"Genuine staff but unhappy with prescription rules"

I had been a drug user for many years before I turned to S2S for help.  Despite using heroin for over 20 years I had always managed to avoid becoming physical addicted. But eventually the inevitable happened and I found myself needing to use in order to function normally.

I had been told by other addicts that the service made you jump through hoops but decided that it was the only help on offer and that I needed help.  I therefore went in and ended up on a prescription for 8mg of Espranor to be taken in front of the chemist (supervised) every day.

First of all I would like to say that the organisation is full of genuinely good people, many of whom are ex-users themselves; whether it be drink or drugs.  Those that are not ex-users are also working there for all the right reasons and therefore show empathy and are not judgemental.

However, as an organisation I feel they are far too rigid in their application of "the rules".

Despite a shaky start to my dealings with S2S I managed to give enough clean tests to be moved from a daily supervised script to a twice weekly pick up script.  This highlights the strength of the organisation. Despite giving "dirty" tests I was always made to feel "unjudged" and before long the tests turned from dirty to clean.

There then followed a mix up at the chemist which was absolutely no fault of mine, despite going where I was told to go for two consecutive days I couldn't pick up my prescription as there was a mix up, I then had to use in order to go to work.

To cut a long story short S2S rules kicked in and I was put "off script", this was last week.  I have had to use every day and have now been told I am going to go back to a daily supervised script.

Since I started my recovery I have felt that I would end up clean because of S2S. Now I am not so sure.  I wouldn't go so far as to say that I will be clean in spite of them as without them there would be no help at all.  However, I do think a bit of flexibility along with a bit of common sense would have made a world of difference.

Hopefully my will to be clean with outweigh my will to dis-engage with the service.

I am determined that my will to quit will overcome this but I feel this highlights some weakness of the organisation.