Title update: Child gets needlestick injury on Dublin Bus

FortySeven wrote: »

I never set out in life to become an addict. I didn't wake up one morning and think 'that's the life for me!"

However bad you think 'junkies' make your life, you will never understand the torture they put themselves through on a daily basis.

The war on drugs has been lost, it's time we began spending the wasted money on treatment, this is a public health issue and we should fund it that way instead of locking up the addicts.

I am a decent, intelligent man, hard working and honest. Addiction can be solved with a bit of will and some funding.

That's really it. I hate seeing drug addicts and what it does to them, us and our society its absolutely horrific and seems like it's getting worse year by year regardless of what money is thrown at it. I worked as a 14 year old in Sean mcdermott street and Buckingham Street in the late 80's and delivered stuff all around including Sheriff street/Oriel street and places like that and what always stuck with me was the complete and utter lost generation it produced and this is what we are seeing now kids of addicts in one shape or another basically fending for themselves since the ages of two and up. Either mentally, physically or sexually abused and in a lot of cases all three, I knew all the ones around those areas back then and they would be battered daily black and blue, stole because thats all they could do to survive they would go home to violence, go out to the street to violence and they would be well aware of what 'Normal' people thought of them.

Unloved, no self esteem and dealing with the absolute torture that was in their mind a lot turned to drugs i suppose to feel something other than what they felt naturally. A lot of them with undiagnosed mental deficiencies from birth left to deal with that as child and eventually as an adult, Most drug addicts have the mental ability of a 15 year old and the help you see them getting is mostly twenty or more years to late.

Im not defending the things they do and I'm not a dogooder whatever that is but if you want less addicts on the street then you have to get them young and being a little bit understanding would also help. I don't think anyone chooses to be an addict, there is usually a reason why they end up as one though.

Disclaimer: 80% of families were fine in those areas.

eviltwin wrote: »

Fair play to you for beating your addiction, that deserves respect. And fair play to you if you funded your own habit but plenty of other people don't. I've been mugged by a junkie, had a syringe held to my neck while his buddy went through my bag. Horrible experience and not something anyone should go through. I've seen people robbed, saw one girl have a wine bottle smashed against her head so an addict could grab her bag, have heard of elderly people having their lives destroyed by their addict kids.....people make a choice to take drugs,we don't make a choice to be victims of crime.

I did not fund my own addiction legally. Only the celebs managed that. That is the other side of addiction, it is easy to tar all addicts with the scumbag title. Was George Best a scumbag? Amy Winehouse? Charles Kennedy? Kurt Cobain? Janis Joplin? Robert Kennedy?

There are people who commit crimes such as these without addictions.

What a badly reported story. I heard a radio interview with the mother - the syringe (which apparently contained a liquid) was left on the seat and got stuck in the child's finger. Frightening thing to happen.

voz es wrote: »

Drugs are an addiction to be addicted to drugs and have your life fall apaart as a result of that does not make a person scum, no more than being a banker

I know but leaving your dirty needles on the bus where other humans including children sit makes you a scumbag

looksee wrote: »

Are the people who are telling us what a hard time drug addicts have and how they are not to blame...for whatever...the same people who are posting in the current thread on AH (and at other times) saying how harmless drugs are and people should not be so boring about them, give them a try, you'll be grand!

Not me. Drugs are bad, bad, bad! Apart from Nexium, thats god, good,good.

newacc2015 wrote: »

This article is filled with mistakes. If the child unfortunately contracted HIV or Hep C. It would take at least 10-14 days at least for HIV to show up in Blood. Its not 'a few days'. Also even if the syringe user had HIV, they would have to have a viral load high enough to spread HIV. I imagine the child was put onto PEP immediately. Which greatly reduces the risk of HIV. There is thousands of medical workers working with HIV+ patients and dont contract HIV, yet they have been used to it. PEP is pretty effective at preventing HIV taking hold in the body.

Instead of blaming the junkie is clearly not in the right state of mind. Why aren't we questioning how constant Governments who think ignoring IV drug use in the city, will simply cause to go away. The is plenty of talk in Budget 2016 for supporting rural areas to prevent crime. When are we going to see some action on tackling IV drug users.

+1

Would be almost impossible for her to contract HIV from this, the virus dies very quickly (seconds) outside the human body, the guy would literally need to be shooting up and immediately stick the other person for a transfer.

still horrible story tho, but as said before it seems sensationalized.

Satan is Real wrote: »

Perhaps not but I certainly believe in a sterilization program for drug addicts and other members of the underclass, let's face it they just spawn feral children to replace them and the cycle is continued. I would offer increased dole money as an incentive for these people to undergo sterilization.

And if a drug addict sorts themselves out, gets clean etc... can we 'un-sterilize' them?

looksee wrote: »

Are the people who are telling us what a hard time drug addicts have and how they are not to blame...for whatever...the same people who are posting in the current thread on AH (and at other times) saying how harmless drugs are and people should not be so boring about them, give them a try, you'll be grand!

It's different drugs though. I don't know a single person that would tell you heroin is harmless. Many other drugs have various medical and other professionals coming out saying that the risks of these drugs bear additional study into whether it's worth keeping them illegal.

I know it's a cliche to trot out smoking vs other drugs but frankly it's as harm goes is someone weekend recretional drug use any worse for them? I don't know the answer to that, but it bears closer study.

What I do know is our approach to heroin addiction in Dublin simply has not worked. A solution that has been trialed in other contries has been to make heroin freely available to addicts, give them a place to shoot up and rest. This removes much of the crime associated with drug additions. Again I'm not sure how many domestic burglaries are assocated with Extacy or Cannabis use but I suspect it's pretty low compared to the 80% of total assocated with heroin use. (2005 stats to be fair).

The point of this ramble is that the war on drugs is simply a political football. the situation will never change while people have a closed mind to the subject. Sorry to single out your post it was just the closest :pac:

EDIT: In relation to serilisation, I think that's a fair (and reversable) compromise and should be included in any heroin distribution system. We've moved away from any impingement on reproductive rights becuase (as rightly pointed out) WWII. We need to move on from that and realise unrestricted reproductive rights has also simply failed.