I'm livid...

by Cady 6 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Cady

  Walking one of the kids I work with to school this morning and there's a dirty syringe on the sidewalk. This is just two blocks from the middle school and tons of kids walk down that sidewalk on their way to school.

  I used to not think much about drug use - my attitude was, you want to screw up your life, go ahead. But now that I work with kids who've often been deprived of a good home b/c their parents are addicts...when I'm 100 feet from a shooting that is drug-related...and most of all when I see the dealers drive by in their rides and the kids ooh and awe over them and see that as some kind of shining example of where their lives could go...I'm becoming very disgusted and angry in general.

  I don't know what the answer is. Legalization would solve some of the problems, but unless you added sterilization for addicts you'd still be sending lots of kids to really horrible lives.
• 

  bebu

  http://www.leadonamerica.org/

  So were these ladies! Go to the resources page and look at some of their brochures for ideas.

  Knowing your neighbors, and working with the ones that feel as you do, you can put the anger to use for a very practical difference.

  BTW, this is a WA state group, too.

  bebu
• 

  sf

  Perhaps someone in your hood is a diabetic.

  Incidently, what did you do about the needle?

  This occured a couple years ago across the street from me. I saw a syringe in the street. I immediately called my trash company and they directed me to the citys hazardous waste dept. They came right out and removed it.

  If you did leave it there, as you are aware you should never touch them...they are contaminated, please call your city and they will come out and remove it.

  sKally
• 

  Virgogirl

  I found a needle in the alley by my trash cans once. Kids cut thru there on their way home from school. I had the cops out and they said there was residue of black tar heroin in it. It creeped me out. Who was in my alley with that? I thought it was a decent neighborhood!
• 

  Cady

  I'd just gotten a scone from Starbucks and it was in a paper bag, so took the paper bag and picked up the needle with it, then took it to the school and security disposed of it.

  I certainly didn't want to touch it, but there are a lot of kids who pass by that street and so I didn't see an alternative. I had to get the kid I worked with to school so I couldn't call the cops and wait for them to come get it; besides, there are a lot of serious problems in that neighborhood (shootings, etc. - police cars w/full sirens pass by 3-4 times an hour 24/7) so it could have been quite awhile before they came to deal with a needle.
• 

  Cygnus

  I've done quite a bit of work in the ghetto of Buffalo (4/5 the whole city really) and have had to sidestep a ton of syringes and needles. The other night I watched a short documentary on HBO about junkies who were boy/girlfriend, living on the streets of New York, and how they'd lie, cheat and steal just for the night's fix. I'd be scared to death of taking hardcore drugs and shooting up in a vein in my arm. Yuck.
• 

  Es

  My 3 year old son was playing out the back of our appartment blocks whilst i was hanging the washing out, he picked up a coke bottle inside it was a used syringe. Scared the F%$^ out of me, i have been telling him ever since not to pick up anything thats not ours. How scarry really.

  es