Pretty shocking to read that the worker in the safe site was also a daily IV meth user, I’m pretty shocked anyone can hold down a job with a daily IV meth habit.
I’m an Iraq war vet. I’ve lost friends to drugs, suicide, incredibly reckless behavior to the point it might as well be suicide. Once you’re in a cohort of people that are close to death, the mental strain of losing your friends has a way of squaring the circle for you. It takes an extraordinary amount of self control, and daily effort to change your circumstances. Being at arms distance all day from IV drug use is not going to do it. Previously I’ve been all for harm reduction centers, and safe places to test and use drugs, because I don’t believe that heavy handed prohibition solves anything. I’ve never seen a motivated human stopped from doing anything self destructive by threatening them with more self destruction. I hadn’t considered the mental tax on the employees that work in these centers. I think it’s still a net positive, but wow.
I couldn't tell if “now” meant now-now, or then-now, as in at that point in their life (as a child when they were progressing from drug to drug). I also can't imagine anyone functioning when injecting meth daily.
I’m an Iraq war vet. I’ve lost friends to drugs, suicide, incredibly reckless behavior to the point it might as well be suicide. Once you’re in a cohort of people that are close to death, the mental strain of losing your friends has a way of squaring the circle for you. It takes an extraordinary amount of self control, and daily effort to change your circumstances. Being at arms distance all day from IV drug use is not going to do it. Previously I’ve been all for harm reduction centers, and safe places to test and use drugs, because I don’t believe that heavy handed prohibition solves anything. I’ve never seen a motivated human stopped from doing anything self destructive by threatening them with more self destruction. I hadn’t considered the mental tax on the employees that work in these centers. I think it’s still a net positive, but wow.