sharing my experience, my story, that others can learn from it, so that they can see that there is life after drug addiction, and get hope from that. It is difficult, being an elderly male to get a "proper job". I have only worked in bookshops and been a student most of my life. So I have opted to continue with my doctoral studies and look (or "hustle"--i am comfortable with that term for what I am doing--i don't see hustling as having negative connotations and it is a good description for what I do) for writing and editing work on the side to pay for food and rent. As I am fairly new to this kind of work ( at least professionally, I have been writing most of my life) , it is coming in fairly slowly, but as i do more work and build up a reputation, I have no doubt the work will come in more frequently (and it already is). I has been a battle. At times I have had no money even for food, and self pity consumes me, but I need to remember that I only came into recovery 10 weeks ago and I have done pretty well considering that. In that time I have had an article printed in an online newspaper, been on a radio show, made progress on my thesis, edited a book and helped a number of people to write articles for submission. Plus I run an online blog to help people with drug and addiction related issues. And i still find time to stop and talk to and carry a message to people living on the streets. And I go to meetings every day and have a program to help me to deal with all the stuff life throws at me. I'm quite happy to carry on hustling, thank you . I rather do this over a "proper job' any day of the week.

Who Is An Addict?

Here is what I believe about addiction: our society is sick from the disease of addiction; we are all addicts to one degree our another. Addiction stems from our feeling that something is not right in our world, an emptiness a desire for something we can't have. Some see it as a spiritual malady: a searching for something beyond ourselves. Others see it as an existential pain. We all suffer from it to some extent, but we all react to it in different ways. Some seek to fill the emptiness with money, with power: they seek power over those they see as less then themselves, they become judgmental of anyone not like themselves: they turn to war and violence. Others seek it in work, others in helping others to their own detriment. But it is the world, our society that is sick. We are addicted to little pieces of paper which we call money, which actually has no value yet controls our lives. It is created by us. Our whole society runs on it. Our society runs on natural resources that are quickly running out, but we refuse to change to find other ways to live. We are killing the very thing that sustains us: our natural world; the planet that gives us life, This is the mark of addiction. We fight wars over this. Others who turn to taking drugs to find relief from the chaos and pain, and in turn create more pain for them selves and the people around them. They are cast as the villains of society: but are they really? Who is creating more pain and suffering? The world leaders who are putting children into cages: fighting wars, spending trillions to create weapons of war, but then claim there is no money to feed people? Or the drug user on the street who has turned to drugs because there are no jobs for him: no hope ... none of the imaginary pieces of paper he supposedly needs to eat pay rent, and there is none because other people are stealing it all to create vast mansions of luxury for themselves. And the ordinary people want to have that and strive for it. They become obsessed with celebrities and the mega rich, and they buy into the fantasy that one day they too can be like them. So they buy the clothes they wear, the food they eat: model their lives on them. They don't realise that it is all a big con: that they can never be like them.

One of the reasons i turned to drugs is because I am gay, and because of that I have never been able to find someone to share my life with , a partner, someone to love and cuddle at night. Yes someone to fuck. Because of that I feel alien and alone: I feel empty. Every night climbing into bed, alone. Every morning waking up, alone. I feel like like I am missing out on an essential aspect of human experience. I am constantly asking myself : Why cant I be like other people and find love. And yet I know- we all have these stories of pain, of suffering, of trauma. There are people in the world that have suffered far worse of then me: children that have had to watch their parents being blown to smithereens, little girls being raped by their own fathers or sold into sexual slavery. This is the world we live in. It is sick. So we indulge in our addictions, and turn a blind eye to the reality of the world, and blame the addict saying he is the root of all evil

Look to yourself. What is your addiction? What are you using to make the world a more tolerable place? We despise the addict, because he reminds us of how sick our world is. Instead of blaming the addict and the drugs which for him are his solution, we need to find a way to heal the sickness of the world. The first step is to realise how sick the world is, and say to ourselves: "I will no longer part of this blind rush to destruction." To stand up and take to the streets if necessary to demand change. The first step is to realise that essentially the drug user on the street is no worse than any of our world leaders, and to start to treat him with empathy and respect he deserves as a human being. To start to say "No we will not let you steal our water, and put it into bottles to sell to rich people, while our children die of thirst. No we will not let you take our oil and use it to drive machines that kill us, No we will not let you put our children in cages, No we will not let you kill any more of the beautiful wildlife with which we share this planet in, the name of greed..."

So i ask again ...WHO IS THE TRUE ADDICT? What is your addiction? What are you doing to overcome it, and to make the world a better place so that we don't need to hide away in our little bubbles and pretend that everything is OK while the world burns.

• I am a full-time student who supports myself through freelance writing. If you would like to make a donation to support my writing and ongoing work as an activist would be most welcome. Contact me on Facebook (David Jones) to get banking details.

The War on Drugs. (extract from To Hell and Back - a thesis in progress.)

The traditional discourse on the subject of drug addiction focuses traditionally on two models: the judicial and the medical-based disease model. The first has led to the War on Drugs and conceptualises the addicted user as a criminal who needs to be punished and removed from society. Addiction, or rather any illicit drug use, is viewed in this model as a moral failing, or a lack of willpower . According to Gabor Mate the basic misconception of this approach is that the cause of addiction resides in the drugs themselves, thus to eliminate addiction extreme measured are justified in eliminating the drugs or to prevent people from having access to them. Appropriate treatment is therefore seen as punitive, with jails or militaristic “boot camp” type institutions being the preferred destination, not only of addicted users, but all who have fallen foul of the drug laws. In many countries, notably India, China and many other Asian countries drug users are sent for mandatory “treatment” in facilities that amounts to little more than detention facilities without trial or due process of law. In America, in 2016 a total number of 2,205,300 were incarcerated - the highest incarceration rate in the world. Out of these 456,000 were for drug law violations. Out of 1,632,921 people arrested for drug violations in 2017, 1,394,514 or 85.45% were arrested for possession only. ( stats from www.drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-war-statistics).
The UN Global Commission on Drug Policy, made up of imminent persons including former heads of states, business leaders and renowned artists, states quite plainly “The global war on drugs has failed (…..) policymakers believed that harsh law enforcement action against those involved in drug production, distribution and use would lead to an ever-diminishing market in controlled drugs such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis, and the eventual achievement of a ‘drug free world’. In practice, the global scale of illegal drug markets – largely controlled by organized crime – has grown dramatically over this period.” ( The Alternative World Drug report). According to UN estimates global usage of illicit opiates between 1998 and 2008 grew by 34.5% .In addition the World Drug report 2019 estimated that in 2017 29.2 million people worldwide had used opiates such as heroin and opium. This was up 50% from the 2016 figure of 19.4 million. The increase was not due only to increased usage, but also to advances in the collection of data on drug use.
The annual cost of the War on Drugs exceeded R100 billion dollars, while profits from the annual trade in illicit drugs exceeded 330 billion dollars which largely goes to enriching criminals and funding international crime networks. (stats from The Alternative Drug Report)
Other negative consequences of the War on Drugs are outlined in the Alternative Drug Report. These include the undermining of international development and security, causing of deforestation and pollution, threatening of public health and spreading disease, undermining human rights and promoting stigma and discrimination.
The fact that the War on Drugs continues to be waged in spite of these negative outcomes has led to the conclusion that it serves vested interests and continues to be used as a political tool of control. As the USA is the prime instigator of this war, it is thus the most appropriate place to look for evidence of this. Michelle Alexander in her book "The New Jim Crow" has pointed to that fact that in the USA black men are imprisoned on drug charges at a rate of 20 to 50 times higher than white men to argue that anti-drug laws are used to police and control minority groups and connect directly to earlier forms of racial segregation and oppression. Further evidence of this is the disparity in sentencing for the possession of crack cocaine as opposed to cocaine powder. Although it is essentially the same substance sentences handed down for crack were far more severe. This is attributed to the fact that crack was predominantly used by black people. Kenneth Nunn, former Professor of Law at the University of Florida’s Levin College, argues in his article Race, Crime and the Pool of Surplus Criminality: or Why the "War on Drugs" Was a "War on Blacks" , that race and crime are linked in a cycle of oppression. What is defined as a crime, he claims, determines who is oppressed and simultaneously legitimates that oppression. Racial oppression can then be justified as legitimate response to wrongdoing, and animosity towards particular groups can be created by portraying them as prone to criminal behaviour. These groups can then be use as scapegoats for perceived threats to the dominant, mainstream (white) culture, and to justify increased surveillance and police crackdowns on these communities. Black people then become subject to racial profiling and black communities to over-policing. The military rhetoric is used to justify aggressive law enforcement measures, and the use para-military units in routine policing operations, such as the use of SWAT (Special Weapons and tactics) teams to conduct drug sweeps in black neighbourhoods, and the use para-military units in routine policing operations.
In fact anti-drug laws have always had racial undertones. The first major campaign against opium smoking took place in California in the 1890 and coincided with anti-Chinese sentiment. Chinese immigrants were blamed for low wages and depressed economic conditions and much was made of the perceived threat to European women, who were, so the stories went, being lured into sexual slavery through the use of opium. In the same way Blacks were identified with cocaine use in the early 20th century, and were said to use it fortify themselves for criminal activity, making them bolder, more aggressive and oblivious to pain. The fact that both these substances were readily available as ingredient in many over-the–counter remedies, and in the case of cocaine was an ingredient in the earliest commercial soft drinks, was conveniently overlooked. As a result of these campaigns, the Harrison Act outlawing cocaine and opium was passed in 1914.
Later in the century President Nixon used the supposed affinity of black musicians with marijuana and heroin and hippies with LSD and heroin to discredit both groups. John Ehrlichman, President Richard Nixon’s assistant for domestic affairs, in a interview with journalist Dan Baum, from Harper’s Magazine had the following to say:
‘You want to know what this was really all about?’ he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. ‘The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the anti-war left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t
make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.’
In other words anti-drugs laws were knowingly used as a means of to discredit and criminalise these communities and as a tool for political control. Or as Noam Chomsky put it in an interview with John Veit in High Times: “The Drug War is an effort to stimulate fear of dangerous people from who we have to protect ourselves. It is also, a direct form of control of what are called "dangerous classes," those superfluous people who don't really have a function contributing to profit-making and wealth.” Internationally it has been used to the same ends. It has been used to justify military interventions in South America, to criminalize any opposition to American policy, and to provide cover for illegal activities by American forces.
Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper had the following to say in his book "Breaking Rank" : “Think of the war’s real casualties: tens of thousands of otherwise innocent Americans incarcerated, many for 20 years, some for life; families ripped apart; drug traffickers and blameless bystanders shot dead on the city streets... The United States has, through its war on drugs, fostered political instability, official corruption, and health and environmental disasters around the globe. In truth, the U.S sponsored international War on Drugs is a war on poor people, most of them subsistence farmers caught in a dangerous no-win situation."
In this country anti-drug legislation has been used to similar ends, to criminalise the poor and the homeless and particularly to justify the use of apartheid style policing and surveillance tactics.
It is still however the dominant model for dealing with addiction both at a global level and in this country. This however is changing rapidly as many countries are opting out of the drug war and are seeking other solutions. These will be discussed at a later date.

If it is true that addiction is not only about drugs. That our society is addicted: to money, to oil, to instant solutions, to religions, to shopping. to the internet, to status, to things we don't need but supposedly make our life easier . As part of an addicted system we are in a sense all addicts. Then it follows that recovery is not just about recovery from drug addiction, but about the recovery of our society from the disease off addiction which affects us all.

Bruce Alexander on The Globalisation of Addiction - An extract from my still in progress thesis

Bruce Alexander attributes addiction to what he calls “inadequate social integration” or “dislocation”. Those suffering from dislocation construct “substitute lifestyles” which may focus on dangerous and excessive drug use. The famous Rat Park experiment is a powerful demonstration of this effect. Alexander took the traditional experiment, which found that rats, when given the choice between morphine and food or water will choose morphine every time,and turned it on its head. Alexander took the rats out of the individual cages in which they had been housed and created what he termed ” a quasi-natural colony” for them. They were provided with space and mazes to run around in, empty boxes and canisters to hide and nest in, and most importantly other rats to socialize and mate with. In his own words he found that: “Rats housed in a quasi-natural surrounding drank much less morphine hydrochloride solution than rats in standard laboratory cages.” This effect extended also to rats that had been previously exposed to morphine, even to the point of addiction. In essence what he had discovered was that it was not the morphine causing the addiction, but the isolation and alienation of being forced to live in a cage. If this is true then the solution to problematic drug is use is re-connection.

In his more recent work, Alexander, goes further than this. Elaborating on his rat park experiment, he sees drug addiction as the manifestation of a greater problem in our society. The problem he sees is that addiction, in all its forms, not just drug addiction, is a way of adapting to the sustained dislocation of globalization. Our society, he believes, deliberately obscures the link between free markets, mass dislocation and addiction. Mass media and political leaders celebrate the achievements and innovations of the free-market, while attributing its failings to individual immorality and weakness. Advertising urges people to keep consuming, regardless of the consequences. Millions are spent distracting people from ‘the truth’. Research funded by government and industry is designed to confuse and obfuscate the truth. Educational institutions no longer teach critical thinking. Fake news abounds, to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to find the truth. In this milieu, drugs become the scapegoat, the reason for all that is wrong in the world. In truth it is dislocation that is at the core of what he refers to as “the modern poverty of the spirit”, and is the root cause of addiction

For the individual the dislocation that causes addiction can be overcome by finding a secure place in a real community. This can be either through reconnection with family and friends, or through a created community such as a 12 step fellowship group.
The only way we can really tackle this problem, at a societal level and in the long term, he believes, is through large scale social and political changes aimed at rebuilding community and promoting psychosocial integration at individual and community level. He highlights particular issues that he feels need to be addressed. Firstly the overcoming of indoctrination through the media, and its domination by corporations and capital. The mass media in his view indoctrinates us from earliest childhood with individualistic, competitive and acquisitive values that undermine psychosocial integration. They prepare us to accept the inevitabilty of free-market dominance, obscure its negative effects, distract from the grinding devastation that results from its policies through focusing on overblown, grotesque scandals and everyday lives of so-called celebrities, and mock alternative ideas as naïve and unsophisticated. Another issue that Alexander feels needs to be addressed to increase pychosocial integration (and of particular relevance in this country) is that of land claims. Many native peoples remain severely dislocated and Alexander attributes one of the main reason for this to instability which comes with the loss of land.

Reviving community art is also seen as an important factor. Art contributes to people’s and community’s sense of identity. It also plays a crucial role in raising people’s awareness of local issues and of their neighbours. He cites the example of the Hastings Corridor, a run down drug-plagued area in his home town of Vancouver, where a series of community art projects has led to a renewed participation by residents in social activism and revitalized the area. (p375) In 2003 one project, a play named In The Heart of the City, drew on real life stories of inner city living and drew in over 2000 residents as volunteers to work on the play, most of these were unemployed and either still using drug, or in recovery. The play performed to sold out houses, and was attended by the cities elite, including the mayor. Also important are sport and social clubs which can give people a sense of belonging.
Other issues he feels need to be addressed are the changing of drug laws to halt the criminalization of people who use drugs, a re-thinking of the role of religion and spirituality to challenge oppression and suffering in society, rather than supporting the status quo, the reclaiming of the university from being turned into corporate training centres, and a return to the teaching of critical thinking.

TIME FOR RADICAL CHANGE IN DRUG POLICY (published by the Daily Maverick 1July 2019)

It is time for a major re-assessment of drug policy and practice in handling individuals who use drugs.  This is major crisis in our society, and a serious threat to our youth. By keeping certain drugs illegal, we are providing a major resource to criminal networks. Drug money is a major source of power for these networks. If you remove this you take away a major resource out of their hands, seriously undermining their power. It is also then possible to regulate and control the sale of these drugs, ensuring they do not fall into the hands of minors and other people at risk.  The war on drugs, totally contrary to the stated intent, has created a situation where these drugs are more freely available than ever before to anyone at any time. Their use and sale has extended even to the smallest villages and most isolated areas of the country, putting a whole generation of youth at risk. They are often introduced by unscrupulous dealers to youngsters who do not know what it is they are using, and are unaware that they will become dependent.

 
The experience of Portugal and other European countries has shown that decriminalization and even legalization does not necessarily lead to increase in drug usage. Under a system of regulation, users should be allowed to register and use in a controlled environment, where they would at the same time be encouraged and enabled to enter treatment and offered alternatives to using. This would minimize deaths through ensuring the quality of the product and ensure that new addicts are not created through exposure to these drugs. Locking  up users with hardened criminals only ensures that they receive further training and encouragement in criminality. There should be programs in place, alternatives to imprisonment, in which youth whose education has been interrupted through drug use, can receive training in useful skills, not just job skills but including life skills and psychological counselling, to ensure that they do not have to resort to crime. The money which is at the moment used in policing and imprisoning users could then be better used to invest in such programs. At present the cost of treatment is unaffordable to all but the most wealthy segment of the population, and public programs are overcrowded and inaccessible.

There is a perception of all whoonga and tic users are criminals and beyond redemption. I have spent much time on the streets working with and getting to know some of these people. Many of them work very hard to maintain their habits. If you have seen the young people walking around the city carrying huge mounds of plastic or cardboard, you will know what I mean. Many are friendly and likeable, helpful individuals, who astound by their capacity to maintain a positive and cheerful attitude in the most dire of circumstances. Among the chores they do are collecting and recycling of rubbish, helping people with carrying and unloading shopping, garden work, “ piece “ work in the building trade, washing windows, cars etc. They are capable of working, and performing a useful role in society in spite of their drug use. Perhaps  ways can be found to formalize some kind of business around the work they do.  A new model would have to be created, one in which they are able individuals to work for short ( Perhaps 3-4) hour shifts, to allow for the need to score and use their drugs,  and to be paid  immediately on completion of a task to allow for the same. There are many ways they could be put to work.  Some of the ideas which have come to mind would be to clean up the natural environment, removing invasive plants etc They can be made responsible for cleaning up and maintaining of public parks and other public spaces. Formalising the recycling work that they do, by providing drop off points where people can be paid for the materials they have collected would be another. Former addicts and street people who have stopped using for some  time could be put in charge of such enterprises, providing employment for them. This would provide a solution to another problem of the present treatment system, where a person coming out of treatment, after getting clean, ends up back on the streets because he has nowhere else to go, and eventually starts using again. Many would say that in doing this we are enabling addicts to keep using. My argument is that by setting up such enterprises, we limit the users need to resort to crime, we  are providing a means for them to ensure an income, they are better able to take care of themselves, and perhaps even keep themselves alive, while they are using. By engaging with them we allow them to feel valued, to feel connected to society, and give them the motivation and help they need to transition to a life free of addiction.

 Dr Gabor Mate, Johan Hari and others have shown that addiction is a reaction to trauma, pain and disconnection.  The war on drugs is actually a war on the most vulnerable members of our society. In a society that is considered the most unequal in terms of wealth distribution on the planet, where youth unemployment is close to 50%, is it any wonder that people turn to drugs for comfort? This is a problem that affects us all. We can make a change by the way we interact with people on the street. Listen to them, engage with them, get to know them, help where we can. I believe the disease of addiction infects our whole society, and it is the addicts who carry the symptom of the disease. They are despised because they are a constant reminder of the sickness of our society. But perhaps like the survivor of a rare virus who carries the antidote to the disease, they also carry the cure. Perhaps by starting with healing of the most vulnerable and damaged members of society, we can find a path to healing of the ills of society itself. To turn the old struggle slogan on its head: “a healing to one is a healing to all.”

I know these are radical suggestions, but present policy is failing dismally. Times and circumstances call for radical change.