Well, It Is Colchester…
Drug addicts collecting methadone at a pharmacy are being given priority over families, a mother has claimed.
How many can there be?
Louise Davies, from Greenstead, Colchester, says she has been forced to stand in hour-long queues while recovering addicts are seen first at the Boots Chemist in Tamarisk Way.
That many..?!?
The mother-of-three has called for Boots to review its policy and open a separate clinic for people needing methadone – a replacement drug to wean addicts off heroin.
She said: “I have nothing against the patients and understand that they need their medicine.
“But if there are that many methadone takers on the books, the shop should close to see them at a certain time.
“It is not really the kind of thing you want children waiting amongst and they must feel self-conscious having to collect it in front of other people.”
I doubt it. I really do…
You KNOW your complaint isn't going to be listened to, you KNOW self-inflicted drug addiction enables people to abdicate responsibility and you KNOW there is an army of enablers and apologists out there so why bother to complain ?
ReplyDeleteSimple answer is to go elsewhere and leave the staff to ONLY deal with drug addicts. Being a problem of their own creation and then only they should have to deal with it. Ensure they do.
The story is now wagging a startling tail of comments, most of them hostile to Ms Davies - admirably demonstrating the aptness of your title.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about this, but if the hoops you have to jump through to get prescription morphine are anything to go by, much of the long queue is probably due to paperwork and checks.
Despite the unfriendly comments, Ms Davies may have a point: surely a pharmacy busy enough to form long queues would be generating enough income to employ a dedicated pharmacist for methadone prescriptions.
I too would be annoyed at being forced to queue behind these druggies whilst waiting to be served at a branch of Boots ..
ReplyDeleteThe answer is startlingly simple .. boycott that particular branch ..
Once Boots notice the sales figures of a branch taking a nose-dive, questions will be asked ..
they must feel self-conscious having to collect it in front of other people.”
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. I really do…
Some do Julia, I had several on my case-load at the JCP, who found it very difficult and embarrassing, almost as if they were being punished for trying to go 'straight'
Even in the STD clinic, they give you a number (so I'm told) and don't announce your name and your problem to the entire waiting room.
Boots' policy here is a classic case of 'the squeaky wheel getting the grease'- and can probably only be reversed if Colchester residents follow Capt. Haddock's good advice.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that Boots can refuse to dispense a medicine, then again, there is a case for refusing contraceptives due to religious objections, so why not for unprofitable overly long paperwork?
ReplyDeleteA private company should not have to employ extra staff to cater for every stupid whim bureaucrats can invent and it's Boots that is actually the victim here (the customer can always go elsewhere, the shop is stuck). If the NHS is so worried, they can dispense in one of their pharmacies.
Personally I think that Boots should just be allowed to sell clean smack over the counter to anyone stupid enough to buy it. If we can make only 20% of the antisocial idiots we're grown/acquired sit quietly on their sofa at home too stoned to be a pain in the neck -- it'll do wonders for the public purse and the general atmosphere.
8():
Methadone is used to treat a number of other addictions than heroin. By far the most common opiate addiction in this country is to codeine, sold over the counter by the same store ...
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to stand in the queue because the junkies would then know I was getting a desireble item and quite likely try to steal it from me outside the shop.
ReplyDelete"Drug addicts collecting methadone at a pharmacy are being given priority over families..."
ReplyDeleteReally? Many families on methadone in Colchester then?
Sorry, just trying to 'inject' a little humour ;-)
"Simple answer is to go elsewhere and leave the staff to ONLY deal with drug addicts. Being a problem of their own creation and then only they should have to deal with it."
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it might mean a long, long trek for you...
"Even in the STD clinic, they give you a number (so I'm told) and don't announce your name and your problem to the entire waiting room."
Which, if they are going to insist you have to drink it there and then, they should do here.
"Sorry, just trying to 'inject' a little humour ;-)"
*groan*