In today’s society, it is a very good possibility that your neighbor, who still has your lawn mower, is a drug user. What you say, not YOUR neighbor. Yes, yours. Well, how do you find out for certain? There are several ways to determine if your neighbor is a drug user, or worse, a drug producer. Observation is the key. Let’s take a look.
Understand that everyone uses a drug of some sort. Most use legal drugs, both over the counter and prescribed. Some consume alcohol, another readily available drug. For the purpose of this article, we will not concern ourselves with those individuals. We want to concentrate on the illegal drugs, the type that attract ‘No knock’ search warrants.
First, observe your neighbors from afar. Look at them. Do they look high? Most drugs affect the way a person carries themselves either by slowing them down (depressants), speeding them up (stimulants), or numbing them (narcotics). These characteristics can be observed without ever talking to your neighbors. Compare your observations. Does your neighbor go from high speed to dead stop in a very short time? Maybe they are coming down from their high, or crashing. Do they go from very lethargic to high speed in a short time (minutes)? They may be are just starting their high. Although one should never judge a book by it’s cover, one can tell a lot about the book because of that cover.
Second, talk to your neighbor. This allows you to observe them more closely. Things to look for at this point are physical characteristics, mannerisms, smells, speech pattern, and the content of what is said. If your neighbor makes a comment about having, using, or selling drugs; they use drugs. Physical characteristics to look for are blood shot eyes (marijuana), a burn spot on the lip(s) (any drug that can be smoked in a pipe), small sores about the arms and face (methamphetamine), needle tracks (any drug that can be injected). Certain drugs, when not present, make a person act unconsciously. For example, if, while talking to your neighbor, they are clenching and unclenching their jaw and they are looking around in a quick manner, there is a good chance they are addicted to cocaine or crack cocaine. If they begin to scratch their arms and face as if covered in bugs, and there are no bugs, that is a sign of methamphetamine addiction. The speech pattern may indicate what family of drug your neighbor uses. Fast indicates a stimulant, slow indicates a narcotic or depressant. Screaming and yelling at things that are not there indicate a bad trip or a hallucinogenic.
Third, observe the schedules kept by your neighbors. Do they work? A regular job or shift work? Do they leave often, only to return a short time later, immediately going inside? Do they stay awake for days on end? Many jobs require an individual to work an unusual schedule, however, often a pattern can be determined if observed long enough. For example, I worked a schedule that rotated on a twenty eight day cycle. It would have taken a while to determine the schedule because of that, but it could be done. The pattern may be as simple as for every seven days, my neighbor is off two. This means that during every seven day period, there will be two days that your neighbor does not go to work and those days may differ from week to week. Along with observing your neighbors schedules, note their friends visits. Are they for ten minutes or less often? Do they stay for several days worth of partying and then leave? Short term traffic is a sign of drug dealing.
Fourth, observe what your neighbors leave behind. Do they throw out numerous chemical containers (a sign of methamphetamine production)? Do they throw nothing out, keeping their trash inside? Paranoia is a sign of drug use. Do they have a lot of gardening type trash, but no garden? Do your neighbors smell? From far away? Do they smell like marijuana? That would be a sign of marijuana use. A strong chemical or cat urine smell is indicative of methamphetamine production.
Observation is the easiest and least intrusive way to determine your neighbors level of drug use. Any one of these observations, when taken alone, could be harmless. However, when there are more and more present, the likelier the use of drugs.