The general decline in standards today

[LizzieMaine]

Oxycontin/oxycocet is the big prescription drug thing here -- that's what most of the car robberies seem to be looking for, but the real epidemic here is "bath salts," which makes the user violent and delusional. This whole part of town is riddled with it -- there's an apartment building down the street they call "The Salt Flats" because that's where all the addicts seem to congregate. Meth cooking was going on a couple houses up from me last year, but they closed that operation down, but there's still a lot of it up in the woods. There's even been an occasional bit of crack, for that extra bit of excitement.

Keep in mind this is a town of less than 8000 people. Per capita there's way, way too much drug activity going on.

I got a new mop, and put a rat trap in the glove compartment of my car. Let's see how the little degenerates like that one.

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

LizzieMaine, how long has your neighborhood been dealing with this drug problem? I ask because I live in an inner city so we have been dealing with this since the 80s, the time when drugs infiltrated inner cities across America and turned them into war zones. That's a sore spot for me because of "who" I feel is responsible for doing that, but I am just curious as to how long this has been going on in your neck of the woods.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It started here in the early 90s, when the fishing and fish processing industries were killed off due to a combination of overfishing and globalization: suddenly you had an army of fishermen who were deep in debt on their boats with no way to pay it off. A quick trip down to New Bedford to pick up a load of recreational substances could bail one out in a hurry -- and that's when you started to see the heavy drugs hit. It's been one thing after another ever since -- it started out with heroin, and moved thru that to the mess we have now.

Not to say there weren't drugs before that -- there were glue-sniffers and potheads when I was in school in the '70s, although pot was nowhere near as common then as it is now, and when the yuppies moved up here in the '80s they brought powder cocaine with them. But the rough street drugs we have now have only shown up in the last twenty years or so.

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

Yes, the scourge couldn't stay contained in inner cities for too long before it spilled over into quiet suburbia. I have always felt that once suburban areas begin to suffer the same effects that inner cities have since the 80s, then real solutions will be put into play in dealing with the drug problem. This is one subject that makes me very angry to say the least.

 

[Pompidou]

The town my cafe's in also has a ridiculous drug problem - heroine, meth and crack, mostly. We're in the process of moving because the block we started on happened to be one of the worst, and all the nearby police activity, in our own parking lot, even, was bad for business.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yes, the scourge couldn't stay contained in inner cities for too long before it spilled over into quiet suburbia. I have always felt that once suburban areas begin to suffer the same effects that inner cities have since the 80s, then real solutions will be put into play in dealing with the drug problem. This is one subject that makes me very angry to say the least.

The biggest obstacle here is that so many people are in denial about it -- they're fully invested in selling this Kodachrome postcard picture of the area and the fact that such things are going on right under their noses is something they just don't want to talk about, let alone to face. "Drugs? We came here to get away from things like that!" they'll say, as if that's enough to make the whole problem disappear. Well, guess what.

Of course, these are the same people who are glad to see all those smelly old fish factories gone because now they can enjoy their view from the rear deck without having their nostrils offended. Never mind that an entire generation of working people was left with no way to earn an honest living.

I don't know what the solution is. I don't know why people think drugs are "fun," and I don't know how to make them stop thinking that. But something's got to be done somehow, because it's just going to get worse.

 

[jamespowers]

Ok, now this takes the cake. My car was broken into again the other night -- punk kids looking for drugs, happens once or twice a year, and I'm used to it. Fact of life living in the 21st Century, ha ha ha, isn't small town life delightful and quaint. But this morning I discovered my mop has been stolen as well. My mop -- a plain old kitchen string mop -- which I usually keep out on the back doorstep. I don't know what perverted use they intend to put it to, but I hope they catch a disease. Bah.

Your car wasn't equipped with the right anti-theft device:
[video=youtube_share;fDrzMGdYWZc]http://youtu.be/fDrzMGdYWZc[/video]

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Heroine's a big issue around here. I believe I read somewhere that besides Madison and Milwaukee, Portage (the nearest bigger town (about 9,000 people) and where I work, and spend most of my time outside of the house) is the biggest heroin city in the state. I find it troubling that it's such an issue here, and it really makes me with I would have taken a job in law-enforcement. My cousin Jerry overdosed on Heroin, when he was 19. Anybody with that stuff needs to be in rehab, and anybody dealing it needs to be locked up for a good, long time.

 

[jamespowers]

Heroine's a big issue around here. I believe I read somewhere that besides Madison and Milwaukee, Portage (the nearest bigger town (about 9,000 people) and where I work, and spend most of my time outside of the house) is the biggest heroin city in the state. I find it troubling that it's such an issue here, and it really makes me with I would have taken a job in law-enforcement. My cousin Jerry overdosed on Heroin, when he was 19. Anybody with that stuff needs to be in rehab, and anybody dealing it needs to be locked up for a good, long time.

Locked up might be too easy on them.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

All I have to say is that I favor the approach to the drug problem as taken by countries such as Malaysia and Singapore where drug-related crime is punishable by death.

 

[jamespowers]

All I have to say is that I favor the approach to the drug problem as taken by countries such as Malaysia and Singapore where drug-related crime is punishable by death.

That would certainly make them think twice.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Ok, now this takes the cake. My car was broken into again the other night -- punk kids looking for drugs, happens once or twice a year, and I'm used to it. Fact of life living in the 21st Century, ha ha ha, isn't small town life delightful and quaint. But this morning I discovered my mop has been stolen as well. My mop -- a plain old kitchen string mop -- which I usually keep out on the back doorstep. I don't know what perverted use they intend to put it to, but I hope they catch a disease. Bah.

I am sorry to hear about your theft. It's odd what they will steal, we had a break in years ago where I used to work. We had only just bought a day or two before a video tape player & TV for training reasons. When I arrived at the office in the morning, the door was smashed in, TV & Video gone, all our drawers has been ransacked and oddly a very old and almost useless electric floor cleaner/hoover had been taken too. They would not have got much money for any of these items. My boss was all for bringing back the pillory or stocks. Maybe he had a point there.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

Our gun club was robbed a couple of years ago. They stole a priceless (to us) / worthless (to them) 1980's era timing controller for the turning targets. They broke open the old refrigerator. We didn't know the combination to the lock, so it just hung there anyway. They also started to steal a couple of compressors, but they were too heavy to steal in the snow. Building a new target turning system cost us a few hundred dollars and about 3 weeks of BS.

Best thing to do with addicts is to lock them up until they're finished with withdrawl. I did it with 4way nose spray when I was about 12. The ex has been on it for 40 years but she can quit at any time...

Gotta love it.

 

[Fletch]

Ok, now this takes the cake. My car was broken into again the other night -- punk kids looking for drugs, happens once or twice a year, and I'm used to it.

How junked up do you have to be to look at a 1941 Dodge and think, "I bet there's drugs in that car"?

MoPAR. NOT eVeN ONCe.

 

[Atticus Finch]

All I have to say is that I favor the approach to the drug problem as taken by countries such as Malaysia and Singapore where drug-related crime is punishable by death.

If such ever comes to pass in te United States, there will instantly be a severe shortage of potassium chloride. Easily, seventy-five percent of all crime is drug related...and I'm not even counting those crimes that are EOH related.

AF

 

[jamespowers]

If such ever comes to pass in te United States, there will instantly be a severe shortage of potassium chloride. Easily, seventy-five percent of all crime is drug related...and I'm not even counting those crimes that are EOH related.

AF

We could reduce crime by 75% fairly easily then.

 

[sheeplady]

Oxycontin/oxycocet is the big prescription drug thing here -- that's what most of the car robberies seem to be looking for, but the real epidemic here is "bath salts," which makes the user violent and delusional. This whole part of town is riddled with it -- there's an apartment building down the street they call "The Salt Flats" because that's where all the addicts seem to congregate. Meth cooking was going on a couple houses up from me last year, but they closed that operation down, but there's still a lot of it up in the woods. There's even been an occasional bit of crack, for that extra bit of excitement.

When I was recently hospitalized, I was given oxy-codiene (which I believe is the same as the rest of the oxys) for pain. They wanted me to take 10mg (two pills) along with Tylenol and Motrin. I only took one pill at a dose, but after a few days I was starting to feel achy and requested to try the second pill to see if it would help on the advice of a nurse. Thankfully I took it at night.

I always wondered why people took pain killers as recreational drugs. I was so doped up on that second pill I was glad I was sent home without a script for it. I could barely get out of bed. I swear I was still feeling it 24 hours later. I don't know how people can take these things- it was five times worse than being drunk, hungover, and having pulled 3 all-nighters at the same time.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Indeed. I was on morphine for two days when I was in the hospital, and I have no memory of any sensations at all. It was a nice nap, but that was about it. They gave me some oxycocet to take home, but even in my worst throes of a migraine I haven't dared to use it.

I still have the empty bottle though. Maybe I'll put some water pills in it and stick it out in the glove compartment for my little night visitors.

 

[jamespowers]

Indeed. I was on morphine for two days when I was in the hospital, and I have no memory of any sensations at all. It was a nice nap, but that was about it. They gave me some oxycocet to take home, but even in my worst throes of a migraine I haven't dared to use it.

I still have the empty bottle though. Maybe I'll put some water pills in it and stick it out in the glove compartment for my little night visitors.

I would put strychnine in there instead. You get rid of two problems at once.

 

[Cochese]

I would put strychnine in there instead. You get rid of two problems at once.

There was salt on my glass, huge grains of salt.