Syringes warning signs

Why there of all places though? Are there just more junkies in that area throwing them over the wall?

I have neither time nor sympathy for junkies, they are a menace. We would regularly find sharps where we had to work on or about the track in open sections and in the tunnels and often meet these undesirables on nightshift.
I was accosted more than once when having to access both stations and off premises equipment rooms in the wee small hours and it's not pleasant especially when working alone in some of the seedier parts of the capital. What they need is permanent residential supervision and to be kept off the streets to enjoy one another's twilight zones.

I remember when I once took drugs on the tube.

By that I mean I took what I found on the floor, a bag containing a white powder, to a BTP officer on the platform, only to be searched seconds later, questioned for at least 15 minutes and then let go!

(I must have been 16 at the time and just seen a very special Libertines gig nearby).

But I remember being told one of the biggest problems on the tube at night isn't just cable theft and petty vandalism but homeless people looking for a place to sleep and what tends to come with it, drugs drink etc... .

Toby

I see your bag of white powder and raise you a 500ml bottle of methadone mixture 1mg/ml (DTF)! I was working in two different pharmacies one day, for a variety of reasons I had to transfer a bottle of methadone between the two. At the time I didn't have car so was using public transport.....

"Have you been in contact with or have any illegal drugs upon your person sir?

"Oh yes, this bottle of methadone. Here's a copy of the signed requisition, here's my RPSGB registration certificate and here's the Inter-pharmacy transfer documentation. This is my pharmacy registration number, this is where I've come from and this is where I'm going. Oh, my train's in fifteen minutes, will this take long?"

Since then Dr Shipman has had all sorts of effects, which alas means that on occassions patients have to go without medication (and I don't just mean methadone ).

Throw druggies in a padded cell and let them go cold turkey however monitor them and intervene in extreme cases if life is in danger.

Their actions dumping their detritus anywhere puts others at risk. No methadone prescriptions either as drug taking is a life/death choice not an illness.

XF

As an ex-smoker myself (40 a day for 25 years) I tried several times to give up but failed dismally as those around me who were smokers continually taunted me by lighting up and offering me a butt.

My solution to a problem of my own making was to take a month off work and lock myself in my own house incommunicado without smoking materials for the whole month. It was not easy and after three weeks without a drag I had the worst craving ever but my willpower prevailed. Returning to work after my 'holiday' I was faced with the usual "you'll never last, stop trying, have a fag, go on". However, I persevered and have lasted the course, now a few days short of 16 years smoke free apart from one night in a pub in Hammersmith a year after I had given up when at a celebration I smoked several cigarettes while downing a lot of beer, fortunately a very sore throat and a hangover the next day was enough to keep me smoke free ever since!
Cold turkey is IMO the only way to give up smoking but the danger of a relapse is ever present, even after 10 years of abstinence I still had that occasional craving for a cigarette but never gave in. I haven't had such a craving for the last few years but I like to steer clear of smokers AFAIP nowadays.

I don't believe in feeding substitutes to ex-smokers or drug addicts, I see cold turkey as the right cure and isolation as the pathway to a cure. I don't think too much should be spent on monitoring isolated addicts, after the first two or three weeks most of the 'climbing the walls' withdrawal symptons ought to be relatively low for those who really want to quit, for the rest I would expect them to tough it out as society does not owe them a life, unless they would be willing to 'cough up' for private treatment and aid the NHS to provide care for the genuinely sick.

I have to say that I see alcoholics in the same way. If the politicians had any guts they would ban the manufacture and sale of cigarettes except for export and confiscate any found upon persons. Perhaps all alcohol for human consumption needs to be 'watered', putting up the prices will do nothing to deter the determined imbiber. I have always liked a drink myself and still do but I am all but teetotal these days, I have four bottles of beer in for Christmas, the first alcohol I will drink since the four bottles I bought to celebrate last Christmas. I don't need it and I don't crave it (there was a time but it was more than 20 years ago) and in all honesty I have better things to spend money upon.

Phasing out cigarettes would deal the fatal blow to smoking as a mainstream activity. Existing smokers should register in order to be allowed to buy, and quantities be monitored and controlled if necessary.

A date could be set, say in two years time, after which no new registrations would be accepted, thus effectively ending the availability of cigarettes to newcomers.

Retail outlets could be strictly licenced, and would be required to stock safer substitute products, at reasonable prices, as and when such become available. No such substitutes should be available via prescription. If you can afford cigarettes, you can easily afford the alternative.

People receiving benefit could have their entitlement reduced in line with quantity of tobacco bought, giving added incentive to quit or switch.

The asbestos industry was virtually destroyed within two years, despite the product being less harmful and far more useful than tobacco. The smoking industry's continuing existence is a shameful example of corporate greed and political collusion taking precedence over the elimination of human suffering.

It is utterly beyond my comprehension how anyone can even think of attempting to justify the injecting of heroin. The message we must give, if we are ever to be free of this scourge, must be unequivocal. 'Don't Take Heroin'.

Unbelieveable!

To me, it's 'unbelieveable' that anyone should think heroin addiction is anything but a blight on humanity; but I suppose even smallpox must have its supporters somewhere.

It's beyond mine as well but despite heroin being an illegal substance it doesn't stop people dealing or taking it. I would have thought making smoking illegal will achieve the same result. As you may be aware, the smuggling and trade of tobacco into the UK is of epic proportions already and rising. The crime involved spreads to extreme violence as well.

As long as one doesn't have to passively smoke the results against one's will, I don't see what the problem is. It's somebody else's life to cut short by their choice and none of my business.

I don't get the asbestos analogy.