£2500 fine for being smelly!

[mickd1961]

I don’t believe in judging when giving money.

Giving them a sandwich isn’t going to stop them buying drugs, if they’re on heroin the last thing they’ll feel is hungry if you know anything about drugs.

The reason my son looked like a walking skeleton when he was on all sorts of sh it was because the drugs suppress the feelings of hunger.

You’re kidding yourself by handing over food, they’re just as likely to sell it.

Anyway, just how many sandwiches can a homeless person eat in a day?

[baggieal]

I don’t believe in judging when giving money.

Giving them a sandwich isn’t going to stop them buying drugs, if they’re on heroin the last thing they’ll feel is hungry if you know anything about drugs.

The reason my son looked like a walking skeleton when he was on all sorts of sh it was because the drugs suppress the feelings of hunger.

You’re kidding yourself by handing over food, they’re just as likely to sell it.

Anyway, just how many sandwiches can a homeless person eat in a day?

Don’t know anything about drugs other than in my view drug dealers should face prison even if it’s cannabis, coke or whatever.

Maybe some of these homeless folk then if they get fed up with too much Greggs or nice sarnies should sell the Big Issue. The guy outside M and S in Harrogate is homeless as is the one in the wheelchair outside Boots but they get off their backsides in rain or shine and sell magazines nobody wants. People buy the magazine like me and bin it but it’s a trade off - they are doing something for a hand out.

I would never give someone money to then perhaps spend on drugs and drink FFS. That said, I buy the Big Issue and contribute to loads of charities and yes tap my card on the M and S sign in the window to keep these folk off the streets. And yes the police should move these people on as it’s just as easy to sleep in a door way of an industrial estate rather than a Kuoni Travel Shop!

[mickd1961]

Don’t know anything about drugs other than in my view drug dealers should face prison even if it’s cannabis, coke or whatever.

Maybe some of these homeless folk then if they get fed up with too much Greggs or nice sarnies should sell the Big Issue. The guy outside M and S in Harrogate is homeless as is the one in the wheelchair outside Boots but they get off their backsides in rain or shine and sell magazines nobody wants. People buy the magazine like me and bin it but it’s a trade off - they are doing something for a hand out.

I would never give someone money to then perhaps spend on drugs and drink FFS. That said, I buy the Big Issue and contribute to loads of charities and yes tap my card on the M and S sign in the window to keep these folk off the streets. And yes the police should move these people on as it’s just as easy to sleep in a door way of an industrial estate rather than a Kuoni Travel Shop!

You make some random comments on what was meant to be a thread about the nastiness of this latest Tory idea.

Big Issue - In my area it’s controlled by Romanian gangs who send women out all day to do the selling and then come by late afternoon to pick them up, I won’t buy it in my area.

I buy it from the Polish guy in Solihull who’s been there for years because I can trust he’s getting the money.

I read the product when I buy it, it’s thought provoking, it seems disingenuous to buy it and then toss it, that’s not what it’s about.

Drugs is an interesting one.

I never thought it would be a subject to touch me but it has and had a devastating effect.

Anyone who has kids aged 11 to 40+ needs to be more aware, most parents are clueless to their own children’s drug use.

I found out only recently that someone I respect greatly and who I know personally in high up financial circles is shovelling coke in prodigious amounts and still functioning at the moment.

Most people who know him would be staggered if they knew.

My own brother can’t stay off the stuff.

It’s everywhere and parents are oblivious and often living in denial, it never “their kids”, it never was for mine until it was for one of them.

Drugs came close to seeing my son homeless and then in prison or more likely dead, I’d have hoped someone would’ve given him some money if he’d been on the streets and away from us.

His mum wanted him gone, I was the one who fought for him to stay, Now at nearly 32 he’s off everything for years now and has a family of his own but it came mighty close to being very different.

I saw my own son in the eyes of that girl at Five Ways in Brum, DaveyP will tell you how she looks, desperate and lost would describe her….i don’t think she’s making a lifestyle choice to have people abusing and spitting at her from car windows.

So……I don’t give a fk if the cash I give her helps get her through the day in whichever way she requires, that’s not my business.

As for sleeping in Kuoni’s door rather than at an industrial site like mine….. you’re clueless AL, we get them all around by our site, often shooting up during the day and the drug dealers use the side street by my building to do their drops because it’s so secluded.

As for Harrogate, I haven’t seen a single rough sleeper in the town in my many visits recently whereas in Stourbridge we have loads and there’s a few in Solihull.

Harrogate Council are obviously better at cleaning the scum from the streets.

Anyway chaps, how about getting back on topic about the Tory plan to criminalise having an offensive smell?

[Dubbag]

It really doesn’t matter what the money is for, if it’s for drugs then so be it, whatever helps get them through their miserable and probably short existence.

It’s not for me to judge what a desperate persons need is, it’s not my job to decide what a gift is spent on.

If you give you should give without judgement, if you need to judge the recipient then it’s best to keep the money in your pocket.

The other week when I had my knee op I felt like I was floating on air for an hour post op, apparently due to the residual effects of the anaesthetic and the morphine based pain killer they administered during the op.

For the first time in my life I understood why people use heroin and the like, to feel numbed to the misery and to feel so good for a short while must be very hard to turn away from.

That there is a F U C K I N G EXCELLENT POST.
Job done in a nutshell.
No judgement. None.
Only judge yourself and always harshly.

[boingy]

Mate, I never hide the fact I lean slightly left of centre in Tory terms and slightly right of centre if I’m going to be impressed by Labour.

Stuff like this really makes me angry.

At the Five Ways island in Birmingham city centre a few weeks ago there was this poor girl stood with a cup begging at the junction, she walked past my car window before I had time to react.

I hardly carry money these days so I scrabbled around for not very much and called her back and put some in her cup and gave her a few gentle words and she blessed me.

Almost brought me to tears.

I’m not really bothered if I helped fund her drug habit, if I see her next week I’ll give her much more.

Kindness costs nothing but the hateful agenda towards the street people that is being put forward is disgusting.

I’ve actually grown to hate this present Tory bunch of fk wits, I never thought I’d say that.

I’m no fan of the Corbynista types like Rayner but we’ve got to be better than this vile bunch of scum.

I agree entirely.

[westcountryvillain]

Loving the kindness being shown to those less fortunate than ourselves, I despise drugs, an absolute scourge to the human race and very little good comes from recreational drug use except perhaps for those with chronic pain and MDMA for PTSD.

There's a lot to be said for just stopping for a chat, it must be soul destroying to be ignored by so many.

Mick - curious to know how you found out about your son's drug use, I agree drugs are easy to come by but as adults they're in our company less & less so not that difficult to keep under wraps (pardon the pun).

[mickd1961]

Loving the kindness being shown to those less fortunate than ourselves, I despise drugs, an absolute scourge to the human race and very little good comes from recreational drug use except perhaps for those with chronic pain and MDMA for PTSD.

There's a lot to be said for just stopping for a chat, it must be soul destroying to be ignored by so many.

Mick - curious to know how you found out about your son's drug use, I agree drugs are easy to come by but as adults they're in our company less & less so not that difficult to keep under wraps (pardon the pun).

It came in stages with my lad WCV.

At school as a kid he was a nightmare, he couldn’t concentrate and was always getting in trouble, nothing nasty, no fighting or aggression but just not good at understanding the consequences.

We just thought he was naughty and treated him as such, clearly now, he had issues which turned out to be autism in some degree but I think probably worse.

Anyway, he found it hard to fit in, always desperate for friends he ended up easily lead and got in with the lowlife at school who preyed on him.

He started using weed at 13, a shock to us because we’ve never even smoked.

Grounded him but he just climbed out of his bedroom window and climbed our security gates and walked three miles to his supplier!

Tried carrot and stick with him but nothing really worked.

Parents who think they can control a ****ager (or older) and put rules and regs and discipline in place are very much mistaken, once on drugs there’s nothing you can do.

As his ****s progressed he got into “legal highs” and it was then we knew we had a massive problem.

It became obvious that he was using, the paranoia, helicopters landing in our garden, people outside our house trying to get him, the weight dropping off him, no appetite despite being 6 feet 4 tall at 14, the sores on his body.

It got a grip of him and at 18 he was skeletal and nearly died.

Then there’s the obvious lies and thieving from home, the “gaslighting” whereby YOU are the one with the problem and the passive aggressive behaviour, slamming doors when they don’t want to answer a question, cutting you off on the phone etc, etc.

By 25 he was a full blown cocaine and strong weed addict, he stunk of it and was off his head even at work.

In the end he begged for rehab which we paid for, it got him off coke but not weed, that took another 3 years, he was f kin horrible on weed.

If anyone tells you it’s not a worry if your kid is only doing weed they are a f u c k I n g idiot, it makes them into paranoid liars.

You also end up with drug dealers chasing debts and threatening family, I’ve paid them off numerous times up to 4 years ago.

He’s off all the stuff now, as far as I can tell but he’s still a very difficult character to live with and be around.

If your instinct is telling you there’s something not right then trust your instincts as a parent, do not be fobbed off and if you need to, be sneaky and follow them and check their movements etc.

Your children will lie to you, they all do, just like we lied to our parents.

The biggest mistake I see in other parents these days is the vibe they give out that their kids are perfect and everything is rosy, this is unbelievably naive WCV.

Sadly, most of us who have 2,3 or 4 kids or more will have at least one who’s using, abusing alcohol be it only binge drinking like my own brother or got a gambling or online p o r n addiction costing them thousands.

All I can say is don’t be naive at any point and be brutally honest with yourselves as parents.

I did a bad job due to being too naive, too trusting and too willing to accept bull sh it and delude myself for too long.

Your children have the right to disappoint you, they well do that, be prepared for it.

I hope they don’t though mate, good luck.

[westcountryvillain]

Cheers Mick, I see some of the above in my eldest, I've never been naive about what he might be doing but it is a nightmare when they are so determined to disengage from any contact.

[mickd1961]

Cheers Mick, I see some of the above in my eldest, I've never been naive about what he might be doing but it is a nightmare when they are so determined to disengage from any contact.

Invite your eldest to take a Boots drug test WCV, if they refuse you can bet your backside they’re using.

Are they driving yet?

I afk this because although my lad got off coke at rehab he was on weed for another 3 years and ended up losing his licence for a year which very nearly cost him his job.

Driving drugged up is often worse than with booze in the system.

If you get the drug test refusal and all of the “you should trust me” and s h I t loads of indignation then I’m afraid you have a problem.

You’ll also get told that it’s YOU that’s got the problem.

[westcountryvillain]

Good advice Mick, thanks for that - yes he's a driver, doesn't touch drink, appreciated mate.