Street artist Joe Caslin, known for his large-scale black and white drawings, has released ‘The Volunteers’, a powerful new piece of public art in Front Square of Trinity College. The installation and forthcoming film reflect on Ireland’s century of progress and asks us what battles we must fight in the present. It is the first of a three-part about modern volunteerism and some of Ireland’s most pressing issues: drug addiction, mental health, and direct provision. Lynn Ruane now illustrated on the walls of Trinity College Dublin writes from her perspective on drug addiction…
Photo credit: Gavin Leane
“I don’t ever wanna feel like I did that day, take me to the place I love take me all the way”.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Most if not all my volunteerism, activism, career in addiction and now my political work has been underpinned by my lived experiences and drug use. The impact of problematic drug use has been central in my search for more: more for myself and my community, more understanding, more empathy, more resources, more services and more connection.
After what I would call a lucky escape from the grasp of drug addiction I began a very early career in the treatment of addiction and addressing the wider inequalities in society that create the environment whereby drug abuse seems more attractive than reality. What starts out as a temporary pain reliever winds up being the pain bearer, resulting in both your reality and non-reality being equally as painful as each other.
When I began setting up and developing drug services I was conscious to never try sell the false mantra “get clean and things will be better”. When a person becomes drug free they also become friend free, time free and sense of belonging free. What I mean by this is that drug addiction is a full-time job, with a structure on your day and a community of fellow drug users that you belong to.
Recovery for many can be a lonely place and the familiar pattern of score drugs, set up paraphernalia and use, can seem like the only reliable friend you ever had. For people who are on the outside looking in, the perception is often that there are two choices, either you take drugs or you decide not to take drugs. However, it isn’t always a choice and free will is questionable. Maybe free will is luxury? Or maybe we can only truly access free will when our basic human needs are met. Being socially responsible heavily relies on a foundation of safety, connectedness and a good standard of living.
Over the many years that I have worked and lived in communities that were destroyed by the heroin epidemic, I became aware that social class and addiction was killing us. I came to realise that not everyone was living like we were, not everyone was struggling to survive. It is often said that for each traumatic event that happens to a child they are up to four times more likely to grow up and experience addiction. When I think of this statistic, I think of the people I have worked with and how they often experienced trauma on a weekly basis. You do the math on the likelihood of them growing up and ending up in addiction.
If we can accept that the environment and early development has a role to play in addiction then the only logical step is to redirect expenditure away from prosecution and prison and invest in communities and young people. We must move towards addressing the cause rather than putting plasters on the effect. It seems obvious that we should aim to build communities that can flourish and succeed, where individuals don’t feel so disconnected and alone. Instead we spend millions on what fragmented societies produce instead of fixing what isn’t working. I believe that most people can agree on the following two premises but we all fail to implement a new conclusion.
- Problem drug is harmful.
- Prohibition has not worked.
While everyone waits on the political establishment to reach the conclusion we lose more lives and we put many more people’s freedom in jeopardy.
In the past fifteen years, I have worked with people between the ages of fourteen and eighty. My approach has been to take each person as they come. I recognise the story and life they each have lived and accept that recovery looks a little different for them all. In Johann Hari’s book, Chasing the Scream: it states that “addiction is an adaption. It’s not you – it’s the cage you live in”. I remember reading this and realising that there was no master key to set everyone free. There is no one shoe size fits all approach.
The current system of criminalisation, shaming and stigmatisation must be abandoned to create a system that is holistic, diverse and accepting. In all my years in this field I attempted to create the environment for people to move at their own pace, to find their course of harm reduction or recovery, a path that they were comfortable with. Over time it became clear to me that the workers and the services on the ground aren’t enough. We can develop programmes and facilitate individuals but without changing societies perceptions of a person in addiction how will they ever feel good enough, how will people ever feel like they belong if they open the newspaper and read a headline that calls them a Zombie? A Zombie is non-human and is absent of consciousness. Why would any person caught up in addiction want to integrate into a society that labels them Zombies and imprisons them for their addiction?
‘The Volunteers’ mural by Joe Caslin is about opening up those conversations. For me it is about challenging perceptions, addressing oppressive policy and raising awareness of a group of people that society excludes. I may now be political but for me this art piece, my Controlled Drugs and Harm Reduction Bill and my continued involvement with addiction services is not about politics. It’s about my friends, family and community that continue to deal with the impact of addiction and all that it brings.
Drug abuse is a symptom of society’s failings and its time we wake up and stop playing the blame and shame game of the individual.
You can read Rachel Keogh’s article here, another volunteer as part of Joe Caslin’s Trinity College Dublin installation THE VOLUNTEERS.
Check out Joe Caslin’s article on how THE VOLUNTEERS came about.
Help Information
- Ana Liffey Drug Project – Freephone 1800 78 68 28 – The Ana Liffey Drug Project is a national addiction service with a ‘Low Threshold – Harm Reduction’ ethos.
- drugs.ie – Drug and alcohol information and support
- CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign is a national network of community activists and community organisations that are involved in responding to Ireland’s drugs crisis.
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