Life Is Short
Especially if you are hooked on deadly substances
Walking home the other day I witnessed this:
Sadly, chancing upon a scene like this in broad daylight on a main street is not rare. As of the last few years, such viewings are commonplace in San Francisco. Bear in mind this is right next to a community garden.
And actually what I saw here is not even the worst of it. There are many other neighborhoods, or small sections of them, where this also occurs.
A few blocks closer to my home, in a side alley where a friend lives, there’s an area where people congregate to get their fixes. It’s truly a scene out of a horror film. Sometimes the users are on her doorstep and she has to call the police so she can exit her home.
I see it and I feel helpless. I have to walk away as quickly as I can.
I don’t mean to shame any individual who is in this state (double meaning of that word intended). I have lived in this city for over two decades and I have witnessed the rise. I do feel the phenomenon has been created. Michael Shellenberger of
talks about how exactly in his book, San Fransicko.
San Fransicko reveals that the underlying problem isn’t a lack of housing or money for social programs. The real problem is an ideology that designates some people, by identity or experience, as victims entitled to destructive behaviors. The result is an undermining of the values that make cities, and civilization itself, possible.
What a synchronicity! (I've seen such scenes, too. It's gobsmacking what has happened, and is still happening.)
That earlier post of yours explained the bent-over position of Fentanyl users. I have lived under a rock so have not seen this myself. I would feel helpless if I had.
Kinda-sorta related to this was my experience taking care of my dying friend recently. She was in so much pain that she was on three different pain-killers: a fentanyl dermal patch, oxycodone, and morphine sulfate. That was the only way she could make it through the day.