Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society

Scotland in the Global: HIV through Injecting Drugs and Beyond

A Mini Workshop Series held in April 2021

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Thanks to all who joined in, asked great questions and made connections between all the different papers. Thanks also to our five presenters, who did a wonderful job connecting their research and experiences to our Beyond Global theme. Please see workshop recordings below if you couldn’t make it.

Session 1 

Dr Ray Brettle was instrumental in establishing the need in Edinburgh, Scotland for HIV services for injecting drug users, while Dr Alex Mold (LSHTM) is public health historian and expert on anti-drug education campaigns in England and Scotland. 

A recording is available here

Memorable messages

Ray: Change happens when society is very frightened. It’s a series of individuals who took up the challenge as it came along and said, this is something interesting, I’m going to go with it. And then there were people who didn’t.

Alex: Should it be about scaring people into behaving or encouraging people to make positive health choices?

Session 2 

Professor Jim Mills (UStrathclyde) is a historian of global drug policy and responses, while Dr Hannah Elizabeth (LSHTM/UEdinburgh) is a historian researching HIV and care in Edinburgh from the 1980s to 1990s.

A recording is available here

Memorable messages

Jim: There is no evidence that these substances were used for anything other than pain or therapy in Scotland before the 19th century.

Hannah: Adult reticence [to communicate HIV status to children] was not just due to stigma and managing information but also anxiety about saying the wrong thing.

Session 3 

Kirsten Horsburgh from the Scottish Drugs Forum spoke about the national naloxone programme.

A recording is available here

Memorable messages

Kirsten: Language affects how people see themselves and the care they receive.

Selected Works of Presenters

Dr Ray Brettle

Brettle RP, Davidson J, Davidson SJ, Gray JMN, et. al., ‘HTLV-III antibodies in an Edinburgh clinic’, Lancet I (1986), 1099.

Brettle RP, ‘HIV and harm reduction for injection drug users’, AIDS, 5(1991), 125-36.

Dr Alex Mold

Mold, Alex, Making the Patient-Consumer: Patient Organisations and Health Consumerism in Britain (Manchester University Press, 2015).

Mold, Alex, Heroin: The Treatment of Addiction in Twentieth-Century Britain (Northern Illinois University Press, 2008).

Professor Jim Mills:

Mills, Jim, Cannabis Nation: Control and Consumption in Britain, c. 1928-2008 (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Mills, Jim, Madness, Cannabis and Colonialism: the ‘native only’ lunatic asylums of British India, 1857 to 1900 (Palgrave Basingstoke, 2000).

Dr Hannah Elizabeth:

Elizabeth, Hannah J., ‘Thinking AIDS, Teaching AIDS and Playing Games’, Viewpoint, 105 (2014), 8-9. http://www.bshs.org.uk/viewpoint-105

Elizabeth, Hannah J., ‘Getting around the rules of sex education’, Wellcome Collection (2018). https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/WxZnZyQAAPoF1PS8

Kirsten Horsburgh:

‘Kirsten Horsburgh (Scottish Drugs Forum): National naloxone policy in Scotland’, Society for the Study of Addiction (2019). https://www.addiction-ssa.org/knowledge-hub/kirsten-horsburgh-scottish-drugs-forum-national-naloxone-policy-in-scotland/

Host of Drugs Uncut Podcast: https://drugsuncut.podbean.com/