MY BEST FRIEND SHELLEY RAMEY DIED IN DEKALB CO HOLDIN CELL COMIN OFF HEROIN BEGGING THE GUARDS FOR MED ATTN AND THEY IGNORED HER. I BANGED ON THE DOOR PLEADING FOR HELP AND SHELLY BECAME A VEGETABLE.....FOR THREE WEEKS SHE SAT AT GRADY HOS IN ATL,GA. TILL HER MOMA PULLED THE PLUG.O HOW BIG OF THEM..THEY DROPPEDTHE STOLEN CAR CHARGESON ME DAVID,KELLY, N JIMMY...BID DEAL SHE DIED COS OF NEGLECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your right. They should be charged with medical neglect or manslaughter.

Veronica, bottom line, who and what is really to blame for her death? It's her and her choice to use heroin. If she hadn't died that way, it would have killed her in some other way. You can't blame society, the prisons, or anyone else but the user. I've been clean and sober over 18 years and I'm the widow of a heroin addict who died of his addiction. I pray you're not going to end up the same way he and your friend did.

Fly,
If that would have been one of us, we would have been charged

I AGREE SHE CHOSE THE LIFE BUT SHOW SOME HEART THE GUARDS IGNORED HER ON PURPOSE....THEY HAVE TO SLEEP AT NITE KNOWING THEY COULDVE SAVED HER LIFE...THINK ABOUT IT REALISTICALLY...WE DO NOT CHOOSE TO BECOME ADDICTS ITS NEBER OUR CHILD HOOD DREAM IT HAPPENS IT IS REALITY

[i]Originally posted by toi_ama
Veronica, bottom line, who and what is really to blame for her death? It's her and her choice to use heroin. If she hadn't died that way, it would have killed her in some other way. You can't blame society, the prisons, or anyone else but the user. I've been clean and sober over 18 years and I'm the widow of a heroin addict who died of his addiction. I pray you're not going to end up the same way he and your friend did. [/QUOTE]

ok i have 1 thing to say..first of all, im sorry your friend died. but, IMO it looks to me like you are very bitter...i understand its in our genes...but, we have the ability to 'break the cycle'. my dad along w/his brother died of an OD (first his bro then my dad), and i am my dads only child...i have pretty much broken the cycle...it will be in my kids genes...billy has had his problem (before incarceration)...he has most deffinately broken the cycle.

WELL, sorry i went on & on about that. BUT, again im sorry she died, but it was her choice to use....but, i agree 200% (again) w/toi....

the end ;)
melissa

No, I'm not a cop. I agree there was a lot of cruelty and injustice in what happened. But in all your posts you seem very bitter about "us" and everything outside yourself where addiction is concerned. I felt the need to point out that it's the choice of any addict whether to seek help and at least try to stop. I've been in recovery for over 18 years but my husband didn't make it. He died of an OD on heroin 3 and 1/2 years ago. Was it my fault he didn't quit and died? No, it wasn't. It was his addiction that killed him, bottom line.

I'm very sorry your friend died and I wish the guards had done something else and saved her life. I wish I had gone and checked on my husband again that night instead of going to sleep so I could have pulled him out of yet another OD. But if your friend hadn't used, she wouldn't have been in jail in the first place. If my husband hadn't used, he wouldn't be dead. It's not the world's fault people use and die. That's the point I'm trying to make. It's the choice of the one who uses the drugs.

There's help for any drug addict if they truly want it enough. If they don't, then it's guaranteed they're going to eventually become another victim of addiction. There will come that time when their body just can't handle it anymore and they won't make it. That time when nobody is there to take heroic measures. That's not society's fault or the fault of those who run our jails and prisons.

I understand your grief at losing your friend. I didn't think I could survive the grief over losing my husband. He was the most wonderful man I've ever known, in spite of his addiction, and he did try to be clean in the years we were together. But I'm realistic about what took his life. It was heroin and his addiction, not anything outside himself-----not society not legalizing the drug, not me for not being there that time, not anything but the drug and his addiction to it.

I mean to help you understand and get over some of this bitterness you seem to have.

Good post Toi