Lost

[Bob Pacey]

Lost

She lay there in the dirt and dust just off Collins street
needle tracks all up her arms no shoes upon her feet.
In the grime filled filthy doorway of an old abandoned shop
though people passed her lying there none took the time to stop.

How long she had been dead it was impossible to tell
the bruises on her face and head spoke of living hell.
The St Vinnies worker found her and recoiled at the sight
a piece of flotsam on the ocean another victim of the night.

Was she here because she chose so or forced to be by fate
the victim of a fractured broken family torn apart by hate.
Did she come in from the country wide eyed and full of hope
a runaway who'd lost all hope consumed by sex and dope.

This is the land of plenty where all are equal so they say
but are some more so than others are there no shades of grey?
So we go about our daily lives but we all must pay the cost
nothing changes, life goes on and another lonely soul is lost.

Bob Pacey (C)

[Neville Briggs]

When I had to deliver one of many remains of a young person to the city morgue in Glebe, the pathologist told me that they got, on average, one every day. And Bob, some of your questions do have answers if those in their big offices and taxpayer funded jets had the guts to handle the truth. And it ate me up that I suspected that some of my colleagues were so treacherous to be guilty of contributing to this evil.

[Bob Pacey]

I know Nev I read an article in an old mag while waiting at the doctors ( as you do at my age ) how a young girl had been found dead and just could not see the sense of something like that happening in a land of plenty.

There is so much wealth in this country but it is held in the control of so few.

Bob

[Maureen K Clifford]

You nailed it with this one Bob - totally agree with what Neville and Marty have already said - it is a tragic waste of life and yet the message seems to my eyes to not be getting through to the young ones. Perhaps legalizing drugs is the answer I don't know - what I do know is that if we say people can't do something they sure as hell try all the harder to do it. If we legalized them we would then have quality control and price control - girls and boys wouldn't have to go on the game to pay for them. That in itself could be considered a plus.

[Vic Jefferies]

Enjoyed the poem Bob. Well written on a very important and tragic issue. I do not subscribe to the idea of legalising drugs the main reason being which drugs are you going to legalise and who are you going to permit to take them? Should we legalise heroin, ice, speed and the various prescription drugs that are abused? Who would be allowed to take them and at what age?
I haven't been there but I understand from people who have that Amsterdam where marijuana and other drugs are legal is a nightmare.
I always remember a senior Salvation Army officer who had worked in the illicit drug area for many years saying that if we had put as much effort into fighting the Japanese during the war as we are putting into the fight against drugs we would all be eating rice!
Many claim that prohibition hasn't worked but I believe the miniscule efforts made by the police and the appalling attitude of the courts to the problem are significant factors in the spread of illegal drugs.
If you doubt this try and ascertain just how many police at your local police station work exclusively on drug detection and prevention. I doubt that the NSW police even has a drug squad now as it was disbanded some years ago.

[Heather]

Alcohol is a legal drug. I believe alcohol has far wider adverse affects on the community in the way of health, mental health, loss of earnings, road toll, domestic violence etc than illegal drugs - as bad as they are.

[Neville Briggs]

Good point Heather. When I was at Yooni, the prof had us doing a research project on the effects of drug use on the medical system and community health. The one that came out the worst .....nicotine.

[Vic Jefferies]

Neville that may have been the result in the terms of your reference but there can be absolutely no doubt that the most destructive drug within our society is alcohol. I have never heard of anyone killing somebody or belting their wife because they had one too many cigarettes...
We all know the story of prohibition in the USA and Al Capone etcetera, but I wonder if prohibition did in fact have any beneficial results.
I remember the ex chief of the New York Police Dept visiting Australia and declaring that an illicit drug culture can only flourish where there is poor administration and corruption. A big claim I know but he was the bloke who turned the crime rate in New York City around.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Before I started prescribing methadone back in the 80s I assumed that drug use and poverty went hand in hand. I was quite shocked to discover that many of my patients were the children of wealthy businessmen, even celebrities. The only explanation I could put up was that some people become so consumed with the desire to make vast amounts of money that they don't have time for parenting. Perhaps their parents were the same. It can become a vicious cycle, as we all know.

I remember one poor fellow who came in with the story that he had received a massive inheritance, and blown it all on heroin in about six weeks. His main complaint was severe constipation, a result of the heroin.

It's one thing to legalise drugs, but who's going to sell the needles? I can't see Coles or Woolies taking that on, and unless you make the needles as freely available as the drugs, you haven't really achieved anything.

[Terry]

You wonder if there is an answer to it don't you and with all the evidence out there on the effects of drugs - why do people use them?

Then again so many of their hero's, the musical groups and pop stars are for ever in the news over drugs, yet we accept that as the norm for some reason.

Good poem Bob

Terry