Play your cards right

Now Mr Duncan-Smith has come up with another great idea. Alcoholics (and drug addicts) on benefits will be given a credit card that will only allow them to spend their benefits on essential items.

I have some news for you: for addicts of any persuasion essential items include the substance of abuse

Mr Duncan-Smith and his Government have planned on cutting millions of pounds from vital treatment programmes in favour of a pay by success scheme run by private enterprise. He genuinely believes that by restricting money supply you will prevent addiction.

Quite frankly Mr Duncan-Smith you are a fool. An addict will do whatever it takes to get to their addiction unless some kind of intervention helps them change their behaviour

And that intervention does not mean remove their money supply.

If you remove the money supply then without psychological and physiological support all you do is drive the person to seek an alternate source of money, legally or illegally. The addict will not care where the money comes from they will simply seek to source the money.

In the 6 months following my mother's death my father pissed £60000 against a wall to feed his habit!

I am open and frank about the destruction that addiction brought to my family. It has cost me many things in my life that I hold dear but in the cold stark light of the morning sun it cost my family everything.

You cannot dictate to people how they spend their benefits unless you are prepared to incarcerate those people and force them into treatment programmes. As far as I am aware addiction is not a sectionable illness under the Mental Health Act and unless you change that law and bring back the asylum mentality of the Victorians it never will be.

Mind you Mr Duncan-Smith if you play your cards right then the addicts will break into farmers homes. Farmers who have shotguns who will be able to shoot the intruders. Two problems solved at once then!