Don't do drugs

The small city that I live in seems to have an overwhelming amount of new drug users. We even have 2 red zones - which means that if a crackhead gets arrested and then is seen in the zone again, they are automatically arrested. I steer clear of the red zone because getting arrested once is enough for me. Honestly, I am not even sure what crack is, but I really do avoid these scary areas.

What it means for our small town though, is that the shady folk have to move their crime around - which is terribly inconvenient for them - making it that more difficult to find those end buyers. We used to only have one red zone and have just recently just moved up to two - if they keep moving, maybe we can get the whole town declared.

Recently I started working in our community arts centre located in the city's biggest and nicest park - think Central Park and scale it down to about a block. This area seems to be the on its way to becoming the next red zone. Right now it is just a healthy shade of pink. A gentleman came into the centre the other day inquiring about woodworking courses and when he could sign up for them, leaving his name and address for us to contact him with the information. Then he wandered around the lobby looking at everything and asking very nicely if "anyone could buy a cup of coffee?" We keep a bowl in the lobby that all the artists drop a dollar in to pay for their coffee. We said of course he could buy a cup. The gentleman turned his back to us, coughed, and dumped the bowl of money into his bag. We didn't exactly see him but we knew what he had done. He did, however, put a dollar back in the bowl to pay for his coffee.

It was just me and another woman in the lobby so we didn't confront him about it, but we weren't very nice to him, and he left shortly after. We phoned the number he had given, thinking okay, really, could he be that dumb? But the number wasn't in service.

Around the same time the next day he comes rushing into the lobby with his girlfriend. They both went straight over to where the coffee bowl used to be - we had already moved it to the front desk - and about 4 of us surrounded them. We all had a lovely chat and then they left.

So drugs don't just make you stupid - they also make you think that everyone around you is stupid, too. Did he think we would leave the bowl out for him and his friends to partake in every day? Perhaps he should have maybe left a day or two in between his visits.

I like to think that by moving the bowl I did my part in fighting the war on drugs.