Jobs!
The end of cussing as we know it!
As we all know, the so-called leaders in Clallam County like to roll out all manner of feel-good fixes and recycled promises about improving the local economy. They'll embrace any and all hare-brained schemes so long as they can be pitched in some way, no matter how lamely, as creating jobs, happiness and harmony.
In other words, unlike certain former presidents, they absolutely inhale, and then try to blow the smoke up your...posterior. (That one's for you, Cherie!)
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the fact remains that Clallam County has an overdose death rate that is twice the state average - and the state average is just a tick above the national average.
In many ways, that's the only fact you need to now about Clallam County, being that it speaks to the poverty, desperation and lawlessness that defines life there. Said conditions have been crafted and nurtured by the corrupt and incompetent fools that run things there. They have blood on their hands, and ice in their hearts. But one thing they do not have is shame.
The number one cash crop in Clallam County
can be harvested all year long...
Let's remember when that young woman came and gave her heartfelt testimony to the city council, pleading with them to do something, anything, about the local drug problem.
ReplyDeleteThey couldn't even be bothered to shed a few crocodile tears.
+1. They ostracized her for not being super articulate at the podium, when everyone knew damn well what the issue was. Very dehumanizing. Which is what this Council has become with their silly distractions.
DeleteIt's not funny, it's more than ice in the hearts, it's utterly de-humanizing. Is this what we want PA to be?
I was there that momentous night. Port Angeles changed that night. The chimera came off. The jig was up. They were helpless. The next city council will not be so helpless to hear the cry from the wilderness.
DeleteI was there, too. She was literally crying at the podium, asking for help for the city's youth. The Council said NOTHING.
DeleteI will NEVER forget that. And, I will never be able to look at those Council members and see anything but what completely despicable people they showed themselves to be that night. I lost any respect I had for them, right then and there.
Let's face it, we spend six million dollars a year in Port Angeles alone on law enforcement. Add to that the amount the county spends, add park rangers, add coast guard, add Sequim police, Forks Police, add the Border Patrol and customs. This would probably total around a half million a day spent on law enforcement. We have one road in and one road out of this town. If they wanted to stop the flow of Heroin into this town they could do it without breaking a sweat. The fact that there is a ready supply means someone in authority WANTS it here. Somebody in power is making money off this poison. Now law enforcement, look one another over and decide who it is that wants this here.
ReplyDeleteNobody wants it here. Who wins? Only those who sell, but even so, they make enough just to cover what they use. It's not a profit making game (except on the cartel or marijuana shop level). No, this problem just illustrates the lack of hope these people feel. Trapped, seeking escape, not knowing where to find it.
DeleteI disagree. I don't think it is about hopelessness, per se. If you think about these things for a few minutes, you recognize similarities in the different forms of "addictive behaviour". Gambling, drinking, smoking cigarettes, smoking pot, sex, etc. There are those that can drink, gamble, etc without losing themselves in it, and there are those that lose their lives to these very same things. Is it cigarettes, said to be as addictive as heroin, as a substance, that is addictive? Or is it the habit OF using these substance to address other things? Gambling isn't a substance, for example, but it sure can be as destructive as heroin.
DeleteAs has been pointed out by users, cigarettes, heroin and the myriad of other habits are, within their peer groups, an accepted response and behaviour. Look at the ads for cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, etc. Punctuate your daily activities with a cigarette. Highlight your life with alcohol. Be part of the street scene by doing drugs. You won't be accepted by the group, unless you do.
But, the Grant Whores can use the harm to individuals and communities to extract money to pursue "treatment" that guarantees an on-going well paid job for themselves.
Is there still a tobacco/cigarette shop right in downtown Port Angeles? Or, per an earlier topic, is it easy for minors to buy cigarettes and tobacco products in Clallam County? Yes, and yes it is.
DeleteDoes Clallam County have a scandalously high overdose death rate? Yes it does.
Is there a casino in Clallam County? More than one, as a matter of fact.
Finally, are there any Grant Whores in Clallam County? You know, so-called leaders who really exist only to chase Other People's Money with which they can line their own pockets? I think it's safe to say there are more than a few of them around.
In other words, no matter what your age or addiction, Clallam County can "fix you up." Which is perhaps a big part of why Clallam County as a hole is beyond fixing.
Yes, this is true. Clallam County, and Port Angeles in particular have a lot of the things going on that support addictive behavior. That victim mentality that supports the "Don't blame me" and "I'm not responsible for what is going on in my life, I'm just a victim" mindset.
DeleteWe see it every day, in some form or another.
Look at the whole fluoride debate. The proponents cannot accept that people can choose to use fluoride, or not. Their premise is that the public is too stupid to do what (they think) is good for them, and therefore they have to take our personal responsibility away from each and every one of us. As if we are all incapable of being responsible.
The mindset that supports addictive thinking and behavior is very common in Clallam and Port Angeles. The "I can do what I want without consequence", we see in what our leadership do. Rape, pillage and plunder, because all that matters is what we get out of it. Future? Consequences? Disregard warnings the proposal is foolish, or won't solve the problems it is trying to address. Staff says it is the thing to do, and I'm not going to go astray of what the group is doing.
Driving around town, and there are pot, cigarette/tobacco, and "convenience" stores seemingly on every block. Want your accepted drug of choice?
When money is the only thing that people value, people become very empty.
Anonymous 4:15 PM: Thank you. I forgot to include the legal pot.
DeleteYou forget that the Grant Whores need to have these problems in order to justify the grants they apply for.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point. For the Grant Whores, a certain amount of dysfunction is functional, essential actually.
DeleteGrant whore: EDC
DeleteSomeone asked me the other day: "Aren't there any churches in Port Angeles?" To which I said, sure, there are churches all over Port Angeles. They continued with: "Aren't the churches the ones that provide services in communities, for the needy? Aren't churches the the places that offer sanctuary? Aren't churches the places that set up cots and feed the homeless? They are in the town where I live".
ReplyDeleteI had no answer.
No kidding! The damn City and these so-called leaders do all this crazy stuff that creates all these problems that get written about here. When we get angry , upset and depressed about it all, what is the solution? Get the leaders to stop doing all the crazy stuff to us? No. They doctors give us pills so that we don't get angry, upset and depressed about the crazy shit the leaders keep doing.
ReplyDeleteNow tell, what is the same, and what is different? That Big Pharma makes gobs more money on the pills they got everybody taking?
You know far more people die each year from pills than illegal drugs. But what gets the headlines?
Legal drugs are all too often a gateway drug to illegal drugs. Overprescribe, overmedicate, and then criminalize the results.
DeleteThis is a great social control method. With so many people in the drug business (doctors, patients, junkies, etc.) a large segment of the population can be arrested and locked up whenever necessary. It's a sword hanging over so many heads. Fall out of line, and maybe the sword falls too.
Could the Grant Whores be ignoring/exacerbating the drug problem as an intentional precurser to the next grant?
ReplyDeleteThat these Whores would intentionally not do something they could do to help, because the results would mean more money in their pockets is really hard for me to accept. But, in looking at this very issue (heroin use in Port Angeles), we saw that neither the city Council members, nor the City Staff did anything to respond to that young woman's pleas a year or so ago.
DeleteMaybe the City Council members were so out of touch with what was going on in their town, and didn't know there was a drug use problem here. Maybe the City Staff was so busy building that $50 million wasteful CSO Turd Tank and fake beaches that they were unaware that there were people overdosing on heroin in town.
But the night that woman told her story of the young man nodding off in his car as it rolled through a down town intersection, how she literally reached through the window, pulled the keys out of the ignition, brought the car to a stop and called 911, the City knew, publicly. They said nothing that night, and did nothing afterwards.
If I remember correctly, after the closing of the over night shelter, the police chief was quoted in the PDN saying "Well, it doesn't get that cold here in the winter."
And, we remember how concerned Cherie Kidd was. Oh, that's right. It was about the people jumping off the 8th Street bridge, it was election time, and she was busy making public promises to get funding for a suicide prevention fence. Which never happened, and after the election, we never heard another mention of.
The Whores want real money. Look to the Mafia. They don't waste their time which drug treatment programs. They go for the big municipal construction contracts.
Hmmm, something seems similar in all this.
Saw the story about the Port Townsend couple kicked out of Butchart Gardens for wearing "Victorian clothes." I had to wonder what they'd do if Cherie Kidd ever showed up in one of her garish "olde timey" outfits. Maybe they'd take her into custody and solve one of our local problems for us.
ReplyDeleteYou remember the quote from Cherie Kidd about being depressed by Port Angeles every time she returned after visiting Victoria.
DeleteThat is the kind of promotion Port Angeles needs, Cherie.
"Although the use of opiates in the U.S. and England during the 19th century was enormously greater than it is now, both through physician-prescribed injections and ubiquitous patent medicines which were used as tonics and for recreational purposes, the incidence of dependence and addiction never reached 1% of the population and was declining at the end of the century before the restrictive laws were passed (Brecher, 1972; Ledain, 1973; Courtwright, 1982)."
ReplyDeleteBut, now it is different. Why?
Oh, and also interesting: "In the U.K., heroin was widely used as a medication for cough, diarrhea, chronic pain from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. In the year 1972, for example, British physicians prescribed 29 kilograms of heroin—millions of doses—to medical patients. A major portion of this heroin is sold as an ingredient in cough syrups which are readily available. Careful examination of the British statistics on iatrogenic addiction ten years later revealed "there is a virtual absence of addicts created by this singular medical practice" (Trebach, 1982: p. 83). Heroin remains a staple drug in British medical practice along with morphine and other opiates. Fears of addiction amongst British physicians are minimal (White, Hoskin, Hanks, & Bliss, 1991).
ReplyDeleteAgain, is it the substance, or something else?
Seems to be the same old story we see told in this town, over and over. Those that have money to gain find a way to spin the story to their advantage.
ReplyDeleteUntil we understand what is wrong, what is causing the problems we see, we are never going to "fix" anything.
Most are motivated by "Why should *I* care?". "I'm not homeless, or doing heroin, or ripping off the taxpayers, so why should I get involved? Much safer to just keep my head down, and go along with the winning team".
And, that is the way society has been for a long time. Only a few in any given group actually do what it takes to address problems. The rest just can't be bothered. You know, there are movies to watch, games to play, and, well, pretty much anything else.
I was out of town last week, but didn't the Downtown Association have a group-think meeting about the drug/homeless situation? Will anything come of that, meaning, will the city ever lift a finger, or will the burdens continue to be left to private parties?
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time believing that a couple of hundred people marching on one day is going to change the whole socio/economic environment of Port Angeles. I didn't see any elected officials in any of those photos, for instance. And doubtlessly some of those people left the anti-drug march and got high, or drunk, or stopped to pick up their "medical" pot.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see what comes of this. Will it be the spark that lights up people to finally see the situation in Port Angeles sucks, and doing nothing doesn't change it? I'm not holding my breath.
DeleteAnd, what will be the take away from the day? That " Overdose Awareness Day"? What? People in the town were not aware that people overdose from taking too much of a drug or two? That people were not are that people in Port Angeles are overdosing?
What will be the outcome? More support for the vigilantes to drive anybody they dislike from the town? Or, more efforts to help people in need?
We'll see.
Now that "Overdose Awareness Day" is over, city hall will just revert to not being aware. Again.
DeleteFor context let's start with the fact that the U.S. has about 5-6% of the world's population.
ReplyDeleteBut the U.S. also accounts for roughly 50% of the consumption of illegal drugs in the world. (Which ignores the huge problem of legal, prescription drug abuse.)
So we start with our baseline set (no pun intended) pretty high in the U.S. Washington state's OD rate is just slightly higher than the national one.
And ours locally is double the state's OD rate.
In other words, the scale of the problem is huge. The depths of depression and desperation are deep. For a community of just 19,000 people to have a march like this shows how huge the problem is here.
200 or 300 marched against drugs. But how many people were here, in our community, selling and taking drugs the same day? I would guess it's a larger number.
The silent majority rules.
It is just another "Feel good, do nothing" exercise by the same people who keep doing these things.
DeleteWring their hands that "the scourge of drug abuse" results in people dying, but make the needed changes? No way. Tomorrow, it is back to doing everything just the same.
Memo to pathetic idiot troll: It's spelled "junkie," not "junky." Also, per the preceding sentence, the contraction of "it" and "is" is "it's," with an apostrophe, not "its."
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is we are spending the money to address some of these problems but the money is not making it to the problem. For instance Serenity House has millions of dollars intended to fight homelessness going to buildings that have not a bed in them. WTF. Millions have been spent on economic development but that money too is spent somewhere between meetings and hiring more staff in the EDC office. WTF Taxpayers are doing their part it is the leadership that lets shit slip. Then again, no one will raise their voices for fear of falling into disfavor with the "winning team."
ReplyDeletePer the photos and story about the anti-drug march...The reformed drug abuser who is featured has his own name tattooed in huge letters on one of his arms. What's up with that? Is it there in case he forgets? I've never seen that one before...
ReplyDeleteHis father did it to him, in lieu of branding. It's a family bonding sort of thing.
DeleteOf course, it makes total sense to have addicts and drug users march against drug use.
ReplyDelete