The needle and the damage done

Good grief, I feel like a rant about stuff today. It’s just one of those days. Despite some cracking good news about my agency developing a new service with a shed-load of new money (result!) and completing on a deal (another result!) I am in a slough of despond and minor blues.

Why should this be? We do good deeds in a naughty world, or at least we help those individual drug users whose lives are messed up, to find a way through some of their problems. We occasionally manage to influence policy in a good way so that our drug laws don’t descend in to complete madness. But it’s just not working for me today.

I think that sometimes, when you work in this field, one which, let’s be candid here, does involve unpleasantness, sometimes disease and even death coupled with some very stupid local and national politicking – well it can just get you down. It’s grind, grind, grind, occasional joyful success, grind, grind, grind…….. Same as everybody else I suppose.

Good things about working in the drugs field:

Watching some people get back on track.
Getting some new services up and running to do more of the same.
Working with terrific people.
Excellent comedy value.
Like the client group.
Ok, I have some, limited power.

Bad things:

Too much needless death and despair.
Too many idiots sounding off about drugs and drug users when they know so little and understand less.
Trying to balance the need to have a work ethos that’s fun and creative for staff whilst dealing with faceless government departments and overly cautious management.
Avoiding talking about my job outside work because like with supermarkets – everyone’s got a view.
Getting pathetically maudlin and self-pitying as a result.

So next up on this blog – an effort to lighten up.