Drug Arm - Round 1 2007

Our first "patrol" for 2007 this evening. At the end of a week in which our press announced the largest discovery ever of ecstasy chemicals - worth more than $500million. Apropos nothing except we are out there aiming to do something to ensure people on the other end of that drug pipeline have the means to extract themselves from its seduction, or avoid it altogether.

There is simply no rhyme or reason to where and when we might have contact with people - mainly teenagers, but ranging right through to the elderly homeless person. At the height of summer, you would think that there would be plenty of young folk out and about. But even the bus stops were deserted and our regular haunts turned up nothing. We suspected that we are experiencing some post Christmas and New Year lull. Here are some of our crew at one of our regular stops. The best we got here were adult couples heading home after dining at the local restaurants. But some of these stopped to ask what we were doing and were very complementary when they found out. That little pat on the back goes a lot further than they would imagine.

After numerous other stops on our prowl around the beaches we stopped at the place we met "Shrek" a few weeks ago. See previous blog. By now the wind was whipping off the ocean and we were feeling the cold (!). But we soon had young people emerging from the shadows of the beach. The wobbly shot is appropriately blurred - not sure if many of those we help would appreciate too much clarity in these photos. Two young fellows were keen to have as much milk as they could - to assist a friend high on ecstasy. You are never sure about the veracity of these claims (is there a friend? is there a high? is it ecstasy induced?) but this is not an exercise in passing any judgement whatsoever. So they happily jogged off with two or three cups of milk.

In the end a quiet night which started out with the prospect of no interaction whatsoever but saw us help our milk fiends, chat with a group of wandering girls, have an interesting discussion with a young man from the Sudan (out for a stroll), assist a mother and her two boys, laden down with camping gear and fishing rods, looking for a camping ground (- at midnight!?) and interact with a group of young men. A quiet start to the year but not atypical in the range of demographics that we engage.