I hate to jump on this poor guy, but wanted to show the effects that drugs, booze and a life on the street have had on this person.
I see people like him around Chico, and I always wonder – how does this happen? Of course that is a rhetorical question – I know how it happens. It’s not a disease that you can catch innocently from a mosquito, it’s not mental illness, it’s drug and alcohol addiction.
Of course this man has made his own decisions, but there is a culture that encourages his behavior – including the North Valley Harm Reduction Coalition, Safe Space, and other agencies that want to offer no barrier shelters and other for-transients-only services in our town. Do these “well-meaning” idiots realize that they are just enabling drug and alcohol users to continue on a self- and society- destructive life path?
I went to the needle exchange that NVHRC holds in the park and talked to the mostly young people that are handing out the needles. They are without any medical training – oh, I suppose they’ve been taught how to administer NARCON, just like tiny school children used to be taught how to crawl under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack.
They have no clue what they are doing, they’ve been told they are doing the right thing.
No, look at the picture above – that’s what they’re doing.
Chico Taxpayers Association 