Please see below.  The Story is about a kid on smack. Yes, its bad for you, yes it will fuck your life up. The thing that got me was, Why the fuck did you call the police on your own?  why get government involved?  all they going to do is throw the kid in jail. Fine him, take him from you and put him in the control of the state.  

Am I wrong in thinking that?
c-rock

Of the two boys, Joe was the first to be caught using heroin. An anonymous caller telephoned his parents last April and told them their son was snorting.

"There's no way," his father, Danny McKirchy, told the caller. "I know my son."

To prove his point, McKirchy paged Joe and told him to come home immediately. When the teen arrived, his parents, Danny and Diane, could tell he was high.

Sickened and scared, they summoned the Glendale Heights Police Department. The responding officers asked if they could search the family car.

McKirchy consented, knowing his son would be arrested if they found anything. He felt he had no other choice.

"A lot of people worry about what their neighbors will think, and I guess I worried about that a little," he says. "But I would do it again if I had to."

Three months later, Nick overdosed in his bedroom after getting high with two adult friends. As he slipped into unconsciousness and began hemorrhaging from his nose, his friends fled the house. One stopped to call 911 before leaving.

http://www.dailyherald.com/main_story.asp?intid=37371171

Drug OD = Natural Selection.


Sorry if that sounds callous, but it's the truth.

Look at Nick?  He still wants to get high?

Ummmm

He's DEAD.....he is not wanting MUCH of anything.

Yeah C-rock, you go, talk about responsible parenting. No way the parents should have called the cops. Much better that they convince themselves it is "just a phase". Perhaps they should even start buying Nick his drugs to make sure they are getting him the right amount and purity so that he can live a long un-productive life as a junky.

Sometimes what is best isn't very nice.

while none of the above are desirable outcomes, they might have been preferable to death by OD.

it might have gone better if the parents had done something more direct, like move the whole family to someplace remote where the nearest fix was a 6 hour drive away. easy for me to say that now, hey?

Hey,
I know you are a police officer, no problem.  I am not bashing police or such.
My problem was, "My kid is in trouble, so I called the cops"
Why get him arrested?  Why have to spend $$$ to get him a lawyer, when you could spend it on treatment?

Getting the state involved in ANYTHING is a dumb idea.
Sorry, but government workers do not care about you or your kid.  

In this story, did the po-po get him help? No, his family did.

Did he go to a State-run treatment center? No, they went private.


So what did the police do for this family?  Not much. They had to take charge and be parents.
c-rock

I think you have to consider the magnitude of the problem.

A 17 yo, sniffing heroin, that a big problem. It's a potentially fatal one.

You'd be suprised at the calls that the police go to.

"My son won't listen to me......"

"My son/daughter looks like they've been drinking."

"My 8 yo is out of control......"

"There are squirells on the phone lines, could you sen an officer to shoot them of the lines?? I think those squirells will damage the lines by walikng on them....."

As far as your question about arrest, because most places are starting to offer treatment instead of prosecution, or as part of sentencing to keep the person out of jail, as long as they complete the treatment. Addiction is very bad, and  most times the offer of treatment doesn't work as well as the choice of treatment or jail.

EDIT: private v. government run: I don't konw of any "government run" facilities here for alc/drug detox, or treatment. But there are some that have contract with government agencies to provide services. So some are paying customers, either cash or insurance and some are getting treatment that is funded by a public health or other government agencies. Some get fully funded by the govt., some get partially funded based on the circumstance and their ability to pay.

The kid is already not listening to his parents if he's snorting heroin.

I think that calling the cops was the right move.  After all, better he should find out early what happens when you get involved in drugs.  Evidently it was, however, too little too late.

We are regularly called by parents of out of control kids. In most cases the family has completely written off the child and is just clock watching until he is 18 so they can throw him out.

at least when the kids locked up in Juvenile hall the rest of the family has some peace.

My younger brother was involved in this sort of thing.  He was a major problem in school and just couldn't be controlled.  He finally ended up running away and both used and sold drugs.  My dad had to hire a private investigator to track him down and once they did he was arrested at a Waffle House with a small amount of drugs on him.  I don't know the specifics of all that happened as I was in college at the time, but he went to bootcamps, retreats, and jail.  He told me he hated jail and never wanted to go back.  He's doing fine now, working, and no more drugs.  I'm happy about his being arrested as it was the only thing that turned him around.
Bill3508

Amen, Bill.

See, that is the thing that gets me.
People are not doing their jobs, roles!

We are becomming a nation of Sheep. Just call someone else to do the job!  
Pisses me off sometimes.
c-rock

A sheep would ignore the problem and hope it just goes away.  A good parent recognizes that they're in over their head and calls for help.  c-rock, you ever go to the doctor or take your car to a mechanic?  Why?  Because they are probably better at the job than you are.  It's the same situation here.z

You'd be suprised how many parents that call us after they find drugs in their kids rooms.  Alot of them want their kids arrested.  I think it's messed up too.  Usually the parents are tired of dealing with the kids and have given up and want someone else to take them off their hands.  To me though they are poor parents.  

Police are not social workers.
They are for the following.

1.Enforcing and arresting those that break the law.  

2. Keeping minorities down, so the 'man can stay on top. [BD]

Ok, the second was a joke, but cops dont go to the bad guys and give them a hug, and say, "things will get better".  

Cops do not know how to get people off of drugs.  

If I wanted to learn how to beat people up without leaving marks, then yes, I would ask a police officer. [BD]

Kidding guys, [;)]
c-rock

c-rock

You wanted opinions.

You got some. Most disagree with yours.

Your "kidding" has now turned a reasonable thread into one of a juvenile rant on police.

It does not appear that you have enough life experience to have a logical response.

Give it up.

You asked, so here's my $0.02:



Depending on the jurisdiction, current laws could allow the cops to confiscate the car, possibly the house, and even the family bank accounts as being related to the drug trade.  It's up to the home/car/bank account owner to prove otherwise.  Thanks to the "War on (some) Drugs."  And no, I do not now nor have I ever abused drugs.  I don't even drink.

IMHO they should have tried an involuntary drug treatment program first.  Calling the cops on your kids should be a [i]last[/i] resort move, not a first.  Especially given the powers our legislatures and courts have given to the police.

I would not call the police on my kids for using drugs. You have to take care of your own, if more people understood that, this world would not be the toilet it is. If I found my kid using hard drugs like that, I would sell off all my stock options, cash in 401k's, sell the house and move out to the boonies and give my own treatment. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for your family. Last thing I would do is put my kid into the legal system.

"Where's yo empathy, brothah? It's a substance abuse problem."

Your right, the comments were way off. I aplogize.  

Like others said, you have to depend on your own. You cant call on government to bail ya out of your responsibities to your kin.
c-rock

My younger brother got involved with drugs through his skateboarding buddies. After repeatedly being caught and disciplined by my parents he still refused to give up his "habit". He would go through the motions for a while, appease the powers that be, (parents), then after a while we would be right back at square one. My parents would find various narcotics in his room/car, and finally reached the point of trying to ignore the problem 95% of the time.

One night I got a call from a friend who was involved occasionally with drugs, and he informs me that my brother is dealing. I went apeshit! I confronted him about it and he swore up and down that he was not, so I let it drop, but not before I made it perfectly clear that if he was lying to me I would own his ass. I spoke with my friend a couple of weeks later and asked him how sure he was that my brother was in fact selling drugs. He told me very sure, and then to prove it, he paged a known "hook-up". When I answered the return phone call, who should be on the other end of the line but my brother. The pager number was not the one my parents were (still) paying for, not even one I had seen before.

Since my parents were no longer willing to do anything, and I had been told in no uncertain terms by my father not to touch my brother, I called a friend in the local PD Narcotics unit. I told him everything I knew more as a CYA move than anything else. You see I want to have a career in LE, and his getting popped at the house would be the end of that. To help me out he filed a report so that I was on record as having taken some action, and I agreed to call him if I ever knew that my bro. had enough on him to get popped for more than posession. I have not had to make that call, but rest assured that I will be the one to report him if I get the chance. It is for my protection and my parents that I will do this. My dad is a school teacher, and something like that could hurt him real bad too. What he does with his own life is up to him, but he will not endanger my future so that he can get high.

SO what you are saying is, you are willing to sell out your blood to the state?  
Or is it the 20 peices of silver?

why not kick him out of the house?  What about a good ass whoopin, or such?

c-rock

What I am saying is that I am unwilling to let my brother ruin my life so that he can get his jollies illegally. I am unwilling to let him sell drugs, because it is BS, and because it may get his stupid ass killed. I am unwilling to let him sacrifice my family to his immature, selfish whims.

In my conversation with my friend the Narc. Officer, I merely coverd the family's ass without sicing the law on him. That is why I chose a friend in the dept. so that I could take him at his word, and he would take mine. If I had intended to turn on him, it sould have been arranged to have set him up, easily. Since then my brother and I have had several conversations, and he has finally stopped selling. I told him what I had done and he understood, wasn't happy, but it did register.

As for whippin his ass, mine was in a jam on that one. I could not afford to leave the house at the time, but that was my option if I chose to whip his ass, my folks wouldn't allow it. It is likewise their call as to kicking him out, and they had threatened, but failed to follow through numerous times.

In part I was looking out for myself, in part, I didn't want to bury him just yet.

FWIW-- He is now doing well, and making his way on his own, Kinda proud of the little f@ck-up.