The Harsh Reality of Drug Addiction richardmclaughlin007 — January 18, 2009 — after 11 months of sobriety from drug addiction, in 7 short days this man hits the depths of despair and insanity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuNWCPDrJsM

This video was shot in Vancouvers downtown eastside by the narrator it is quite extreme, It shows how common place and and readily available drugs are and how people can succomb to a extreme physical reaction from lack of sleep, nutrition and dehydration. This video was made for many different reasons, one being educational the other as mentioned earlier it’s common place here in Vancouver, in any other city or town in North America this man would have recieved immediate medical attention but here in Vancouver both the police and ambulance just drive by. If you do not belive me come on down and see our little human circus slash “HARM REDUCTION EXPERIMENT”
This man was spotted two hours later sleeping on a concrete curb as his pillow.
Both the narrator and producer of this video have had spent many years struggling with addiction and have spent hard time in Vancouvers “NOTORIOUS” downtown eastside.
Today they have escaped and are clean and sober and now dedicate there lives to those who still suffer from “THE HARSH REALITY OF ADDICTION”

Again, a state official points a finger at people with disabilities as the culprit for the state’s mismanagement of services. “…two out of five of the old and disabled North Carolinians who have been receiving in-home help through Medicaid don’t really need it,”

Mr. Secretary, are you saying that 2 out of 5 people receiving the PCS falsified applications for services? Aren’t there checks and balances in the system? I mean, don’t you vet the applicants? Anyone can apply for the service but does the person qualify? I think that state employees processing and doing the follow-up of the applications need a little more training.

Secretary Cansler!! Don’t cut the personal care service budget; simply make the service efficient and provide quality personal care services to people who qualify. D’ah

Would it matter to you?

How far would you go to fight it? What if it were against a disability and you yourself were not the victim nor had a disability but you knew people who did… would you express outrage in the very least? What if the same were true and you yourself were disabled, would it matter if the disability discriminated against were not that of your own? If it were a cancer patient, alzheimers, mental retardation, any other form of disability even physical, would it matter? Would it be any less wrong, would be equally outraged in all circumstances at the thought?

What if one of the largest employers in your community, even your state were guilty of shocking discrimination, would you fight any less? Would you throw your hands in the air and say…”it’s no use, they are just too well connected?” Would you allow anyone to get away with such treatment against others?
Would you at the very least read a 20 page testimonial? Every word before reaching a conclusion?
You can do so merely by reading my account before simply dismissing me at face value. Then as you digest it, you can render your own verdict as to whether or not I am telling the truth.
I will name names, timelines.

A couple days ago, I posted a shocking audio recording on YouTube. I took it down. It dealt with discrimination against the disabled, and it dealt with discrimination against women. Representatives of the human resources department of one of the largest and most prominent employers in North Carolina had made some shocking claims to me.

In effort to dissuade me that I was suffering persecution due to my disability status, I was told I was not qualified for the position. I noted that a friend had been hired to the same position a year prior with no more qualifications than myself upon applying. I was assured that I was incorrect, I was not suffering persecution due to my disability status. I was told that I was indeed under qualified and that my friend could not possibly have been hired to that position. I noted she had, and then I was told,

“WE WOULD NOT HAVE HIRED HER FOR THAT POSITION…THAT IS A MAN’s POSITION. The Position that you, uh, that we are advertising is requesting a man, women are not normally hired for that position because of the weight, the heavy lifting and the machines they operate in the back.”

As a woman, would you protest such a statement by any potential employer?
I would return to that company about February of 2009. Months of being bed ridden saw me much heavier than my last visit. I had also grown a beard. My lower right leg had been amputated on December 31st, 2008. I hobbled to the human resources office with my walker. I made it a point to be seen standing in front of the board to which the post new job openings. I looked for any post whose requirements I could have met with no objection based on qualifications prior to the accident. There was a position for a manual labor type opening, which required a person to be able to lift and carry 100, lbs. It was a janitorial position. I waited in front of that board until I seen one of the employees who were present when I had been told that “We do not hire women for that position, it is a MAN’s Position.” I hobbled into the main Human resources office. As I suspected, I was not recognized. She came out, said, “can I help you?” I stated, “yes, you can. I was looking at the positions available on your board out there, there was a position for laborer., Tell me, “

At which point I threw my stump over the top rail of my walker, I continued, “tell me, do you discriminate against the physically handicapped…? DO you discriminate against one legged men?” She broke into an obvious smile of surprise, She exclaimed “NO! Of course not.”

I said, “well good, I just wanted to know for sure. Because I know damn well you discriminate against other disabilities. When I was in this office in September, months ago, I was told a position I had expressed I was being discriminated against, could not have possibly been held by my friend hired a year prior with no more qualification than I possess, because it was a “man’s position,” you would not have possibly hired a woman for that. So, I KNOW DAMN WELL YOU DISCRIMINATE AGAINST THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED. But I went out and had me a motorcycle accident since you and I last spoke, and I can tell by the look on your face right now, that now you remember me, but I went and had me a motorcycle accident and lost myself a limb,” then I pointed to my stump and I continued, “And So I just wanted to come back in here and ask you if THIS DISABILITY WOULD BE ACCEPTABLE TO YOU???”

Man she was stunned.

What if I told you I was eyewitness, with at least a dozen others to an instructor at a prominient NC college openly stating he REFUSED 2 allow A Mentally ILL student in his classes? The same confessed openly that he once threatened the administration that he would quit his job if they allowed her in his class. They did not allow her in his class.

I have told people for years…”you wouldn’t know it unless I told you, but Ive been diagnosed with a mental illness.” and people are shocked. The truth is, I am not mentally ill, but I was diagnosed as such. Unfortunatley for years no one listened as denial is symptomatic of many mental illnesses. Thus my denials only concreted in the minds of those whom I protested to, that I was indeed ill. In 2007, I would recieve proof, an anonymous letter from Dorothy Dix with copies of records that when viewed in whole, revealed I indeed had substance to my claims of so many years.

In 2007, I went to see a magistrate with what I felt was proof to vindicate me in a horrible wrong committed against me. In 1995, I was committed to a mental institution based upon a lie. I would be ruled mentally ill and dangerous. Though my behavior in that place and since has demonstrated otherwise. There is no medical precedent, none before me or since in my geneolgy carry such a diagnosis. In early 2007, I got an anonymous letter from the archive department at Dorothy Dix hospital. It contained in it, copies of paperwork in my case from 1995 which offered proof a lie, a hideous lie had been used against me to get me committed. I took this content to a magistrate in Cumberland County in North Carolina later in 2007. He examined the documents and told me I needed to get an attorney to deal with this matter and he confessed he could easily see my point.

While my original committal was based on lies, the discrimination I have dealt with through the years due to that diagnosis has been real enough. The social stigmas that the mentally ill suffer with, I know first hand as a victim of such. Having the rationale to recognize it, only made it that more outrageous. I understand peoples fears of the mentally ill, but I also know, most of such is due to MASS ignorance, and a few bad examples.

If even one person shows interest, I will post a link to a 20 pg testimony. I will name the company to you, I will offer to you names, events, timelines and you can determine if I am telling the truth or not. I assure you, there are longstanding employes of this company who are equally aware and outraged of this instance. TO this day, NOT ONE APOLOGY has been offered, not one.