by Phillip Ellis

Created on: April 28, 2008

It used to be on odd quirk in my midlands town that many of the homeless people were Scottish people, the rest rarely speaking local ascents - hell; maybe your home town is not good enough for your local homeless people. These days' homeless people are ten fold from what they were in the 80s, no longer just the local tramp in the bus-stop. Alas, with the exploding South East Asian immigration from Pakistan in the last twenty years -and more recently Afghanistan and the Balkans-Class A drugs have swept in through those new routes for hard drugs to hit the streets here like Mike Tyson's fist. Our society wasn't ready for heroin in the 80s and the country is hurting now. You can't grow heroine in Great Britain. But where there's supply there's demand and people addicted have no one to blame but themselves. There are drug problems in every country of the world. If you push a needle into your arm then as far as I'm concerned you're committing suicide.

It wasn't very difficult to create demand in the British underclass. The narcotic 'hit' filled the voided of some working class lives and many became addicted and ended up on the streets, unable or tolerate din normal society. If you have a hundred pound a day habit you can't pay your rent. If you have the same habit on the streets then this is the cheapest place to feed it, a rock of 'Crack' just 15 here, a wrap of heroin even less.

A recent police report showed 77% of homeless people arrested for various offences tested positive for drugs. A similar percentage of money given by the public and the Department of Works and Pensions to those people, one would presume is being spent on those drugs. If your homeless but you have a place in a hostel that's verified by the social security office you can claim 60.15p a week. One would presume some of that is spent on drugs and booze. If you hand over your fiver then they will scurry off and buy crack or booze. I see it every day in Northampton under Europe's most extensive CCTV system. You contribute to their expensive habits. Because you do, they keep them coming back for more, attracting more druggies to the urban centers like rats. Homeless people on Class A have a life expectancy of just 41 years, lower than Zimbabwe.

Most homeless people can get a bed for the night, but not everyone chooses to take one, some banned for being violent and high on drugs so not allowed a hostel bed. Most if not all can get at least one meal a day in the soup kitchen. They are not going to starve

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