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Shetland's broken society.


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Maybe you folks should take the opportunity add your thoughts to the SIC's "Scenario Planning" online survey

 

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/757-planning-for-shetlands-future.html

 

1. What is the key strength of Shetland?

 

2. What is the main weakness of Shetland?

 

3. What is the key aspect of Shetland’s culture that differentiates it from other islands?

 

4. What are three key features of a positive future

 

5. What are three key features of a negative future?

 

6. What should Shetland do now to achieve a positive future?

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As I've said before, if addicts were prescribed the substance that they are addicted to with pharmacuetically made products, possibly with a contractual agreement that they were employed or got a job within a certain time period then I doubt if another mule would ever enter shetland again. There would be no black market, instead a trained health professional to dispense. No addict would buy what must be extremely stammped on powders by the time it reached the Isles.

There would also be a huge reduction in drug-related crimes. Shoplifting, burglary etc. How long will it be before young ladies women are prostituting themselves to finance their addiction(s) ? A thought that should frighten every parent of the next generation.

The cost of these substances are very cheap compared to black market prices when bought by the NHS.

I for one would far prefer anybody I know to be under the care of the NHS than out on the streets, living rough.

We are all human beings after all. Take the criminal underground out of the equation & it becomes a social/health issue.

There have been RIOTT trials in the U.K already where addicts are prescribed their substance & take it under supervision, which were very successful. People go on about the difference between Shetland & the mainland, it is an island that has 2 sniffer dogs now (?). As far as I can see Shetland would be an ideal place to try different treatment methods.

As for making people homeless, well that's why a lot of people start taking heroin anyway. To keep the cold concrete of the pavement at bay while they try to sleep.

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If people are stupid enough to take drugs in the first place then i have no sympathy for them,....

 

For me that's a generalisation that goes a bit too far, certainly for anyone who started using later in life (ie. 18+), I'd agree, they knew, or at least should have known, and could easily have known what they were signing up for, its their beef to sort out their own issues. Younger, perhaps not so much, the old "i'm invincible", "it'll never happen to me", "i'm different to that" syndrome can and does easily over-ride everything else very easily.

 

What gets my goat is once hooked, all the bleedin heart sob stories, illogical reasoning and false promises of "coming off it" and "getting with the program", that get trotted out just to justify or cover up for and excuse continuing using, instead of getting a grip and taking themselves off it.

 

I would guess though that that's pretty much the same phenomena as a drunk talking, once drunk a lot of people rationalise, say and do no end of stuff they'd never consider, mostly surrounding having yet one more drink, and one more, when they're already missing their mouth with the glass as often and finding it.

 

I just have a very hard time getting my head around how and why anyone who is addicted to the point their addiction is their entire life, that they don't at least on a once in a blue moon occasion have an urge for a life that didn't rely on it, and find the pig-headed determination to turn the tables on things. Addiction is simply having allowed whatever your substance of choice is to have made you her bitch, I cannot comprehend how so many people act so submissively and let that situation persist indefinitely, and not do whatever is necessary to make their substance of choice their bitch instead. Personally, anything that had that level of hold over me would make me as mad as hell relatively quickly, a "one of us has to go" attitude towards it, and an ensuing fight to the death until I got the upper hand.

 

I realise cold turkey is uninviting and highly unpleasant, but in the long run I cannot see how it can be any more unpleasant than being constantly driven to "top up" on yet more and more whatever, and it certainly has less chance of being fatal than the risk run by taking the chance of filling yourself regularly with whatever you can get your hands on most quickest, just to give a respite from the cravings.

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Although I still visit the forum I left shetland with my family this year, we were in social housing for a time there until it was possible for us to afford something better and once we did there was no way I was going to stay brining up teenagers there.

 

Yes Shetland for the lttle ones is a good enviroment I think, but for teenagers Ive never experianced anywhere worse. When I was growing up there were drugs around, if your mates smoked pot you hung together, the ravers and thier pills hung together and the Hardcore users on H...well you'd likely heard of one or two but you didnt really know them, in Shetland theres no segregation like that, trust me if your teenager is hanging around Lerwick in the evenings at peoples houses for parties and the like then they have been in the precence of someone on smack, and if they havent yet.. they will. Shetland is simply too small for it not to have a profound effect.

 

So I removed my family to a place I feel is safer, much bigger schools, but those schools have what I had when I was young, sets of people, you have your popular kids, your pot heads, your goths, your nerds and geeks and because of that there is a place for anyone. Us adults dont need that, we've learned who we are by now but teens struggeling to find an identity do.

 

For what its worth im not with the posters who call heroin users wasters or losers, there by the grace of God go I is more my mentality, Lets not forget a good percentage of these 'wasters' began thier addiction legally with doctors perscriptions or have had such attrocious upbringings that they simply didnt value life like us, they arent people to be berated and looked down upon, more pitied and as hard as that is for some of you to do if you were to treat each person as an individual not as a generalisation it might be possible.

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xoni, thank you for your honest post which shows the true state of Shetland.

 

I get no pleasure from stating what's wrong in Shetland and wish it was the opposite.

 

We blame the young generation for getting into drink and drugs but an enormous amount of adult Shetlanders themselves can't have a foy or a function without drink. And those infamous words "beer tent"......

 

Whether it's house designs or drugs or drink I believe that as a community we stopped thinking years ago and are now a brain dead "vegetable case".

 

What we need is Shetland's own "national" awakening like Faroe had, where every Shetlander becomes aware and proud of our true roots, culture and identity. For example, the fact that we have a deep and strong Scandinavian vein.

 

Unfortunately, we're living in an ii culture of fake vikings, endless stag parties(more drink) and where the false mantra of "our wonderful islands" is rammed down our throats.

 

And sadly, despite the odd glimmer of light, I can't see the overall picture changing anytime soon :(

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I echo your sentiments Kavi , plus suggest theres a lot more deviants at large as heroin dealers

 

Some one on the Islands buys the stuff they supposedly steal in order to pay these drug dealers. But I think that is another string/thread and parts of this may get moved to that string/thread.

 

In away, nearly all are to blame one way or another, as ever folk want to blame everyone else but themselves. If this cycle continues, I think Shetland will get the bad reputation that a minority of the population think. Eventually, if you keep shouting long enough that a place and its' inhabitants are bad, they will become so, and with vigor. It happens with many areas.

 

Instead of the constant negative drone, get positive, get up and do something good. Many folk are working hard to provide you with the amenities that remain. Also to provide further opportunities for all young and old.

 

Sometimes I think it is a good thing that what is said here is not reflected in the community at large. If it was, folk would do nothing about it.

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Some one on the Islands buys the stuff they supposedly steal.....

 

A tad over-generalised I'd say.

 

Numerous people in the Isles may well buy some of what is stolen, some probably do knowingly and willingly, some I would venture do so unwittingly, and wouldn't if they knew the truth.

 

You are aware of ebay, I know so, you said so on another thread....need I elaborate?!? The (allegedly) "hottest" marketplace in existence.

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^^ 1 day BiN listing, pay the extra fiver for express transfer PayPal to Bank. Yes, you need to be set up for it, but for higher ticket items worth it. Dealer takes goods in lieu of cash (at a favourable rate to themselves of course), could easily liquidate items and have ready cash in their Bank in well under a week, much better that than waiting until buyers next Giro gets through.

 

For anyone wised up enough to run a supply operation, and with one set up, liquidating easily mailed high ticket items is a logical "add on" business. "Steal to order" is well known and has been in action for a long, long time in Shetland (allegedly).

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It is a possibility, as they are both. A good point. Cash means nothing but hit tokens, to give so much away, 10% ebay and even more to paypal with your express trans may be more painful.

I have been told by more than one that folk will find someone who will purchase most items, but these will generally be shop lifted items.

 

I will have to look at the crime stats, with so many addicts that folk here recon there are then surly theft levels will be through the roof, which leads us to another String/thread that was here about leaving doors unlocked.

 

Broken society, nope, neglected yes.

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^^ 1 day BiN listing, pay the extra fiver for express transfer PayPal to Bank. Yes, you need to be set up for it, but for higher ticket items worth it. Dealer takes goods in lieu of cash (at a favourable rate to themselves of course), could easily liquidate items and have ready cash in their Bank in well under a week, much better that than waiting until buyers next Giro gets through.

 

For anyone wised up enough to run a supply operation, and with one set up, liquidating easily mailed high ticket items is a logical "add on" business. "Steal to order" is well known and has been in action for a long, long time in Shetland (allegedly).

 

Thank God you're in touch with reality , unlike this other fellow. Given that the whole idea of the thread appears to be societys slip rather than even more admiration of drug culture through rose tinted glasses, then i was merely pointing out its not just the drug culture alone thats making a slide in standards apparent

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There are many interconnected reasons, that I do not disagree.

 

There are also as many opinions as there are people, and it is people that are to blame. Reality is someones perception and a mental state as well.

The thing that frightens me most is the aggressive nature of some parts of society. Now, being in touch. Define being in touch. What you read in the newspapers, the plight of normal folk when they loose their job, coping with a family member that has Alzheimers', bringing up children on a single wage, having scorn place upon you for having a certain belief. Dealing with all of those could mean you are in touch.

Some folk will work to try and get issues resolved. With charities, mental health, childhood conditions. Some will judge.

 

I have already agreed that the ebay senario is there and workable. But, it takes dedication and restraint. You only have to fail to provide goods paid for before you are suspended.

 

We all live life, I have however not lived your and you mine. To say that I am not in touch with you reality may be true, your reality to another may be wrong, sorta ok to another and so on.

A debate is about understanding a point of view and why it is there and then trying to deal with it and providing another point of view to either mix or supersede, or not.

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