To consider moving because kids found woman passed out on crack?

[DrugsWorry]

In the park earlier this week, my DS and some friends (all 7/8) found a man who was passed out on crack (he had a crack pipe, so it was crack).

We phoned an ambulance, dealt with it, told the kids a fib, but I am deeply freaked out by it and am even willing to consider moving house. Drug dealing is becoming more open and prevalent in our neighbourhood in London and I am increasingly feeling that I don’t want my kids growing up around it.

I’ve lived in London all my life and have never seen anything like this.

YABU = this is part of urban living, suck it up.
YANBU = get out of there.

Yeah, I'd want to move tbh. Where I live isn't without its issues, but I've never had to deal with anything like that, nor would I want to

Drugs are fine now. Everyone agrees.

I live in Cornwall and this happens regularly.

I stopped taking my DD to the local park after she found a dirty needle.

Whats worse is that these are all adults usually 25+ so must have homes they can go and do it in.

I moved when I found myself in a similar situation to you OP. Grew up in East London and the crime never bothered me until I had children. Seeing a semi naked woman shooting up outside our flat on a daily basis whilst taking them to school was kind of the last straw but the general violence, stabbings in broad daylight also played a part along with the drug addicted vagrants and aggressive beggers. Oh and there was the time someone was shot dead outside DC’s school and they had to stay home for a day as it was a crime scene. Ironically property prices in the area are incredibly high which meant I was able to sell my small flat there and buy a house in a nicer area.

Ignore the “you can’t move anywhere to avoid this kind of behaviour” comments. Of course you can. We moved just 5 miles away and it’s like night and day.

Posted too soon.

Or if they’re homeless then why not do it where they sleep.
Why do it in a childrens park!

It's difficult.

I love where I live for a lot of reasons, it's very central, everything is close but there is the antisocial element that becomes harder to ignore.

I research moving to the country but it looks like there is drug's and trouble everywhere, at least around here I know people so it feels safe if trouble was to come I'd have support.

I’d move if things like this and the stabbing were happening regularly and you can’t even protect and prevent yourself and your children from coming across it.

I’m voting YABU - as I’ve lived in a number of London Boroughs

• Wandsworth (Falcon Rd bit)
• Richmond- Upon- Thames
• Walthamstow

Also East Birmingham near Boardsley Green. A lot of gang crime is evident in some places, yet- i’ve genuinely never seen any open drug use. Plenty of other time spent in and around central london, still nothing.

However, spending time in other places for example; Glasgow, Canterbury, Margate or Torquay was a shock to the amount of open drug use. A man unconscious across the pavement in Glasgow at 3pm outside Queen St station was a particular shock.
Needles piled high in a front garden in the Wincheap area of Canterbury another.

If you’re happy with other aspects of your life in your location I think this would be a bad reason to relocate as the issue exists everywhere, sometimes more openly, the grass is not always greener.

Fairly common in n Wales. And county lines, knives and roaming gangs of violent kids.

Wonder if we'll see many spice addicts in Welcome to Wrexham.

Why did you lie to your kids? Surely this is a perfect teaching opportunity?

If you have more than one child presumably you've been visiting local parks for a while. If you've never experienced this before surely it's not as bad as you're making it sound?

We've recently moved a just over a mile from one part of London to another, from urban to more suburban and the difference is very noticeable. Maybe just try a different part of London? I've been a Londoner for a long time and couldn't face leaving, but I was getting tired of feeling 'on' with my surroundings with the kids playing with friends, when out and about near our old house. I didn't realise what a toll it was taking until we moved and now I feel so much more relaxed heading out to the park with the kids. There's still the occasional unsavoury character, but no one passed out in doorways etc.

I grew up in London and this was not a regular occurrence in my childhood - I grew up in a shitty part of south east London.

I would move. We did move out of London. Yes there’s crime, yes there’s drugs but not to the same extent. Things are worse and will get worse under the delightful government we have.

Yes, move. I was living somewhere quite central in London with a lot of crackheads and now we’ve moved somewhere more suburban and I think it’s so much more relaxed. Also I feel better about raising kids around here.

For me it's about safety - I couldn't live somewhere I didn't feel safe. There's a big drug problem where I live but I still feel pretty safe walking around and letting my kids walk around etc - I don't worry they'll come across something distressing such as someone passed out with a crack pipe.

I would move.

there’s a road in the town where I live that’s problematic with drugs by on it seems isolated to there. My estate & the surrounding estates are good & what I would consider safe.

Nah, it’s character building 😂 However, if it does continue to get worse, then perhaps act upon it. Moving every time they witness bad things will probably cause them more issues though.

I grew up in a tiny wee town that had 1 black and 5 Asian people in it, no real disabled people, 2 junkies, everyone knew Jake and ryan! I was sheltered as fuck clearly just from my town's residents. I moved to Glasgow by myself at 15, fair grew up and got more knowledgeable fast.

Had my kids and noped out there fast when the only nursery was in a rough as fuck part of the city.

Now in the borders, town has drugs yes. We've had three drug (heroin) deaths/drug involved murders in our 9 years here. Cocaines the drug of choice here, will change occupations here to not make it obvious but
Retained fire fighter
police admin staff
coo
spa manager
funeral director

Any person you meet in the street, all bloody sniffing. We invited lovely down to earth friends round for dinner who whipped out a line not 3 metres from my kids, OUT!!

Anyways, it's not the drugs id be worried about in London tbf.

I live in an, um, affordable area of London, and crack is a problem locally. There have been many times where we'd get home to find crackheads passed out in front of the door to our flats. I plan to move when we can. It's the area I grew up in and it's always been a bit rough around the edges, but I think it is worse now and as a pp said you see things differently when you're raising kids there.

When I talk about moving out of London lots of people are quick to tell me about county lines blah blah, but IMO they're underestimating the scale of the issue where I currently live (which is more than just crack - also teen violence, high cost low quality housing etc). And of course notallLondonislikethat but obviously if I could afford Hampstead I wouldn't be living in crack central!

Bollocks, I lived in London for 20 years and saw zero crackheads passed out in street in my neighbourhood (central london, sure).

Moved to pleasant commuter village. 20 years here and never seen any visible evidence of drugs.

my previous posts no real disabled people means exactly as we thought of disabled people in the 90s/00s. Times have changed for the better thank fuck.

Said as a disabled person.

Please could someone tell me what is meant by “County Lines” I assumed it was just drugs crossing between counties but I guess not.

I'm in the suburbs of a Northern City- so long as you stay away from the centre it's generally OK - certain bits of town attract the addicts so I stay away from there. It's still shocking to me about people choosing to shoot up/smoke a pipe in a kids park though- not something I've come across personally.
I think parts of London seem terrifying sometimes- the knife/gang crime is horrific. I love London as a visitor- best place in the world but I only stay and visit the 'best' bits. That said it was 2019 since I've been so it may well have changed since then.

I wouldn't know a crack pipe if it bit me in the butt.

We moved before I got pregnant because of this. As adults it’s something I felt capable of dealing with, but walking past junkies on benches was never pleasant.

Unfortunately, where we moved o was just as bad and I witnessed so many deals taking place and “spice zombies” on the street it was pretty uncomfortable, although they never caused any actual issue.

We moved again when my DS was three, so he could grow up in a nicer area and really paid a premium (houses cost at least double what we’d paid previously). I’m under no illusion that there’s still drugs around, but due to the area it’s not so obvious and people do it behind closed doors. Obviously there’s the odd whiff of weed now and again! I’m much happier living here though!

I could be wrong but I’ve only ever seen it used in reference to this but I thinks it’s a type of drug trafficking that introduces drugs into smaller areas across different places that haven’t really seen high drug use until then using children and vulnerable people