Amy Winehouse

• WHILE welcoming your July 22 coverage of addiction and its impact on the life of Amy Winehouse, I have a nagging feeling that the sympathy won’t extend to those currently drug or alcohol dependent that most people walk over in Camden.

In 2010 I was one of the researchers looking at stigma against current and recovered drug users, and their families, for the UK Drug Policy Commission. The findings were that stigma follows drug users and their families even in recovery.

Where Amy’s family get the support of the country those that we see on the streets of Camden are stigmatised by language and attitudes. Even those who are in drug treatment, which is being defunded around the country, are deemed as somehow other; as junkies, scum.

I’ve even sat having a coffee locally with a person who pointed out that a person walking past was on methadone and they would be better off dead. I have not seen a change in attitudes in the past 10 years.

And we need to look seriously at our behaviours towards those who have addiction and dependency problems at all levels of society not just those who manage to make a mark on our culture.

PETER SIMONSON
Herbert Street, NW5