I’ve seen two drugs incidents in two days

[holly97]

I live in London. Yesterday morning I saw someone squatting down in a phone box handling what looked like drug paraphernalia. This morning I witnessed a drug deal - two men (one on a bike) facing the wall as I walked past and one handing over a small packet to the other. These were both in the morning on my way to work. Obviously we all know this goes on but to see it openly in broad daylight at that time of day was quite shocking. Both were in areas that were quite busy with pedestrians. I’m not sure what my point is really - it just makes you feel unsafe.

Come to Oxford its been like that for decades in and out of the city centre.

Really? I moved away from Oxford just over 10 years ago and have been back a few times since and have never seen this in the city centre. How sad.

I'm glad I live where I do - I never see anything like this.

Out of interest, where is there a phone box on your morning commute?

Yes, I would be interested to know this too. It's a very odd detail, isn't it?

There's phone boxes here still, without phones in now, just the empty box. There's one at the bus stop I get off at for work. Quite a few in town.

Where is "here" for you?

Sheffield.

But OP was in London. Apparently.

Fair enough. In London, however, such phone boxes are becoming really quite rare. There are some around - particularly in the west end and/or near to tourist attractions like the Tower of London - that are specifically aimed at tourists to the extent that there's often a queue of tourists lining up to pay to get photographed in front of them (yes, really). And there are others that have been turned into places where you can get a coffee or a beer even.

But there's vanishingly few in London that are just left empty enough for someone to attempt to take drugs in. Plus it seems a strangely exposed choice of drug-taking location given the huge number of back alleys, leafy squares, parks, shuttered entranceways, over/underpasses and other more discreet places that litter every area of London.

If one was unreasonably cynical one might almost think that the OP is making shit up.

Oh Holly. Before you were born (if you were born in 1997 as your username suggests) I started working in London, and the advice I was given was that the area I was working in was totally safe as long as you don't buy drugs, and if you do, you pay for them upfront and don't ask for tick. I've lived there since and I've found it an incredibly safe city - in fact I think it's got far safer since the 90s.

The phone box you saw - assuming it wasn't the Tardis, and wasn't a tourist attraction, was it one of those wifi points that's made to look like a phone box? Because if so, you can use them to charge a phone and a lot of people will squat / lean against the box while they're charging their phone because it's more comfortable. It doesn't mean they're shooting up 😂

Why would it make you feel unsafe?

I’m in my forties and have probably seen a couple of drug deals in my life how did you manage to see two in a day 🤥

It is sad, but it is a normal sight in a lot of places. I have seen people sit in the street and just shoot up. No care as to who is watching.
Another time, I saw a man keel over in an odd way. Someone rushed to his rescue. His mate told them to back off. He was on spice.