Is there a hard drug problem where you live?

[dennilfloss]

Not talking about a people who smoke the occasional weed here.

Here are articles and videos about the crack problem in my neighbourhood. Top pic links to an article also.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/drugs/index.html

I live in a community housing building, less than one city block from a Shepherds of Good Hope mission and two blocks from the Salvation Army. I see the panhandlers, the arguments, the yelling & fighting at night... Wasn't like this a few years ago. The crack dealers have now hooked people who used to spend their money on booze and the break & enter crime rate has skyrocketed in the neighbourhood.

10,000 addicts in a metropolitan area of 1.3 million people. And the country's capital too. Shameful.

 

[Zebo]

Yeah we got crank manufers where if you stray into thier neck of woods you might just disappear. Huge problem with deadbeat white kids around here.

 

[ScottSwing]

Why is crack worse than weed?

 

[AreaCode707]

Marijuana may not be a hard drug but it has created a hard situation for my home area.

Mendocino is a largescale producer of marijuana but it's destroying the county. Where once people lived in a relatively rural area and grew weed for their own personal use and maybe a little profit on the side it is now a major commercial operation run primarily by Mexico-based gangs, staffed by illegals (frequently under duress because they were misled about their job prospects by smugglers or because the gangs hold their families hostage back home.)

Ten years ago you could go hiking in the hills on public land and only worry about cougars and poison oak. Now you are very likely to be shot at by wandering into a commercial grow. Two years ago there were major wildfires burning tens of thousands of acres and even the firefighters in the midst of fighting a blaze were being shot at by growers!

Water is a huge problem in the county and there have been four years of drought. People were put on forced water conservation, water prices were hiked up, vineyard owners growing the primary legal income source for the county got totally jacked by the water conservation measures, and yet the growers suck the streams and rivers dry without paying and without restriction. They wreak havoc environmentally by draining salmanoid streams. They also pollute horribly, dumping illegal chemicals haphazardly into water sources.

The high school is pervaded by drug trafficking, where it pretty much goes on in the open right outside after school and there's little that can be done to stop it. Kids as young as ten can easily get their hands on marijuana. The dropout rate is high, the rate of people progressing to college is low, the unemployment is high, the average income is dismal and the quality of life for people getting out of school just sucks. Food 4 Less stopped drug-checking their employees because they had close to 100% turnover; they simply gave up.

The sheriff doesn't pursue personal or small-scale commercial operations anymore. He spends all his time trying futilely to curtail the gang-run grows. Despite this none of the local growers, even the mom and pop shops, trust him and they will do whatever they can to get in his way. A local radio station broadcasts all raid activity live. It's a matter of time til a law enforcement officer trying to take out a massive illegal grow operation is shot.

The next county over has already graduated from marijuana to a proliferation of meth labs and that is starting to move into Mendocino too. The gangs are there to supply a demand, and if they can make money off meth they'll produce that too.

Legalizing marijuana would do so much to cut down on the crime and gang and drug availability problems in the county, not to mention bringing in much-needed income. I'm sick of the growers getting away with murder when legitimate businesses are held to a high standard of stewardship and taxation. Legalization would allow illegal grows to be completely shut down with full community support, since anyone wanting to grow inside the law would have the opportunity.

In the meantime, if you're a smoker please please PLEASE know your source. Don't buy something you think may have been gang-produced, both for the good of my county and also for your own health - they put all sorts of nasty and very unsafe stuff on the plants while they're growing.

 

[I Saw OJ]

I believe the area where I live is the meth capital of the United States.

 

[Colt45]

I don't think there's a town bigger than 50 people that doesn't have a drug problem.

 

[mrjminer]

I used to live in Decatur, Illinois. The first day I got there, some guy introduced it to me as "Welcome to the shithole of Illinois." I found out pretty quickly that he wasn't lying.

One night, I couldn't sleep so I was out on my porch at about 3:00 AM smoking a cigarette. Out of nowhere, this car pulls up, a guy gets out (I know someone is going to ask, so yea, a black guy), and approaches me. I was a little freaked out because I was new to the area and didn't know who the hell this guy was, but it was just the one guy, so I wasn't too worried--especially since he was getting close to me. Regardless, I always carry a pen in my pocket for writing and as a makeshift weapon, and I decapped that and stuck my hand in my pocket right when he pulled up... just in case.

He asked me, "Hey man, can I get one of those squares." I replied, "No, I've only got a few left and I don't want to go to store tonight, it's pretty late." He said, "Awww, come on, I'll give you a quarter for one." I reiterated my previous point with, "Nah man, I would, it's just that I don't want to have to go to the store." At this, he seemed fine and said, "Oh ok man, it's cool, it's cool dog." Then, he started to walk away.

About five seconds later, he turned around and asked, "Hey man, you want some rock? I got hard or soft man, hard or soft." I declined (never would do any hard drugs... that stuff will ruin your life) with a simple, "Nah man, not my thing." He just said it was cool and then left.

Moral of the story: not all people dealing / doing hard drugs are going to murder you, but you should definitely be prepared to defend yourself if someone you don't know approaches you at 3:00 AM.

 

[theflyingpig]

Marijuana may not be a hard drug but it has created a hard situation for my home area.

Mendocino is a largescale producer of marijuana but it's destroying the county. Where once people lived in a relatively rural area and grew weed for their own personal use and maybe a little profit on the side it is now a major commercial operation run primarily by Mexico-based gangs, staffed by illegals (frequently under duress because they were misled about their job prospects by smugglers or because the gangs hold their families hostage back home.)

Ten years ago you could go hiking in the hills on public land and only worry about cougars and poison oak. Now you are very likely to be shot at by wandering into a commercial grow. Two years ago there were major wildfires burning tens of thousands of acres and even the firefighters in the midst of fighting a blaze were being shot at by growers!

Water is a huge problem in the county and there have been four years of drought. People were put on forced water conservation, water prices were hiked up, vineyard owners growing the primary legal income source for the county got totally jacked by the water conservation measures, and yet the growers suck the streams and rivers dry without paying and without restriction. They wreak havoc environmentally by draining salmanoid streams. They also pollute horribly, dumping illegal chemicals haphazardly into water sources.

The high school is pervaded by drug trafficking, where it pretty much goes on in the open right outside after school and there's little that can be done to stop it. Kids as young as ten can easily get their hands on marijuana. The dropout rate is high, the rate of people progressing to college is low, the unemployment is high, the average income is dismal and the quality of life for people getting out of school just sucks. Food 4 Less stopped drug-checking their employees because they had close to 100% turnover; they simply gave up.

The sheriff doesn't pursue personal or small-scale commercial operations anymore. He spends all his time trying futilely to curtail the gang-run grows. Despite this none of the local growers, even the mom and pop shops, trust him and they will do whatever they can to get in his way. A local radio station broadcasts all raid activity live. It's a matter of time til a law enforcement officer trying to take out a massive illegal grow operation is shot.

The next county over has already graduated from marijuana to a proliferation of meth labs and that is starting to move into Mendocino too. The gangs are there to supply a demand, and if they can make money off meth they'll produce that too.

Legalizing marijuana would do so much to cut down on the crime and gang and drug availability problems in the county, not to mention bringing in much-needed income. I'm sick of the growers getting away with murder when legitimate businesses are held to a high standard of stewardship and taxation. Legalization would allow illegal grows to be completely shut down with full community support, since anyone wanting to grow inside the law would have the opportunity.

In the meantime, if you're a smoker please please PLEASE know your source. Don't buy something you think may have been gang-produced, both for the good of my county and also for your own health - they put all sorts of nasty and very unsafe stuff on the plants while they're growing.

Looks like the real problem is illegals. Get rid of the garbage, get rid of the smell. Everyone knows this.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

I'm a 15 min drive from the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver. You could say we have a slight drug problem here.

 

[theflyingpig]

I'm a 15 min drive from the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver. You could say we have a slight drug problem here.

More illegals?

 

[InflatableBuddha]

More illegals?

Negative. They're all Canadian, though many are Aboriginal.

 

[theflyingpig]

Negative. They're all Canadian, though many are Aboriginal.

Well, there you go.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Oh right, I keep forgetting that you're always playing the race card.

 

[theflyingpig]

Oh right, I keep forgetting that you're always playing the race card.

The card is always in play, I just point it out. Everyone knows this.

 

[zerocool84]

Hmm let's see, Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, etc, etc.

 

[dawp]

Marijuana may not be a hard drug but it has created a hard situation for my home area.
:snip:

if CA legalizes weed, this problem most likely will go away. at least in CA it will. there wont be the profit motive for it like there is now. we can only hope for some sanity.

 

[sdifox]

9000 of those are politicians.

 

[wwswimming]

I don't think there's a town bigger than 50 people that doesn't have a drug problem.

Baker City in Eastern Oregon is pretty clean.

i looked at some land in 2006. trying to pay cash for 10 acres. i ended up comparing a parcel in rural Oregon vs. rural Washington.

the town of 2000 in Washington had a history of meth. when i was researching the property i got a list of "known meth labs" from a Wash. state agency. 47 in a town of 2000. that came as an Excel spreadsheet. entertaining in a gruesome way.

"suspect seem rowing canoe to middle of river and pouring 5 gallons of red substance into river."

i knew one property i was looking at had been a meth site - i heard about it from a neighbor who i knew from his blog. the real estate agent said the neighbor was "crazy".

as i continued researching the 10 acre property in Wash., i called the police. i talked with one of the local officers, a woman. she told me that not only was it a former meth. lab but that the meth cook was still living there ! she knew him by name ... having arrested him.

so much for trusting the real estate agent !

i'm not saying that Wash. has more meth than Oregon but JESUS.

 

[nageov3t]

not to the best of my knowledge... or at least, no more so than any other town.

if there is one, it's kept quiet. I never see like random drug/alcohol-addled people on the streets or anything. I also live in a pretty small town, though (0.8 sq miles). the police force doesn't have a lot of territory to have to look over.

 

[techs]

Is there a hard drug problem where you live?

No, hard drugs are freely available.

 

[JimmiG]

No problems here. Just some civil unrest from spoiled kids that want more free government money and want to be left alone by the police when doing drugs. All while writing crappy wannabe "gangsta rap" songs about life in the "ghetto", which they know nothing about since we don't have those here.

 

[BoomerD]

Nope. Not unless you consider heroin, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine to be hard drugs...in which case, yes, it's a fucking drug epidemic.

 

[CKent]

Marijuana may not be a hard drug but it has created a hard situation for my home area.
<snip>

Marijuana hasn't caused that, its illegalization has. Ironically, racism against Mexicans (and blacks too) was a large factor in getting the public to accept making it illegal. In a way it's only fair ^_^ If we could keep our prying eyes out of peoples' personal business, such as what they put into their body and which gender they feel attracted to, perhaps we could avoid stupid ass problems like these...

 

[F1N3ST]

Yes, I live within 20 miles of Detroit.

 

[KeithTalent]

I'm a 15 min drive from the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver. You could say we have a slight drug problem here.

Shens. Why have I never heard about this? :hmm:

KT