Don’t give up on helping, just be jaded and wise about it. Don’t give them the chance to steal from you. If they call in sick the day after payday, cut them loose.
From: Ty Featherling Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2016 7:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT heroin My wife and I tried to help out a friend that was slipping do the dark side with painkillers. It ended up costing me a year of drama in my home for my family and a finding a bunch of stuff had been stolen from under my nose. We parted ways and he was in jail within 6 months for a non-drug related charge. It didn't go well. I vowed not to do that to my family again. It's true, you can't help them, only enable them. If they are actively trying to escape it, they will have to do it alone. -Ty -Ty On Thu, Mar 3, 2016 at 8:13 AM, Chuck McCown <[email protected]> wrote: I have attempted to help a bunch of junkies over the years. Very few success stories. If they escape, they do it themselves. If you hire one, expect they will steal from you and end up back in jail. Don’t believe a word they say about anything. From: That One Guy /sarcasm Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2016 11:08 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [AFMUG] OT heroin So another fella I used to know ODd today. He is the youngest of three brothers, the oldest having croaked out from overdose a few years ago, the middle is on the run after cutting an ankle bracelet for heroin charges and now the mom whom I used to work with gets to put a second son in the dirt. Somewhere between 10 and 20 of the folks I used to run around with are feeding worms now, I quit taking actual count some time ago. I personally don't care about dead junkies, while they're smacked out, they aren't people, just shells of people, a danger to everyone around them I help the few who can be salvaged, I'm selfish in that I won't expose my family, but for example, last year I dropped off a backpack with food toiletries, cigarettes and and blanket to an old friend who was homeless and in some need, but that's as much as I can enable these guys. Is this new? Or am I just hitting an age where the sins of our past begin to catch up? As an industry, in our scope, is there any reaching out we can do? We are in people's homes regularly, is there a link to resources we can provide? Is there any way we can be a part of the solution or are we just to isolated of an industry to do anything? I know it's a pick your battles world, nobody can help everybody, but this is madness, the destruction of so many lives and the collateral damage from one drug is astounding. Everybody, even homeless junkies are online. Granted our base tends not to be the smack addled youth, but would things like resource links on our websites, or outreach program info in our welcome packs be overstepping our bounds. I'm curious on a personal level because I have no other resource than my job.
