Good morning, again, Pumpster! 8-) Since my time is short this morning, I'm simply going to take a snippet out of what you've said, and comment further, as you've made some very good points:
Conster wrote: > Ordinary criminals. An ordinary person wouldn't want to make or use > Meth. It's a killer to take, it would cost someone hundreds of > thousands of dollars in the long run, unless we are lucky and they > drop dead of an over dose, because the medical bills for their > crystallized lung tissue, their short term memory loss, their crank > bugs, their mental illnesses that can't be controlled by modern day > mental illness drugs and counseling, because it's not a brain that's > gone array due to a natural chemical mishap, but from a self inflicted > one. That is impeccably correct! I cannot help but wonder how many people reading this exchange have ever encountered a hard-core methamphetamine addict one-on-one? They have violent hallucinations, often not based in reality in the slightest. If they use hypodermic needles, there is a strong possibility for AIDS and HIV infections. In advanced cases, they no longer can control their violent paranoia, and often can kill or injure those around them simply because of their paranoid mental state. They are a profound, compelling danger to themselves, and anyone who comes into contact with them. If there is a criminal faction that *truly* does not know the difference between right and wrong in the commission of a crime, it has to be the meth addict. It is unquestionably one of the most virulent, dangerous and highly-addictive drugs crawling through the streets these days, and nobody has an answer, other than locking addicts in cages. > And what of those little crank babies??? Should we make it illegal for > pregnant women to be able to use this drug or a vast majority of other > drugs that leave babies suffering through withdrawal, very prone to > severe learning disabilities. You think the schools suck now. I acted on impulse recently and did something that has deeply affected me at a highly emotional level. Simply because I felt the urge, I went to Sacred Heart Hospital's pediatric ward and spent part of an afternoon rocking homeless babies. YUP, you heard me right. The day I visited, there were six babies on the ward who are wards of the state, one of whom absolutely broke my heart. She is a month old, has an addiction to crack cocaine from her mother, and has already been tested positive for HIV and AIDS. The longer I held this gorgeous little girl, the harder it was to be impassive, unmoving and stoic. Nothing can describe how, over a period of time, she and I bonded, and were it up to me, were it financially even possible, I would have filled out the forms to adopt her on the spot and thus begun what I consider to be an EVIL process of bureaucracy. The urges to claim this precious little gift of life for my own, to wade through months and months of paperwork, no doubt a considerable amount of investigation by the Department of Social and Health Services (one never knows when I *might* be a sexual predator), not to mention a considerable financial investment, I knew our time together was just an afternoon affair. That didn't stop me from walking out very heavy-hearted, and very angry at a bureaucratic system that only adds to the human misery by making adoption even worse than homeless babies. > I just don't understand this vein of thinking. All I can assume that > very few people here have dealt with the type of people we are > speaking of. I'm not talking of the old pot-smoking hippies getting > down on some Led Zeppelin, I'm talking about people who are so bent on > getting more and more of their drugs (I'm talking cocaine and Meth at > this point.. ie crack and crank) there comes a point there isn't > enough to fill their needs, I don't care how cheap it is, because > these people can't hold a job and be a viable contribution to the > community chest. Then of course there is heroin, another lovely drug > that people take from the time they are young, because after all, I > would assume we would want an age time line on drugs and alcohol, but > at this point I suppose I can't assume anything. Have any of you had a > family member hurt by someone who used these drugs. Has anyone lost > someone they know due to these drugs? What do we do? Anarchy? Blow > away the annoying asses who come to steal us blind, if we can still > see, because of all the crack and crank smoke in the air, not to > mention the syringes and needles laying all over the place.. And AIDS > would no longer be as big of a sexual disease as it would be a drug > induced disease, because sooner or later, smoking and snorting just > isn't enough and there will come a time when any user of these drugs, > who are using long term will stick a needle in their vein for that > very first time and never go back. Dead right on, Connie! > ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGH...... Unless we are talking about > someone who had a MASSIVE AMOUNT of drugs when busted, these bozo's > never make it past the local community jail. Prison would be a cake > walk. If we took a poll of Walla Walla for instance, the general > population that were in there for drug related crimes would be very > high, because most murderers, rapists and robbers use drugs. However, > those in there for direct drug convictions would be very low. According to a kid I know from West Second Avenue, a friend of his recently did 92 days in Spokane County Jail, and returned to his habit one day after his release. He contemptuously calls the Spokane County Jail the "detox center for the perennially poor" because most of his addicted friends have kicked meth at one time or the other in the County Jail. One other friend is in Walla Walla for sales of meth. > "look neglected." Or would we eradicate CPS as well. Please do, at your earliest convenience. [REGARDING COPS] Suzie recently got a ticket for a seat belt violation. She *always* wears her seat belt, and was the day she was pulled over. In her own words, she was adjusting the should strap when a traffic cop pulled her over, and accused her of lying, despite the fact she did have her seat belt on. Oh, and he called ME a liar, too. The cost to us? $173.00, because neither of us have the time to contest his written ticket. That is utter bullshit, because the same week, a gang of kids went down Morton Street smashing car windows. When we called the police to let them know that this gang was marching up the street, popping glass and stealing what they could, we were informed they didn't have enough manpower to come investigate. I jumped in my van and gave chase, but they scattered like the human cockroaches they are, and what the heck, I couldn't *shoot* them, and at age 59, I'm certainly not going to catch any of the fleet-footed little twerps. I guess all the cops were out writing seat belt tickets, and thus didn't have time to drop by and help with the foot race. It did make the evening news though; over $20,000 worth of car vandalism in one night. Nuf said, welcome to life in Spokane. Dave -- Dave Laird ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) The Used Kharma Lot Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 11/24/2004 Usenet news server : news://news.kharma.net Fortune Random Thought For the Minute Each kiss is as the first. -- Miramanee, Kirk's wife, "The Paradise Syndrome", stardate 4842.6 _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
