大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - Dundee鈥檚 drug crisis: revealing the devastating effects of lives defined by poverty

Dundee鈥檚 drug crisis: revealing the devastating effects of lives defined by poverty

A shocking rate of drug addiction is just one effect of poverty and inequality in Scotland, highlighted by a new 大象传媒 Scotland series.

Award-winning author and activist Darren McGarvey, AKA rapper Loki, has toured the country highlighting how poverty disrupts the lives of people caught in its grasp.

In a Dundee cemetery he met Jamie: “I dread coming here,” she told him.

Jamie’s life has been battered by the effects of drug addiction. The purpose of her visit is to tend the grave of her mum and stepdad who died from drug overdoses within a year of each other.

In Dundee the problem is widespread; in 2018 it was revealed to have the highest rate of drug deaths in Europe.

Darren meets Jamie

Darren meets Jamie who has lost more family members than anyone he's ever met.

Darren McGarvey’s Scotland reveals a side of the nation which will be unfamiliar to some but a reality for so many. It makes for uncomfortable viewing.

A recovering addict himself, Darren has strong views on how the problem of addiction should be tackled.

“We’re not going to solve the drug crisis if we don’t take more serious action on social inequality,” he explained on Radio Scotland’s Mornings with Jackie Brambles.

“If you’re getting someone off of methadone or heroin, and then they’re just going back into the same environment where all the social connections that they have established are all evolved around drug taking, then you’re decreasing the chances of them even being able to take personal responsibility.”

Darren McGarvey confronts the rampant rise of poverty.

The activist and prizewinning author confronts the rampant rise of poverty.

According to Darren, the problem has been fermenting for years:

“Over successive generations of poverty and botched attempts at regeneration we’ve severed so many generational social connections.

“There’s no shared identity, there’s no shared history, so the community fragments and people’s social connections are formed around other things like feeling safe and secure; joining a gang, going to the pub a lot.”

And he believes this impacts on the chances of recovery.

“If you live in a community where a lot of people aren’t getting sober, or a lot of people are trying and failing, then there’s less chance you’re going to try it.”