Reply #36: Geez

[Prophet 451]

Here, your doctor will only ask you about illegal drugs if you either need help getting off them (we have a system of rehab courses run by the NHS) or they're interfering with your treatment. Even if you tell him, he's only allowed to tell law enforcement if you're either a danger to others (i.e. your drug problems have made you a violent crazy), with a court order or with your permission (for example, you want him to testify about your depression at your divorce hearing).

When I was in my teens, I smoked quite a bit of pot. My doctor must have known because I made no secret of it but apart from the standard lecture about the damage smoking would do to my health (here, pot is almost universally mixed with tobacco for smoking), simply didn't care. Hell, my employment counseller (person you see if you're unemployed for more than six months to help you get additional training, training on interviews or whatever) asked if I did any kind of drugs, outright said they took my occasional pot smoking for granted and was far more concerned with getting me help to get off my painkiller addiction (I've now been clean for seven years).

The NHS only asks questions when they actually affect your treatment. A quick Q-and-A session is part of the standard check-up (recommended but not required every six months) but it generally consists of whether you smoke, if you're drinking more than is healthy, if you're sexually active (gay or straight) and so on, all stuff that would or could directly affect your health.

BTW, I just worked it out and my student loan repayments come to about 4% of my annual income. It's on a sliding scale so if my income goes up, my repayments go up but no matter what, they can never go over 9%.