Sister2Knock
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2014
- Messages
- 4
People I am posting the following note written by my cousin, and agreed also by Michael's brother and sister-in-law.
I am Michael's cousin.We were close and met up regularly. I was aware of his drug use and accepted that it was his choice to do so although he often spoke of his wish to turn his life around and do something more meaningful. He also told me of his involvement in a "harm reduction " on line community and of his role as a moderator.
Having worked in the Mental health field for 40 years I am very familiar with the concept of Harm Reduction and recognize it's usefulness . Since Michael's death I have been able to look at your website and am horrified to discover that many of the posts don’t look at harm reduction but come close to encouraging one another to take new and untested substances both legal and illegal. I also looked at your Shrine pages and can clearly see that there have been many deaths within your community in recent times .
Perhaps this is seen as a price your members are prepared to pay in your search for the ultimate high. But it is painful to contemplate the many other families like ours who have suffered and will suffer the loss of a loved one.
Michael's death may be soon forgotten in your community but to our family and his real friends it is a huge loss of a lovely, generous spirited, funny trusting, sensitive person who had so much more to give to the world and will now never have that chance.
I know that Michael was on line when he took the drug or combination of drugs which killed him and I also know that he asked for advice on what amount would be safe to take. He clearly didn't intend to overdose which is some small comfort.
He trusted that his friends would give him advice to keep him safe. But of course that is not what happened. Just because one person takes 100mg of a substance and survives, does not mean that it’s ok for another person to take it.
Michael died, likely because the drug stopped his breathing reflex. And he was a strong young person with no physical disease. None of you know exactly what a person is taking. Nobody is regulating these labs or testing the drugs. I hope you all will think about that.
I feel angry and distressed that one who had given so much of himself to your community was let down when it really mattered. Where were the Moderators of this forum?
I cannot directly blame anyone for Michael's death, as ultimately he was the one who chose to take these drugs. But I hope that you, the owners and members of this community could show a little more respect for life. Perhaps any money donated charity would be better donated to a charity which does real and effective harm reduction rather than encourage reckless drug use.