Right here is OK.

I did get to drop someone off in a parking lot somewhere. She was in her late 30's, a mother of two. She'd been running the streets, living in dope houses and smoking meth. Turns out she had smuggled meth into treatment. She kept acting crazier and crazier. They asked her what was going on and finally, after a few days, she admitted that she had been getting high. They asked her if she wanted to stop and she said she didn't think that was possible. She was in treatment because, like a lot of people, she had no place to go. The state had taken away her kids. Her husband didn't want to see her. Her mother refused to speak to her. She had been living with an aunt who wanted no part of her. They told me to take her downtown and leave her at the bus station but she said she wanted to be left off in a parking lot. I left her there, with her worldly possessions at her feet. You could tell she used to be an OK person but she was dangerously crazy. We both felt bad.

I took another kid to a coffee shop. He refused to cooperate with the program and was open about his intentions to keep using as soon as he got out. His mother said she'd come get him at the coffee shop. What is it with these guys and their moms? My mother wouldn't let me come home, just because I'd flunked out of college. I guess she did the right thing.

I took another kid to the bus station. He'd walked off down the road after announcing that the whole thing was bullshit and he wanted no part of it. He came back at 3:30 in the morning, really loaded,  and announced that he wanted back in. When he woke up he announced that he would be in charge of his own treatment and we would be following his orders. He was really dope sick and he wanted to be given his detox meds so that he could decide when he needed them. He threw a big fit when the staff refused. I was told to drop him downtown. Someone said they'd come for him in 4 hours. I pointed out to him that he would likely be arrested if he hung around downtown, dopesick and dingy looking. I dropped him some place where he wasn't likely to attract much attention while he waited. I wished him good luck.

Not much to write.

Not much to write because I'm not working that much. I'm on call and the phone hasn't been ringing very often. I'm a lot less high minded when the money starts to run out. I don't care whether or not we save them. I just want to get paid to drive them around. That's not entirely true but money does count. I sure wouldn't do this as a volunteer. I do other things on a voluntary basis but when I'm working for a for profit enterprise I want my cut. Drug and alcohol treatment is part of the whole, corrupt medical/insurance complex. It's a wonder anyone ever gets well. I think, insofar as we workers count for anything, people get well because we care more about them than we care about the insurance industry. I know this upsets the industry.