Stand Up And Take A Stand Against Drugs

This afternoon I did a lot of standing around. I had registered with a new GP's surgery, and was walking back home along Oakley Road and decided to take a short cut by going north along Teboura Way, where there is no real footpath, just a grass verge.

As I was walking I came to the entrance of Mill Mead something caught my eye. It was a couple of syringes. Uh-oh.

The problem is that there was grass around, so who knows what was lying in that, and indeed inside the entrance? And this is a place children could be playing at sometime (not on the grass verge, of course, but parents could take children into Mill Mead).

I had left my mobile at home. I didn't want to leave where I was, in case any child saw something shiny that I had missed and decided to play with it - with long-term consequences. So, there was one thing I could do, and one thing only.

Stand and wait. Wait till the first police car came by and get the occupants' attention.

In all, I stood there for 2 hours. People in cars stare at you. You get the ones who call out to you from the passenger side of their best friend's ride, and you do not hear what they shout, but you know it's rude.

People jump to their own conclusions what you are doing there. If you take a stand you will be misunderstood and you will be laughed at. No matter, if you're doing the right thing.

A police car was going along the other side of Teboura Way and I waved at it frantically as well as pointing to the syringes. It indicated and did a U-turn at the crossroads (which I think it was not supposed to do, but anyway) and drew alongside. One of the officers in it looked at the syringes and took them while looking around. They were not aware of any drugs activity there, but will keep an eye out.

This all makes me angry. These drug addicts do not care who the victims are of their addiction. Few things anger me more than the celebrity drug addicts, who try to make it all look cool, and especially those who get defended by their supporters on the grounds "they do a lot for the starving children in Africa" (i.e. get free PR by appearing on Comic Relief).

If they cared about starving children in Africa, or elsewhere for that matter, they would consider the children who have been orphaned in drugs wars or are starving due to land being used for drugs instead of crops.

And of course, when a celebrity druggie dies, we are expected to show we care by having a grief-a-thon, and to not give a **** about the children who have been the innocent victimes of their lifestyle.