My mother grew up in inner-city Toxteth, Liverpool. Unlike her parents who were subservient and 'knew their place' - her mother was 'in service' from the age of 14yrs old when she became a servant to two well to do sisters, while her father was a local church caretaker who was badly affected by fighting in World War Two, by sharp contrast my rebellious mother was free thinking, fiercely independent and, probably as a result of her upbring, very anti-establishment. My father, was a deeply committed Trade Unionist who emigrated to Liverpool from Ireland when he was 20yrs old. My father was kind and compassionate, a strong minded influential and gifted man of many talents, he was deeply committed to socialism and fought hard for workers rights and a better world for all. I was born and brought up in a close-knit but poor working class area of Liverpool - Anfield/Everton, the second eldest of five children Sadly, my father died of a heart attack aged 46, when I was twelve years old. The tragic loss of my father, placed our family at risk physically, financially and psychologically, this adversity provided a painful ‘lived experience’ that's provided insight into the struggles and harshness of poverty, class discrimination and social exclusion, that has forever shaped my approach in life.
Disenchanted and disengaged with the rigidity and conformity of ‘education’ at the local comprehensive school, that seemed more of a silo to contain and brutally control its 1,200 male only pupils, I gave up my aspirations of attending university to study Art, and left aged 16 with few qualifications. However, I retained my strong interest in social welfare, justice and equality and secured employment at Liverpool Social Services in 1974 with an ambition to ultimately become a social worker.
Employment provided an excellent foundation for negotiating my difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood, while the local government funded day-release study (ONC & Cert PA) helped me to realise the benefits of lifelong adult education. After moving through the ranks of a number of administrative and managerial posts in Social Services, I left management to pursue career in social work when I joined the Merseyside Probation Service and later qualified as a social worker/probation officer at Liverpool University in 1983.
In the mid 1980s I worked at the ‘coalface’ as a drugs worker at a time when the country was overwhelmed by the ‘heroin epidemic‘. I was instrumental in conceptualizing and promoting an alternative ‘risk reduction’ approach (Buchanan & Wyke 1987) challenging the dominant abstinence approach. Our risk reduction philosophy was adopted by the Merseyside Probation Service in a new drug policy document. As a founder member of one of the largest multi-agency community drugs teams in the UK (the South Sefton Drugs Team) – along with community psychiatric nurses, social services counsellors, a psychiatrist, administrator and two other probation staff our coordinated approach offered a full range of harm reduction services: free needle exchanges, free condoms, methadone and heroin maintenance prescribing, injectable prescribing, prison relapse prevention, access to detox beds, acupuncture, residential rehabs and counselling.
I left the Probation Service to carry out research and publishing as Lecturer in Probation Studies at Liverpool University, then Senior Lecturer in Social Work at University of Central Lancashire (England) and then Glyndwr University (Wales) where I set up the Social Inclusion Research Unit and was appointed Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology. In 2011 pursuing a lifestyle change we moved to Aotearoa New Zealand where I was Programme Director of Criminology at the Institute of Criminology Victoria University of Wellington.
Throughout my career I have always maintained a strong interest in the interplay between: inequality; crime; problematic drug use; and drug policy/practice. I’ve published widely and addressed numerous international conferences on these issues, acted as expert assessor for international journals and worked as a Consultant and Independent Expert for the UNODC.
I retired in January 2016 but my passion, interest and activism in social justice and human rights continues.
Julian Buchanan, CPA, DipSW, MA, PhD, FHEA.
