It’s not like it used to be.
Familiar faces are long gone and new people are around the area.
A person can get tired of hanging around Brunswick Square. The City of Saint John is a very difficult place to live if you don’t have a vehicle.
Anyway, I was watching some people playing the VLT’S for a few minutes until this girl walked by.
I’m going to name her 555!!!
I haven’t seen 555 in years. I came across 555 during the frigate program.
She was a nice looking girl with a good sense of humor. 555 lost a lot of weight and her face age a lot.
Years ago, we had a little relationship together off and on.
We parted ways and found different partners but always remain good friends.
As a matter of fact? I was thinking of 555 last week!
Anyone who goes into a place they lived in the past has some memories.
You often wonder to yourself? Where are they? How are they making out?
Well, 555 was right in front of me and she gave me a nice hug.
She told me to wait for her while she goes in the washroom.
We all know that a female can make a male wait and wait… and made me wait she did! Close to 20 minutes!
We decided to go outside to discuss our little stories over a smoke.
Once outside she opened her purse and inside was a syringe.
I was shock!!!
I knew she loved her beers but heavy prescription drugs????
I don’t believe she has been reading my blogs.
I began asking her some questions?
She asked me if I was going to write a letter to the editor? I explain that I no longer write letters to the Irving’s papers but I am a blogger! She didn’t understand what was a blogger so I told her that I had close to 25,000 visitors to a web site.
She opened up to me big times!
She chatted with me while she looked around the area.
One guy walked by us while she sat down on a stairway!
555 asked the guy if he wanted something? Well? 555 explained to me that she hurt her back and she had problems with her spine.
She only made $490.00 a month and after she paid her rent and other bills! She had no money for Dilaudid!
So therefore she sells her body to support her habit!
I just didn’t believe that one day 555 would do such a thing????
555 told me that she wanted to chat with me later on in the day!
She was going to have her little room in a boarding house. I told 555 that I would see her later on in the day.
I walked in a bar and ordered a drink!
My God? I was shocked that 555 was on the streets selling her body for her fix.
One guy told me that it was a darn shame because 555 was a nice girl!
He added there were close to 20 girls with the same problem in the downtown area.
He told me that I should try to chat with her? You know try to help her!
I walked into Paul Zed office and discussed my concern with his communication official- Aaron Kennedy!
I told the appointed guy that when Elsie Wayne was the MP?
A person couldn’t chat with Elsie because the minute you mentioned drugs? She would quickly turned her head because she wasn’t educated on this emotional issue.
To her smoking a joint of marijuana or snorting Cocaine was the same.
So maybe Paul Zed would have a different approach on this issue???
Aaron told me that it’s the province that decided where the money on Health care would de directed.
In my view???? What should happen in this case? Ottawa should put aside money for much needed methadone clinic in New Brunswick!
That night, I decided to meet 555 and try to help the girl!
She told me that she hung around in a certain area.
I went there but no 555 in sight.
I said to myself - Great! I might not see her again!
Minutes later, I noticed this fancy vehicle dropping off this girl around a block away!
At a closer look? It was 555!!!
I began asking her some very straight forward questions such as the reason she’s not on Methadone?
She told me that it was a waste of time because the methadone is at Ridgewood < outside of Saint John >
She added that the people who works there are amateurs because all they preached about is drugs drugs drugs!
After a few hours of listening of the issue of drugs? You want to get out of there and have your fix.
She added that if the methadone clinic was located at Saint Joe’s?
She would be on it but it’s to much of a hassle to get the methadone!
The waiting list is way too long!!!
Minutes later, 555 was gone.
She was edgy because she needed some Dilaudid and she was waiting for the dealer to come and gave her some pills!
I noticed a Van with two guys stopping at a corner and 555 quickly jumped in the Van!
555 was gone from the area. I wonder how many pills those guys in the van sell in one day around the City of Saint John?
I crossed the street and a couple with their kids asked me for a location?
They were Acadians from Bathurst. We chatted about the mill closure and I asked them if they knew their MLA?
I mentioned Brian Kenny! They didn’t know the name of their own MLA!
They don’t follow politics but they knew of my protest. Before they left, I asked them – What are your views on Bernard Lord?
They quickly answered en Francais- Face de Rat!
Translation means- Rat face!!!…lol…I guess they know the Premier? …lol….
When they left the area. 555 came back and once again went into the washroom!
But this time around I know that I had to wait for 20 minutes.
They go in the washroom with a lighter and spoon and injected the drug in their vain.
They is the reason that the Soup Kitchens around the Province are in need od metal spoons!
Once outside 555 had a smile on her face and she was happy!
It’s a very scary site!
I noticed that 555 had a metal cross around her neck and I asked her where she got the cross from?
She told me that she found it while she was going her laundry!
I was going to give her my cross and decided not to. It’s a very personal souvenir for me and I will wear the cross till the last day I die!
555 told me that she made $100.00 during the day but all the money went towards the prescription drug! She decided not to take a room in a boarding House.
She noticed a guy that might take care of her for the evening and I hugged 555 and away she went!
There’s many 555’s around this province and this is a very scary picture.
They do the crime to get their fix and nothing will stand in their way!
Someone told me that he knows a mother who was on prescription drugs and now her two daughters are also on Dialudid!
Aids is spreading around and the crime is at an all time high! People are dying and something must be done about this deathful situation!
What can be done when you have a Government who just don’t care?
I have been writing about this issue for the last 6 years and now it’s totally out of control!
The Government must put millions in Methadone clinics around this Province.
This Government must confront the issue of prescription drug in this Province because we are going to pay dearly for their ignorance.
A study on Ritalin would definitely be a good start!!!
I wish 555 the very best of luck and I pray that 555 will one day return to the old 555 that she used to be! May God protect her!!!!!
9 comments:
Good article Charles, it's nice to put a face to a problem, and it's nice to get a good sense of what is going on "in the trenches" so to speak. It would be nice to get stories like that from all over the province. Are there organizations to help these people at all? Are there any lobby groups trying to address these problems? Or are these just the forgotten ones.
come on now...write about the Premier your good and critical comments but watch the language! Merci!!!!!
This out to be a lesson for "other" people, not to get hooked on drugs...What a shame! And, loss of a good life, down the tubes!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,take care
Charlie, keep talking, you may wake us up to how the system works or
doesnt
work, tks
Never having any experience with drugs, I am a bit in the dark. Can you explain what a Methadone clinic is????
Unless the government in power and the people of NB who can help these people who can't get off drugs it can ownly get a lot worse. There is very little help and the help they have is limited. We will see more crimes and people who are desperate do desperate things to the ones they love so watch out for what they can do to strangers who are having a better life than they are. They are not in their right state of mind. We need to invest more money and hire people who have had the experience in their life on drugs and have the understanding and work with medical people with the combined knowledge good things will certainly happen. Peoples lives should matter they could be our loves ones and sometimes they are and we don't know. If they are not helped by us then we will cross their path some day but tragedy could happen and it could be your love one who dies because this person can't see beyond their fix.
Everyone should put pressure on the government for money to help people because they deserve the help. Our country gives away money or wastes it on things that are not as important as this. Yes some people don't understand the danger but that is no reason not too help. I do hope people never give up on those who need it and don't have the stength to ask for help!
For the person who asked what a methadone clinic is...
Methadone is a drug unto itself which offers narcotics addicts a way to escape thw worst of the withdrawal symptoms when trying to come off a drug. Its usually taken in liquid form and the dosage depends on how bad the withdrawal is likely to be for the addict. The dosage is taken once a day (effects last approximately 24 hours) and the idea is that the dosage is gradually reduced over time. Methadone has its own withdrawal effects, but they're generally seen as FAR less impacting but can be longer lasting... hence the gradual lowering of the dosage.
Methadone is administered in a clinic daily. The rationale for this (I suppose) is to not give a week's worth to an addict as it is a highly controlled substance which actually has street value. Also, it's essentially lethal for anyone whose system is not already accustomed to a regimen of addictive drugs. A lot of the negative stigma around this is because some see it as treating drugs with drugs and thereby not really solving the problem... however this is merely another sad example of the lack of education about this type of stuff.
As for Saint John, as indicated, it's available but only if someone can travel a ways out of the city. This stands to reason as addiction centres and mental health institutions tend to be in quieter, more out of the way areas. Naturally, this makes it difficult for those who don't have transport.
For a more scientific idea of what methadone is (it was designed to act as a replacement for morphine and other pain drugs), check out the methadone entry at: www.wikipedia.org
I feel I must weigh in on this one, First-Charles you have again taken the time to put aside your high strung character and got emotionally into the issue at hand which has obviously produced a very good piece of informative reading (Thank you) and the other thing is exactly what your friend has told you about the level of services in this province.
It is and always will be at an unacceptable level until some of those so called concerned politicians get the proper level of professional councilors into the workings of the system in which they have so frivolously set up to combat the problems with which these people suffer.
If you are suffering from a disease that has slowly consumed the very person that you are and you go to receive professional help but upon arriving to their office within five minutes or so you come to discover these people are mostly minimum wage and or ex-addicts still dealing with their own downfalls and you can see this right in front of you so you decide to offer your services to them instead of getting the so called expert services or as a politician would label it “The finest counseling services available in the Maritimes”
You come to the realization that you are in a lot of trouble in this province and that our politicians are pretty shallow and have no concern for the TRUE quality of care and recovery that should be there.
When you know first hand that a couple of councilors in these addiction centers are struggling with vlt addiction and a couple of others are tipping the bottle and then there are the ones who like to have a puff now and then to “ Take the edge off to cope with the devastating stories they have to face on a daily basis” and trying to help others while secretly struggling with their own personal battle, You have a major problem within the system.
Which also shows that the money put into these programs are at such a low level that the cure is worst that the cause.
Money is and always will be the factor in all these so called solutions to these community disasters and the true sad fact is that most of the money this and other provinces enjoy spending each and everyday mostly comes from the addicted sector of these provinces in the first place but none of it will ever be earmarked to go back into helping these people in question because for every cure there will be a loss in revenue.
IE; vlt's, alcohol, cigarettes, scratch and win-casino's-betting-useless anti-depression drugs-useless prescription drugs- these in themselves are totally useless methods without quality counseling as a back up.
One could get MUCH deeper into this issue but I’ll cap it there as a starter.
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