A sleepy town in the hills

Life here ticks on in it's usual chaotic fashion, lurching from one thing to another.So firstly me, I've got bronchitis and feel frightful, And it's definitely one of the times in my life that I wish I wasn't so much of a lady and knew how to do a throat curdling spit! I probably need a course of antibiotics, but just cause I work in a doctors surgery doesn't mean I can easily go to my own doc! But it will make going to work an interesting experience tomorrow coughing my guts up!

Probably too much information in that paragraph!

Moving on, my dog is having an identity crisis, and has become an Anteater...... Yesterday sitting in the sunshine with me as an ant walked past her nose a tongue would pop out of her mouth and the ant vacuumed up. Felt a bit like the song about the old lady that swallowed a fly form my childhood.

Youngest son continues to be a major worry. He ended up in hospital on Friday night, as a supposed friend of his attacked him with a knuckle duster so splitting his skull. Which then had to be glued back together, and he was sent home after an ECG as his heart had gone into overdrive.

But was that the shock of the attack, or was that whatever he'd been taking that night, and the jury is still out on that one.

We live in a sleepy little country town surrounded by hills, with a few cities a drive away. So unless anyone has money to travel the young people are stuck inside this town. Which means they are bored and experiment with drugs a lot. None more so than my son.

You may remember last year he was in and out of hospital, as he had an adverse reaction to dope, which means he can never smoke it again. So he, like his mates has moved on. In actual fact, he isn't as bad as his mates who seem to be off their faces most of the time. Whereas he only does them at the weekends, not that, that makes it any better.

The Government have just classified the youth drug of choice, Mcat into a class B drug. It was widely available and cheap. It was making kids ill, with paranoia, liver problems and stomach issues. But at least it was pure. Now it's illegal it's been cut with silicone, to name one substance. This has the effect of making the stomach swell to stop them needing fluid so the problems are being made worse as kidney issues and dehydration are now happening.

What is really frightening is that as soon as Mcat was unavailable a new product flies into the country from China ( Mcat comes from there) So another new designer drug is readily available from the internet, and no-one knows what the consequences of taking any of these drugs will be, either short or long term. But any drug that originates in garden fertiliser as Mcat does, is not designed for beautiful young bodies.

Of course the simplistic answer is to educate youth about the dangers and they won't do it...right!

We live in a culture where youth enjoy the feeling of getting off their faces, whether with drugs or alcohol or both. It is a life choice for so many. I ask my son why he doesn't just walk away, he's a bright lad, he knows how many beans make five.

But he feels trapped, if he doesn't get off his face as ALL the people who knows do in the town, then the only way to avoid it is to stay in at night (and he knows an awful lot of people, and when he tells me who some of them are, I know that their parents don't know about what they are doing). That is a choice he's actively done now during the week, but the lure of Friday/Saturday night out is very strong.

However he also appreciates that he is damaging his body and he needs to get seriously fit if he's going to get in the army in January. So the pressure is on him big time and it's a dreadful dilemma.(He can't join up until then, due to being in prison for something he did under the influence of drink and drugs last year)

I do not condone his behaviour at all. But I do understand the pressures he's under. He longs to escape into the discipline of the army, he thinks it's a way to make good all the horrors of the last couple of years. He has to keep his nose clean till then. Which he is doing his best to do, but isn't been helped by other young men off their faces, coming out for the evening with a knuckle dusters in their pocket. This particular young man comes from as respectable a family as my son does.

These drugs are damaging our young people. So maybe that's all part of the Chinese plan, who needs to fight to take over a country when the youth are all lying in the gutters stoned and damaged on drugs supplied by them.

I also wonder if part of the problem isn't the endless knee jerk reaction from Governments to such things as Mcat,especially as the drugs advisory council didn't want Mcat made into a class B drug so soon, as they didn't think there was enough evidence available.

The thing I ponder is, does anyone in the Government actually talk to anyone my sons age, and try and understand what and why they are doing what they are doing. Why there is this need to get off their faces as fast as possible by whatever means around. When I receive drugs awareness advice it's patently been written by people who do care passionately about helping kids, but who actually don't understand the drivers that are making our youth so disaffected.

I have never done drugs, I enjoy Champagne too much! But I admit I was horrified recently when I was told by a friend that she was finding it difficult to settle into a new area as everyone her age is smoking dope. On top of this another person told me about a neighbouring town to my friends where the drug of choice is coke amongst people my age.

What hope have the youth, what role model.

It will be happening in your home town, even if you don't know of any actual examples. This sleepy town I live in is only the tip of the iceberg.

So whilst I may worry about saving the planet and being greener with my recycling, maybe I need to start closer to home and worry about what is happening in the Western world to our young people.

Another post that's been allowed a free will and not gone where I thought it would!