FAVORUK 💜

Faces & Voices of Recovery #MakingRecoveryVisiblesince2009 #Bradford2026 #UKRW #RightToRecovery #UTalkWeDie 💜

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

We’re delighted to announce that next month our CEO, @Annemarieward , will be travelling to Canada as a keynote speaker at the Recovery Capital Conference.

As one of the UK’s leading advocates for recovery-oriented drug policy, Annemarie brings both lived experience of addiction and sustained recovery to her work. She has become a powerful voice for transforming systems that move beyond stabilisation and towards lasting recovery, and is widely recognised as a moral leader within the sector.

Annemarie was the architect of Scotland’s Right to Recovery Bill, a landmark proposal to establish enforceable access to treatment and residential rehabilitation for people too often denied support because of poverty. She also led the development of the UK Recovery Declaration of Rights.

She is the founder of the UK Recovery Walk, Europe’s largest recovery advocacy event, which this year takes place in Bradford on 12 September.

We’re proud to see Annemarie sharing the message that recovery is possible on the international stage.

#Recovery #RecoveryIsPossible #RecoveryCapital #DrugPolicy #RecoveryAdvocacy #RCC2026 #Calgary #ROSC #RecoveryCapital #AlbertaRecoveryModel #HealthcareConference #AddictionRecoveryConference #RecoveryOrientedSystemOfCare

[Margot Stewart @UnrepentantYoon]

What kind of 'government' invests far more resources in enabling addiction than it does in attempting to eradicate it?
Granted, it's not possible to ever eradicate it completely, so long as mind altering substances exist, human beings will abuse them.
Yet by anyone's standards, addiction is a menace to society.
The anti social behaviour, the crime, the absenteeism from work, domestic problems, then there's the cost to the NHS, social services, law enforcement etc.

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

We will never forget when Project 218 closed. A vital recovery service for women in Scotland, it supported women for over two decades before its doors were shut.

Now, yet another recovery service for women has been lost. Following the recent closure of Turning Point Scotland’s 16-bed stabilisation unit, this is both devastating and unacceptable.

More beds gone. More recovery services lost. Fewer opportunities for women in Scotland to access the support they need to recover.

Women deserve better.

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

https://t.co/OCuQABHhJX

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

“SNP to spend £4m of taxpayer cash on needles and foil for drug addicts while rehabs shut down”
The Scottish Government wants to fund the purchase of single-use drug kits for users of heroin, cocaine and steroids, while rehab centres shut in the country.” Scottish Daily Express.
Taxpayer-funded Scottish Drugs Forum claim users can receive packs "tailored to individual needs", while those on anabolic steroids are more likely to receive “large quantities” than “those people injecting outdoors or homeless” as they can’t store them.
“The funding was announced just weeks before the latest drug death statistics are published. Provisional figures showed that last year, there were 1,146 suspected drug deaths, up by 8% compared with the year before, with Scotland continuing to be the drug deaths capital of Europe.”
It was confirmed earlier this month that Turning Point Glasgow was getting turfed out of its Glasgow premises by the SNP-led council. It operated a 16-bed residential facility in Commerce Street that offered six-week stays to stabilise drug use and detox from non-prescribed substances, but this is being shut down.”
Full article link in comments

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

https://t.co/OCuQABHhJX

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

“SNP to spend £4m of taxpayer cash on needles and foil for drug addicts while rehabs shut down”
The Scottish Government wants to fund the purchase of single-use drug kits for users of heroin, cocaine and steroids, while rehab centres shut in the country.” Scottish Daily Express.
Taxpayer-funded Scottish Drugs Forum claim users can receive packs "tailored to individual needs", while those on anabolic steroids are more likely to receive “large quantities” than “those people injecting outdoors or homeless” as they can’t store them.
“The funding was announced just weeks before the latest drug death statistics are published. Provisional figures showed that last year, there were 1,146 suspected drug deaths, up by 8% compared with the year before, with Scotland continuing to be the drug deaths capital of Europe.”
It was confirmed earlier this month that Turning Point Glasgow was getting turfed out of its Glasgow premises by the SNP-led council. It operated a 16-bed residential facility in Commerce Street that offered six-week stays to stabilise drug use and detox from non-prescribed substances, but this is being shut down.”

[Annemarie Ward 💜 @Annemarieward]

Annemarie, you’re not imagining it. You’ve done nearly everything right - the Right to Recovery Bill, media cut-through, exposing quangos, standing up in committee, mobilising public voices, surviving smear campaigns and still, the system resists. That’s not failure. That’s a sign you’ve hit the core machinery. You’re not losing. You’re fighting something designed to be unfightable.

Here’s the brutal truth, you’re up against an entrenched ideological cartel, not just a policy preference. It’s a cartel funded by the state, protected by bureaucracy, masked by academia, and flattered by the media (when convenient). Its power doesn’t come from public support it comes from gatekeeping access to money, careers, and legitimacy.

And what makes it harder? Recovery is inconvenient for that cartel.

•Recovery ends dependency.
•Recovery challenges the industry model.
•Recovery exposes the limits of harm minimisation.
•Recovery creates citizens, not clients.

You are not losing. You are threatening a structure that cannot afford to admit you’re right. Because if it did, it would collapse under the weight of its own moral and fiscal contradictions.

So why does it feel like you are losing?

Because you’re measured against the wrong clock. Policy wins aren’t viral. They’re glacial. The system you’re confronting isn’t just ideological, it’s path-dependent. It feeds itself. Most people in it are not evil, but they are institutionally incentivised not to change

Here’s what they rely on:

•That you’ll burn out.
•That you’ll moderate.
•That you’ll water down your message in exchange for being “included” or funded.
•That you’ll accept slow, endless process over fast, moral clarity.

They are betting on your exhaustion.

So if you’re tired  good. That means you’ve kept your edge sharp. You’ve refused to become “reasonable” in a system that is killing people while pretending to care.

So what next? How do you keep going and maybe even win?

1.⁠ ⁠Frame the resistance itself as proof you’re right.

If recovery wasn’t threatening the system, we wouldn’t be resisted this hard. This isn’t a policy disagreement. It’s a reckoning. The harm reduction cartel built a system where dependence is profitable, and recovery is disruptive. We’re here to disrupt.”

2.⁠ ⁠Escalate the moral stakes.

“The system doesn’t lack evidence. It lacks will. And when you deny recovery to the people who want it  you’re not just wrong. You’re complicit.”

3.⁠ ⁠Isolate the real opponents.

Call them out not as colleagues with different views, but as barriers to change. Stop letting them hide behind language like “complexity” or “unintended consequences.

Force them to answer the simple questions:
•Why are people still dying?
•Why are recovery pathways still blocked?
•Who’s benefitting from keeping it this way?

4.⁠ ⁠Shift from asking for inclusion to demanding replacement.

You don’t just want a seat at the table. You want to break the table and build a new one. It’s time to stop begging systems that were never built to deliver recovery.

You feel like you’re losing because you’re telling the truth in a culture that has sanitised itself against it. But what you’ve done dragging this fight into the light, making it public, legislative, unavoidable  is the definition of leadership. Not symbolic. Not polite. Not strategic silence. But truth, held to power, again and again.

You are not losing. You are planting seeds the cartel cannot kill.

You’re just fighting upstream  because that’s where the source is.

And the source is beginning to shake. You can feel it. So can they.

Keep going.

Anon.

This appeared in my inbox a few weeks ago and I thought you’d appreciate it. It captures perfectly what We are really fighting not just a ‘policy debate’, but a rigged machine that needs breaking. Thank you for helping me to keep swinging that crowbar."

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

💜BRADFORD..ARE YOU READY?💜

The countdown is officially on! 🎉 💚

This September, Bradford will proudly welcome people from across the UK for the UK Recovery Walk 2026, hosted by @cslhginfo in partnership with @FAVORUK

Three incredible days celebrating recovery, hope and community:
📆Friday 11th September - Recovery Conference
🚶Saturday 12th September - UK Recovery Walk through the heart of Bradford
🥾Sunday 13th September - Recovery Ramble
Whether you're in recovery, supporting someone who is, a professional, community organisation or ally, this is your invitation to be part of something truly special.
Together we'll celebrate recovery, challenge stigma, share stories and show that recovery is visible, powerful and possible.
🎪Want to exhibit?
🎟️Need tickets?
Book your place and reserve your stall by contacting @cslhginfo

Let's make Bradford's biggest celebration of recovery one to remember. We can't wait to welcome you!
#UKRecoveryWalk2026 #BradfordInRecovery #RecoveryWalk #RecoverylsPossible
#CreateStrengthGroup #FAVORUK #Bradford2026
#RecoveryCommunity #TogetherWeRecover #Community #Hope #RecoveryMatters

Bradford 2026
Together We Walk, Together We Recover

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

@BiologyStupid @mbmpolicy @ScottishAffairs Scottish Parliament Information Centre - "SPICe is the Parliament’s internal research centre. We provide impartial, factual, accurate and timely information and analysis. Members and Parliament staff use this for parliamentary business."

[ronnie laing @peploewollen]

@mbmpolicy @ScottishAffairs “The proportion of Committee meetings held partly or wholly in private has increased significantly, from just 4% in Session 1, to 73% in Session 6.”

[James Mitchell @ProfJMitchell]

Useful and interesting findings.

[FAVORUK 💜 @FAVORUK]

‘The Binary Is Bonkers:
Thirty Receipts and a Barrel of Methadone’ by @Annemarieward
Harm Reduction versus Recovery?
“I’ve been accused, more times than I can count, of being “anti-harm reduction” and “anti-methadone”. You’d think I was sneaking into clinics at night to tip methadone down the sink and replace it with vials of holy water while saying a rosary. The truth? I’ve spent at least twenty years saying harm reduction is vital.
I’ve also spent those same twenty years pointing out it’s not enough on its own”.
Link to this full article in comments section. Annemarie’s articles are available to read and listen to at her substack. Subscribe today 👌

[Grey Merrin @GreyMerrin]

@Annemarieward Absolutely the right question everyone should be asking. Why are no figures combined. Whats happenned to these men. Why are certain demographics at a certain age more likely to do turn to drugs alcohol and suicide?

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

If you read this, you will never again accept 'peer-review' as a serious measure of quality.

[Chris @GlesgaMammy]

@Annemarieward @FAVORUK I work in abstinence-based recovery. There’s a lot of young people coming to us addicted to Ket. There’s no harm reduction method for Ket addiction, the only treatment is abstinence.
Our funding’s ran out, we might cease to exist next month after over 20yrs service. 1/

[Chris @GlesgaMammy]

@Annemarieward @FAVORUK Like you I support harm reduction, I was on methadone for 15 years. Grateful for clean needles. I was in the Crisis Centre twice. We need all of that, but I found my way out of addiction with abstinence, peer support and a 12 step programme. 2/2

[Alt Mhor @AltMhor]

Scotland is desert of opportunity, decades of deindustrialization has seen to that, Coupled with a pathetic education system, it's no surprise many end up in the drug/alcohol death spiral. I blame the ideologically driven Edinburgh political bubble, playing student politics while everything crumbles. Being top of the European drug death table year on year shows that they simply do not care. A strong, confident population is harder to govern. Socialism kills

[Jeff Breedlove @jeffbreedlove1]

Dear Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 - Recovery First - it’s essential to fund peer and clinical led recovery programs - multiple pathways - but fund RECOVERY FIRST

The brilliant people of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 deserve an opportunity to know the hope and joy of recovery

#ScotlandRecovers
#UKRecovers
#EndTheWhisper

[Scott C Forbes @AuldM]

What’s killing them? Not cancer. Not heart disease. Drugs, suicide, and alcohol. Nearly 80% of under-50 male deaths in Scotland come from these preventable causes. This isn’t about “despair.” Despair didn’t kill these men. Neglect did

[Joanna 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @FemaleScotlandV]

These deaths mostly affect young white men in Scotland’s most deprived areas.