Shopping and heroin

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Shopping and heroin

Post by bio » Sun Aug 21, 2022 11:34 pm

Today i saw something ive never seen before: a man shooting up what i assume was heroin... on the sidewalk and in plain view.

We stopped at the Safeway (just a few blocks from Gonzaga University) to pick up a few items for my mother-in-law who lives in a retirement community near by. The man in question was sitting on the edge if the curb under the shade of a tree.

I know this is a major issue, and I've seen used needles here and there, but this is the first time I've seen it in action. My first thought was to notify the police, but I ended up doing nothing... going into the store, buying what I came for, and contuing on with my day. I guess that's how things become normalized in our minds.

Ugh.
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Re: Shopping and heroin

Post by miftah » Mon Aug 22, 2022 3:29 am

In this day and age, it was likely fentanyl. Far more prevalent (and deadly).

I've seen this exact thing in Columbus a couple years back, with only a few minor detail changes. There was a cop in the parking lot just behind the woman who was doing it. I wouldn't say it's normalized. I've used heroin and the audacity still seemed pretty shocking to me. We just have too many problems to fixate on and attempt to interfere in this one. And in my situation, it's not like the cop in the parking lot was going to be able to contribute anything useful to the woman who was doing it, nor for the society that produced her.
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Re: Shopping and heroin

Post by bio » Mon Aug 22, 2022 12:02 pm

miftah wrote: Mon Aug 22, 2022 3:29 am...it's not like the cop in the parking lot was going to be able to contribute anything useful to the woman who was doing it, nor for the society that produced her.
And that was kind of my thought at the time.

I'm pretty vanilla when it comes to illicit substances, as I've dabbled with very few and never developed a habit for any of them. I don't even drink to excess. It's not that I'm necessarily against all of them (I personally believe that there's a place for recreational use of some things), but some are particularly destructive (though, alcohol or tobacco are by no means non-destructive). I'm 100% for the decriminalization of marijuana and psilocybin (though I don't use the former and have never tried the latter).

As for the spread of the more destructive drugs, the so called "War on Drugs" only stops about 10% of the illicit drugs flowing into the country, has cost the government in excess of $1 trillion over the past 50 years, and we're currently seeing a rise in use. Perhaps that money could be better spent elsewhere: education, mental health care, real addiction treatment (not just revolving door facilities) and housing for those who need it to name a few.
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Re: Shopping and heroin

Post by miftah » Mon Aug 22, 2022 6:59 pm

Just give people better things to do with their lives. But when a better life is on the other side of a prohibitively high pay wall, a cheap albeit deadly drug is hard to beat. If a person can even afford the debasing experience of what passes for life on a minimum wage these days.
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Re: Shopping and heroin

Post by bio » Thu Sep 01, 2022 4:44 pm

miftah wrote: Mon Aug 22, 2022 6:59 pm If a person can even afford the debasing experience of what passes for life on a minimum wage these days.
That's always been debasing. Way back in the long, long ago (when I was first starting out), minimum wage was $1.75 an hour.
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