I've been asked on so many occasions now where people could get copies of Ian Smith's old magazine Monkey from, I've decided to make the links available directly from this website*. Monkey was produced from a drug service in Greater Manchester by Ian Smith with a team of service users and colleagues. Some editions are a polemical tour de force and others simply polemical, but its never boring. It was aimed at delivering treatment and harm reduction advice alongside user self organisation and opening up a world of policy - locally and nationally - to street drug users.

When Monkey first came out people either loved it or hated it. Mainly drug users loved it and DATs hated it. You can see why. Some people felt it was too focussed on harm reduction, others that it stirred up too much unrest among the in treatment population. Although some of the pieces are now out of date, many are still relevant and interesting - particularly for an anorak like me - because they show us how far we've come over the past few years. Sadly some of this 'movement' seems just a slight sideways shift in position out of the shade and into the warm sunshine of government funding. Then as someone far wiser that I once said, all that stands between ourselves and and endless repetition of the same mistakes, is a study of our own history. Monkey sometimes appeared to have a psychic eye - and with articles on a rocketing prison population as the war on drug users gathers force, massive profits for drug testing companies and benefits cut backs for those not in treatment, you could sometimes be forgiven for thinking it was hot off the press.

There have however been undeniable advances. Except in Scotland and Northern Ireland where I understand the shame that is treatment rationing still prevails, the days of long waiting lists and poor access to treatment that so taxed Ian and his colleagues seem to be passed. whether we've made quite as much progress in getting away from punitive discriminatory treatment service practices and an over reliance on the criminal justice system is for you to judge for yourself. Follow this link .... Monkey Business