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Crackdown on crack

By on November 23, 2012
The public revelation that the admired, openly-gay Olympic gold medalist, Matthew Mitcham, battled an addiction to crystal meth has brought up the issue of widespread drug abuse in the LGBTIQ community, although somewhat indirectly and unintentionally.

Whilst I’m not a fan of quoting the Bible, I’m all too sure that the old verse, “let him who is without sin, cast the first stone,” applies here, but I digress.

Hands down, drug abuse in our community needs to be targeted to the extent that HIV/AIDS has been. It’s a no brainer.

It should be a priority that we tackle head on the culture of drug abuse that is deeply imbedded in the LGBTIQ community, as is in so many other minority groups and communities.

I’m sure we can link our communities history of drug abuse to the fact that we are a marginalised people and that many of us suffer from depression and discrimination and as a result are far more likely to engage in these forms of escapism than our heterosexual counterparts.

But we can’t always see drug abuse simply as a result of mental health issues because it’s not. Fact is, so many of us see drugs as just a bit of fun or harmless and it’s these people that become victims of their own immaturity and curiosity.

Too many times has the debate about drugs in our culture been widdled down to a discussion of victimisation and suppression of supposed ‘individual freedoms’.

Sure, we can talk about why people do drugs and find new ways to minimise risks, but in the words of the classic scholar, Desiderius Erasmus, “prevention is better than cure” and indeed prevention is where more focus needs to be.

By JESSE MATHESON

About Jesse Matheson

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