To have felt a bit sorry for this shoplifter / drug addict?

[Estelvia]

I was in savers this afternoon and a man was caught trying to steal. The staff got the items back before escorting him out of the shop, as he was being lead out of the door he was pleading with them saying that he's ill / withdrawing and needs 'dark' (which is slang for heroin)

The employee told him to sling his hook and get a job, cue some swearing from him and calling them knob heads among other things.

We saw him walk up the highstreet and into Holland and Barretts where he presumably tried the same thing.

My initial thought was "scumbag" but then it hit me just how desperate somebody must be to resort to that and what an miserable existence it is having to steal to ward off painful withdrawals. I'm not condoning theft or any other crimes they commit to fund the habit.

Do you have any sympathy for these types of people?

Zero sympathy - will you feel sorry for him when he mugs a little old lady? Doubt it.

No I wouldn't.

Perhaps I'm being a bit of a mug.

I do have sympathy -- it must be a truly horrendous life: a serious heroin addiction is something that robs people'of their lives and basically turns them into animals. At a human level its hard not to pity someone who's reduced to this. Its also by all accounts very difficult to get treatment and very few people succeed.

But what else can the staff have done? You can't tolerate behaviour like that in a shop....

I have sympathy with people with addictions; often it’s pretty awful childhood and life experiences that have led to it and that’s about deeper issues in society. That doesn’t make it ok to steal to fund that habit but I can see how people are driven to it.

Yes, I have sympathy. Addiction has been linked strongly to childhood abuse. It’s not often people with rosy lives who choose to fuck them up and live on the fringes of society.

Yes, I have sympathy. Yes, I would have thrown him out of the shop if I owned it and caught him shoplifting or called the police. You can feel sorry for people without thinking it's ok for them to steal.

Yes and no. I used to work alongside them and 99% of them are actually lovely normal humans deep down but they always have a horrific story to tell about their past that made them turn to drugs. On the flip side, a lot of them don't help themselves as they always hang around with the same dodgy people, will be on methadone forever and refuse to help themselves.

Heroin addiction used to be managed by doctors here in the 60's and it was available on prescription. Still is in some other more humane countries. Its a shame it's still not, would cut out the underworld crime element and treat them as patients which is what they become. Dreadful addiction.

Well nobody chooses to have an addiction but there is help out there ,and people can be given medication to help with withdrawal,s although it can take time to be referred etc ,but what could the staff do ?

@WellIWasInTheNeighbourhoo

Heroin addiction used to be managed by doctors here in the 60's and it was available on prescription. Still is in some other more humane countries. Its a shame it's still not, would cut out the underworld crime element and treat them as patients which is what they become. Dreadful addiction.

I agree with this. Surely it would be easier in the long run to manage this as a medical condition. Better than these scenes or people being mugged.

No one just suddenly decides to try heroin. There are things that happen to and around people and there are choices that are made. The consequences of these choices are addicts who would mug a granny or a child as soon as look at them to feed their habit.

It becomes their whole word, the reason they drag themselves out of bed in the morning. They will do anything for a fix, forgoing food, washing, heating. Selling anything they can get their hands on.

It really is a scourge in our society but I honestly don’t see a realistic solution. That for me is what makes it sad. For every one who gets clean how many more OD? How many families have lost people? Tragic

No one's goal in life is that existence.
A couple of different choices and we could all have succumbed.

I wonder about the prescription opioid addicts too. It won't be long before they get cut off from their legitimate supply. America has a huge problem because of this.

@WellIWasInTheNeighbourhoo it is managed by medication it’s called Methadone but it’s not a silver bullet

I have huge sympathy. It could easily be any one of us. It’s yet another aspect of society that’s going backwards, we treated these poor buggers far better 50 years ago.

They do @SnuggyBuggy people can be treated by community drug teams with medication ,it can take a while to be seen however,and sometimes some addicts won't engage with services

He would probably tell you to stick your sympathy up your arse his lifestyle feels right to him it's.a terrible life to have to him it's normal.which is sad but the staff in Savers shouldn't have to deal with him.
.

Can’t they just take Methadone to stave off withdrawals?

If they have them heroin on prescription, they'd probably just increase the amount they take or sell it on.

Many just see methadone as a free hit and there have been cases where addicts have given it to babies and toddlers to shut them up!

It should only be given out at a pharmacy where you prove you swallowed it.

I'm very sympathetic, but don't know what the answer is. I can't decide if he was lucky or not that they didn't call the police.
I agree that staff in low-paid, low-discretion jobs quite often have to deal with this sort of person, and shouldn't really have to.
It's tricky.

I think methedone is controlled now nobody gets it at home addicts where I live go to the chemists to get it given to them,also Methedone doesn't give addicts the same sensation as herion that Is why it is so hard to quit.

I read an article some time ago, that talked about how drugs aren’t the main threat to addicts - it’s the things they do to get the drugs. I can’t remember where it was now, but they had a program where addicts could go to a centre and get their drugs given to them - safely and controlled. They were then far more able to function in their lives, and could even start to slowly wean themselves off. It was a really interesting solution, and seemed to be working.

You have to go to a chemist to get methadone and its prescribed -- its not something you can get over the counter.

WitchesGlove I don't think its a "hit" either... I think it just staves off withdrawal symptoms but its not meant to give you the euphoria you get from opiates.

And to be honest if you're an addict and you're able to get a decent supply of heroin you wouldn't need to shoplift.

WellIWasInTheNeighbourhoo I do think there must be a better way to manage it. It's a horrible drug and should be avoided like the plague but once people are hooked it seems far more sensible for their addiction to be managed medically rather than left to fend for themselves by theft and prostitution etc. I think that's what methadone is intended to do but it seems a poor substitute for actual heroin.

We've dodged a bullet with it here compared to the US: in some states vast swathes of the population became addicted to it via prescription painkillers.

Horrible drug. In the city where I live there are a lot of homeless drug addicts. Its a complex problem. I've put one guy in a taxi before to get the hospital as his leg looked so painful and infected but in terms of practical help its not that straightforward. Very sad.

RonObvious

I believe that's true. A doctor acquaintance told me opiates, medically speaking, are relatively "harmless" in the pharmaceutical sense if taken in the right dose and clean (not mixed with the shit they cut them with on the streets). Unlike alcohol which damages your organs.

The problem with them is that they are so addictive that they basically rewire people's brain chemistry so they can't function without them. Hence this guy.

Yes I do. People don't grow up hoping to be a drug addict and it usually stems from trauma.

He should be in prison away from society. Feel sorry for the victims of criminals.