Hey, there! Log in / Register
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Sickening
I saw that in the Herald this morning.
I'm not one of those who say addiction is a disease and junkies that leave syringes in a playground aren't "sick" they are just scumbags.
Addiction is a disease
People with your attitude are the reason we have so many of them ... and why we end up with needles on playgrounds because that's where they end up going instead of treatment.
Please read up on the subject - your opinion is not informed.
Unless, of course, you just want more junkies and more syringes around. Moral panic is pretty effective for producing the current conditions.
Treatment? The revolving
Treatment? The revolving door? Homeless shelters? Is that the solution to stop these zombies carelessly leaving their disgusting needles on the grass where children play? Defecating on the floor of the women's room bathroom stall at McDonalds while her friend is slumped over the bathroom sink? Taking their doomed toddlers in strollers to the methadone clinic and then still using with the toddlers in tow? Swirls, there's more than "treatment" that is needed. Something more longterm with loved ones, law enforcement, and health workers to coach along the way.
Nope.
It is pretty much about the treatment Maria C. And folks with addictions, such as heroin, for example, may not think as rationally as you or I. Those "zombies" as you describe them, are human beings that need help.
As Swirls correctly stated, "Please read up on the subject - your opinion is not informed."
Disease or not, there's
Disease or not, there's absolutely no excuse for intentionally discarding a syringe in a playground. Blame society all you want, but, sometimes people actually are just assholes.
Yup
Yup, broken bottles, used condoms, feces and such are all things that my wife or I have found at playgrounds because some people actually are just assholes.
Alcoholism, sex addiction and Montezuma's Revenge are all
diseases! Please read up on them! Your opinion is uninformed.
Continuing your example.....
"Montezuma's revenge" is a great example. Yes, it's a disease, but failure to clean up after yourself is simply sociopathic behavior.
You left out bicycle obsession
as a disease. A small minority consider driving a disease, or generally addiction to fossil fuel to heat our homes, drive cars, power MBTA buses, cars, transport food and goods etc.
Go away.
Just go away.
Is this you?
Is this you?
Boston has a ton addiction
Boston has a ton addiction outreach and counseling. There are programs all over the city. The state has legalized hypodermic needles. Courts generally defer to treatment over incarceration. We have a city that genuinely and proactively treats drug addicts who are afflicted by this disease. You cannot in any way rationilize leaving a needle in a children's playground.
try getting into one
try getting into one
Doesn't matter
Whether the addiction programs are widely available or grossly oversubscribed has no bearing on the specific behavior of leaving used needles in a playground.
Yes, but addicts vary.
It's surprisingly similar to the distribution of personality defects in the non addict population.
Some people are reasonably impeccable about how they go through life with a small foot print and others are raging incompetent slobs.
Maybe it's reasonable to despise clods who leave their toys laying around in parks and public places for incompetent slobbery rather than addiction per se. That way you don't run the risk of looking like a knee jerk apologist.
The first junkies I ever met were blue collar and middle class Vietnam war vets in my home town in the 70s. They were haunted and wretched but eventually dried out or died.
The last junkies I've met, so far, were upper middle class bored gen x rich kids in rock bands at the Middle East. I had a conversation with a duet couple I knew at a party years ago where I explained to them that they turned to smack to give themselves some epic problem to solve beyond the coddling affluence swaddled them in.
They seemed to agree and appreciate the observation.
Jesus Christ
Yes Swirl, it's society's fault, not the piece of shit that knowingly discarded a syringe in a space designated for children to play.
Relax, relax.
You lost me with your words "piece of shit".
As I have said in my previous post, those with addictions, such as an addiction to heroin, may not think as rationally as you (which I doubt) nor I. Meaning, they might not think "Hey, I think I will deposit my needle in the proper trash receptacle."
It's all about the individual.
I have a friend with a heroin problem. He's probably past it now. But he was impeccable. He founded a recording studio here that is still a legend and many people benefited from it.
He was one of the three original creators of the rock scene at the Middle East. He went to Harvard on a scholarship as he was from a working class urban family.
He found his brother dead from an OD.
So I have no quarrel with addiction, as is, and I don't imagine many else here do.
There are others who are just assholes at the end of the day and no amount of excuse making from social welfare shills is going to convince people that this is excusable.
We are just manic monkeys, not sacred little snowflakes and when an idiot flails like this, community outrage is sure to follow.
So, because they choose to
So, because they choose to use heroin in the first place, thereby contracting this "disease" that comprises further use of heroin and degradation of rational thinking, it is okay to willfully discard used needles in a playground?
Still no good reason to leave a syringe in a playground
Aren't there boxes at CVS and other drugstores where one can safely dispose of them?
needle disposal
No, there isn't. You can BUY a box that you later mail in. Public Health has a list of about 7 places you can drop off needles, not really convenient. I would bring ones I found to local neighborhood health center and no one there was ever too happy but they would let me put them in a sharps container in an office. I learned I could bring them to the Police Station. The city says to call the Mayor's hotline or use Citizen's Connect.
I hate this, I hate seeing the needles around, in the gutter, in our front yard, in parking lots, in playgrounds. I think of any little kid who loves to pick up things they find. I would carry a hard pencil case around and collect any I found. Now I don't get out so much since I am a caretaker of someone I actually have given shots too. Luckily we would make so many doctor's visits I could just bring used needles in and drop them in container in the exam room.
I hope so
In Melbourne (maybe elsewhere in Australia, but I was only in Melbourne), there are containers in each stall in public restrooms for "sharps" disposal: because they'd rather have junkies shoot up and dispose of the needle there than leave it out where someone could, quite literally, stumble onto it.
Casinos too
I've seen those at Mohegan Sun and train stations in New York and Philly.
Not strictly a junkie thing
There are also people with medical conditions (for example, some people with diabetes) who need to use syringes frequently and/or at inconvenient times.
definitely
So it's just a good policy all around!
"Addiction as disease" model
The "addiction as disease" model has been losing traction for some time now int he scientific community and elsewhere, and I for one am glad to see it go. Time to get some personal responsibility going here.
www.salon.com/2015/06/27/addiction_is_not_a_disease_a_neuroscientist_arg...
Oh, Cripes.
One from the "personality responsibility" crowd. I just love you guys.
Whether addiction is categorized as a "disease" or not, it is still comes with a plethora of serious issues which involve treatment.
Just because someone has an
Just because someone has an addiction doen not give them the right to inflict harm on a child. Just because someone has a disease does not give them the right to inflict harm on a child. As an adult, you have to be responsible AND be held accountable for your actions. There are thousands of people in the city who do drugs with or without addiction and they do not have special rights to cause harm to others because of it. Growing up I have known kids who have been terribly damaged and their childhoods ruined because one or both their parents did drugs. They never have a voice. It's sad. Stop protecting the abusers at the expense of the innocent. Quit the armchair analysis -- this is real life for too many kids.
Yes, addiction is a disease
But failure to adequately manage the disease, on the other hand, is sociopathic behavior.
And leaving a used syringe in a playground is just freakin' criminal.
"People with your attitude
"People with your attitude are the reason we have so many of them "
Right, It's our fault.
Got it.
How about
How about this: opiate addiction IS a serious life-threatening disease, AND the small subset of people suffering from it who would leave a used needle on a playground are undoubtably scumbags. Sadly, if you were to estimate our addiction problem solely by counting needles disposed of in an irresponsible manner, you would tremendously underestimate the magnitude of the crisis.
Addict must have nodded
Addict must have nodded before reaching the trash barrel. If the needles do happen to reach the trash barrels, the DPW workers really must be vigilante when lifting those bags out of the barrels. GO
I'm laughing at my grammar.
I'm laughing at my grammar. Oops
stems
recently heard a story about a young child being poked with a heroin loaded syringe in a burga king on route one. these people are unbelievable. anyone else hear about this? unreal.
It was only a matter of time
It was only a matter of time really, either there or the many popular needle spots throughout town, fens, commons, chinatown, Dewey square, my idea would be to leave tamper proof needle containers (like the cigarette butler things )at these notorious spots, but that would mean the city n state acknowledging that there's a problem in the first place. Also why is it so easy to purchase these needles?? Clearly they are being used for illicit purposes and being discarded, at least put serial numbers or something some sort of accountability on improper needle disposal.
That's why you always look before you set foot in any boston park it's gross reality, I've seen so many, even at Carson beach. Spare me your socioeconomic boohoo stories tho.
Why is it so easy to purchase these needles??
Because there is another public health crisis beyond addiction that would be made far worse if they were difficult to get. Maybe you've heard of people sharing needles? Maybe you've heard of HIV & AIDS? Are you starting to see the bigger picture now?
Plus, I remember the days before needle exchanges and when they were generally more difficult to get and you would still see them around because syringes will get dull and the junkies will need to replace them and some of them will just litter just like there are a lot of non-junkies who will litter..
I have volunteerd at Rosie's
I have volunteerd at Rosie's Place last winter and one Saturday afternoon I was leaving to go to the NMC bus stop. As I was walking past the nearby CVS, a zombie woman stumbled up to me and asked me, "If I give you $2.00 can you go into CVS and ask them for a diabetic syringe? I can't go in there because I shoplifted." No bleeping way was I going to oblige. Oh - by the way - you left out Hepatitis C (which, too, has also become an epidemic)!!!
Needles were made legal for
Needles were made legal for sale and possession to cut down on transmission of bloodborne diseases by people that used to share them. It also eliminated the cost to the public for needle exchanges as addicts and dealers could buy the stuff legally on their own.
Serial #s won't help. Just like prescription bottles full of oxy, needles are a prevalent legal product and any time an offending # is traced it will come back stolen.
Matt O'Malley?
Maybe Matt O'Malley can get them put up in the same way he had the sunscreen dispensers installed ...
Needles
Saw a bathroom at wrentham mall with a sharps disposal container in it. Perhaps city councillor matt omalley could skip the sunblock machines and put hazardous waste disposal containers instead.
As a neighbor of this playground...
Just commenting that it's not a place where you'd regularly see junkies on the nod. Sometimes teenagers hang out and smoke pot after the lights go out on the basketball court, but it's not the kind of place people feel unsafe at. The crazy thing is, that there's usually not a single piece of litter, so this damn dirty needle was probably the only trash in the whole place.
The whole playground just got an overhaul over the cold season, with a big new play structure, separate play structure for little kids, fitness machines for teens/adults, a new gazebo, and a small splash deck. And, of course, it's adjacent to a baseball field, tennis courts, and basketball courts. It's a great playground!
Just curious
Seems to be a lot of confirmation bias going on here.
There's no evidence that I can find that says this was a syringe used for heroin instead of insulin or something else. There's no evidence that the syringe was uncapped when the kids found it (only after they began playing with it). It could have fallen out of someone's bag.
Also, the girl said she knew not to play with it and did so anyways. It's not like she tripped and fell on it and accidentally punctured herself. This isn't an excuse to justify her injury but it does mean that there's some culpability on the kid for not going and getting an adult right away (which she says she knows *now* and should have known then but chose not to obey her learning).
It's easy to call for swift action against "junkies", etc. But there are a few other ways a syringe might find its way to a park and there were multiple chances before this girl got stuck to avoid it happening once the kids found it.
Yes, as someone who lives in
Yes, as someone who lives in this neighborhood and walks by/through the playground at all hours, I'd say diabetes is a more likely explanation than heroin.