To feel so sad about what happened to our town?

I think people with good teeth do not understand that not having access to dentists does lead to teeth being taken out. Small preventative treatments at the dentists that used to be routine are now not happening for many people. So by the time they can see a dentist, tooth removal is often the only option.

I'm losing my teeth and gaining poorer and poorer health from many mouth abcesses, simply because there are NO NHS dentists for over 100 miles of where i live, and the private ones all wanting circa a thousand pounds per stub to remove whats left.. per tooth! I don't have that so am surviving on painkillers and soft food best I can, cant sleep , dont remember a day without pain in the last ten years and hate being out in public, it's humiliating. Cost of living and cutting of services are huge drivers for more people than you realise

https://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/24282577.braintree-lingard-fabrics-rayne-road-closes/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0WntkqrmOYXts0NV8Xug9nwb5xRUZpU3LbLDtD9IvwPgnqz8-T0dpAV08_aem_ATaZFNiSfLmhMnsYJxPXYg-yjWtfXMay5V12ZmT9lXTrHtWSOZQnWPKH4Q7KOnLP814jHPz8mBbPS8dgQeho-MhP

So free market capitalism does not exist. A bastardized version operates globally.

Capitalism relies on selling a solution to, in the first instance, an identified need or problem, and convincing people to buy it. Psychological marketing tactics are big business, have been since Edward Bernays started working on it in the 20s and 30s. (Much to the delight of the Nazis who applied his methods to propaganda with great success).

Once a market is saturated, businesses need to get creative. They can do this by inventing a need that no-one thought they had, marketing it, and building on it.

Technology has aided greatly in this endeavour. Relax morals and standards, offer impossible dreams, make people desperate to "fit in" and voila, a never ending cycle of sucking "disposable income" out of the populous.

That's a very simplified version, but this is what's happening. And whether a commodity I'd legal, moral or necessary is irrelevant when the only goal is profit.

Because the supply chains are often embedded in "legitimate" businesses Because bribery and blackmail of people in authority is a thing. Because of money laundering. It's all a very complex Web. Because cut off one head, another two will grow.

@taxguru I remember when we lived in Copenhagen being surprised that a member of Danish parliament was suspended for claiming 200 Euros on his expenses that he used for taking his wife out for a meal- I don't think it would even register here.

Nail on the head. I remember seeing that episode and thought exactly the same. We seem to have lost our moral compass in the UK.

I think Jeremy Clarkson said something very telling on Top Gear once- they were talking to a bunch of Germans about people driving without licenses or insurance or tax etc- and to a man they all said 'but you can't do that- it's the law' - it simply didn't seem to enter their heads that people here did indeed do these things even though it's 'against the law' - a certain section of society (and it's not remotely linked to immigration etc) think that laws don't matter - take the consequences 'if' you get caught and a total lack of policing in all areas of life mean the likelihood of getting caught is way less than it was .. we have allowed the rise of the feral underclass . It's these people that then become dealers, Nick cars, deliberately cause crashes for cash insurance scams, they want the trappings of money but without being prepared to put the hours and effort in without instant big rewards..

but in reality everybody is too busy due to progress and trying to survive to actually do anything because stamping out serious criminality would upset the financial apple cart.

Sorry, mistress, another question:
How would stamping out drug criminality upset the financial Apple cart for anyone other than drug dealers and cartel runners?

You're not wrong that the countries you mention in particular are publicly very hard line when they get hold of drug dealers. However if that is a tip of an iceberg, how much goes on underneath?

I don’t know but I do know in the case of Singapore and Korea (I can’t speak for other countries in East Asia) drug taking is very frowned upon and if someone is caught they are ‘cancelled’.
The reaction is similar to what happens here is someone is exposed as a racist.
Sometimes actors are caught - a recent example being a brilliant Korean actor called Yoo Ah In. He was tested for cannabis on his return to Korea from America and traces are enough there to be arrested - he wasn’t found with anything on him. Then he was discovered to have illegally procured propofol from doctors.
He has lost everything and he hasn’t even been found guilty in a court of law yet.
He has lost all his drama/film roles and he’s even been edited out of a recent drama he made. Another film in which he starred has not been released.
This is what happens to celebrities who are caught taking drugs there. If an office worker or factory worker was caught they’d be out on their ear.
So there may be some ketamine in night clubs but I honestly don’t think there is an opiate endemic like in some countries in the west.

This ain't going to be popular opinion here but we've got to start death sentencing drug dealers. Not just the damage done to lives of people addicted is ruined but also their kids who are neglected and victims of crimes like theft to fund the habit. Yes there are cartels in South America and fentanyl coming from china but it's supply and demand and I guarantee that demand will go right down if we start putting drug dealers out of their misery (I am not talking about teenagers who sell a bit of weed).
No way is it right that someone selling hard drugs should be coming out of prison after less than a year

As you can tell I'm pretty cynical which I acknowledged fully reflects the way my personal circumstances have dragged me into a pretty dark place.

You're not wrong that the countries you mention in particular are publicly very hard line when they get hold of drug dealers. However if that is a tip of an iceberg, how much goes on underneath?

Japan in particular has a strong gang culture with regard to drugs.

Another "industry" that is allowed to proliferate apparently is around sexual exploitation. The Internet has fueled that, particularly in the case of images of minors. Is it truly beyond the capability of law enforcement with access to technology to seek out the perpetrators and shut it down? Or again, are there people profiting both financially and serving their warped desires who are loath to truly protect the vulnerable because their selfish needs come first?

I know I'm being really dark here, but years of watching this all play out and apparently spiral out of control makes me wonder what the hell is going on.

It's as if we live in two worlds sometimes, the one where everybody is up in arms and determined on paper to improve things, but in reality everybody is too busy due to progress and trying to survive to actually do anything because stamping out serious criminality would upset the financial apple cart.

As Dirk Gently would say it appears everything is connected.....

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. What drives people to addiction? What allows drugs to be pretty readily available?
Hopelessness is a driving factor I think.

Yes I’m sure hopelessness is a driving factor but as you say, it’s a chicken and egg situation.
X says he drank because he lost his job and his wife left him….or did he lose his job and his wife left him because of his drinking.

If dealing drugs is profitable a blind eye is turned because the goal is money.
Maybe but countries have been trying to stop drugs entering because of the appalling damage wrought by them to society and the only people who benefit are the dealers and those running the cartels.
Drug use damages profitability as addicts are usually unemployable.
Capitalists countries like Singapore, Korea and Japan certainly don’t turn a blind eye to drug dealing.

Eh?

To the poster, your negativity it’s just overwhelming. Everything is conspiring to defile society in your eyes even the sound of the cars.
You’ve got a spiral going on take advice from your friends

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. What drives people to addiction? What allows drugs to be pretty readily available?

Hopelessness is a driving factor I think.

Capitalism focuses on money at all costs, the accumulation of it, the obtaining of it, the power having money confers etc. If dealing drugs is profitable a blind eye is turned because the goal is money.

I wonder if we will see complete collapse of society to be honest.

The sheer scale of today's problem may be an unintended consequence but it is a consequence.

You may well be right, Mistress, but what to do about it?
The opiate problem is completely out of control and as far as I know there has been no effective way of stopping it.
Some countries in the Far East don’t have the problem but it’s only getting worse in many countries in the west.

I agree in rest of the world I never see groups of unruly, rude and sometimes downright scary groups of teenagers ruling the roost like you do here across the country. In other countries children/teens are either far more mollycoddled or alternatively grow up much faster and have to work. Here we give them freedom but no rules.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_trafficking_allegations#:~:text=The%20CIA's%20front%20company%2C%20Air,the%20Laotian%20military%20doing%20it.

Homelessness fueled by drug addiction is the result in part of corruption higher up the food chain. It's a black economy industry and if you think that law enforcement, councils, transport companies and even politicians haven't benefited from it since the explosion in the 60s you are extremely naive.

Look it up. Look up how drugs were allowed to proliferate in the US partly as an experiment to see what would happen. LSD was actually put into circulation in some towns as part of MK-Ultra operations. This is not tin foil hat conspiracy theory, it is documented fact.

The sheer scale of today's problem may be an unintended consequence but it is a consequence. Like it or not, drug money helps the world economy keep turning, and pissing about with raids here and there and criminalising low level dealers of weed is sticking a plaster on an arterial spurt.

Cartels in South America keep whole towns in line by helping the locals using part of their profits. At a cost of course. A brutal, bloody cost.

Traces of cocaine have been found on toilet cisterns in the House of Commons for Heavens sake. When those at the heart of power are having a little pick me up but can afford to, you realise what we're up against. And honestly some of the policy making in recent years makes me wonder just how high some of our ministers are most of the time.

I feel like drugs aren't mentioned enough on this thread, talking about San Francisco have you not heard of fentanyl? No amount of "nice" ideas is going to stop that. I know someone who was arrested for selling crack and heroin and out of prison within one year.

Like i said Prevention is the long term solution.

We have homeless problems too, do nothing and we will end up like the US.

San Francisco also has massive housing problems due to high rents driven by the tech explosion there.

Alexandra
Isn’t the homelessness problem in some American cities such as San Francisco largely caused by drugs and the easily available fentanyl and other opiates?
I don’t know how anyone from the right or left is going to tackle this.