Daniel

Guy's Blog

Last week yet another death due to drug and alcohol abuse.

I met Daniel at Camp Chapleau in 1998.

It all started when I got a ticket for having a knife on me. That afternoon when I got to the shelter, I asked Gary if I could work in order to make a few bucks, so I could pay for that ticket I got on St.Catherine street for having a boy scout knife in my pockets.

- Yea sure, Gary said

After a few weeks work at the shelter, I asked Fred if he needed another worker at Camp Chapleau. He said "I'll let you know next week." The following week I was going to Camp Chapleau to work.
- My accommodations were a bunk in a bunk room in the wood shed. And my work was sometimes pilling, sometimes splitting fire wood. Sometimes cutting the grass. Daniel was a delivery truck driver mostly, and Daniel had been living at camp for 7 or 8 years. He had a room above the garage.

Only a few days after I met Daniel, I could tell that he had a drug problem. The first thing Daniel asked me when I met him was if I could loan him some money. When pay day came around a lot of people would be looking for Daniel. Daniel was dodging and ducking a lot all the time, he owed a lot of money.
Daniel always owed more money that what he earned.

On the street Daniel would not get away with this but at Camp, he could.

At Camp or at the Mission, he could hide out, and use a runner to get his dope.

But after the financial problem due to drug and alcohol problems comes the health problems. The liver has to produce a toxic for every toxic we consume. Give it to much work and it breaks down. Drug and alcohol abuse also can also cause respitory failure, and hearth failure. Accident due drugs and alcohol is also often a cause of death.

Daniel was not a bad person, he was weak. He never did could control himself when he started doing drugs.

Good Bye Daniel
Guy
Monday, December 24, 2007©