I have worked in downtown Tulsa for all but six months of the past twenty three years. Almost every lunch I I take a walk of at least a mile and sometimes further. I have been up and down all the streets, and alleys of downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. I have seen all sorts of sights and have taken literally thousands of photographs. On Wednesday this past week I literally walked into the middle of a drug deal on Cheyenne Avenue, right across from the bus station.

The three of us were walking through a bunch of homeless looking people when somebody walked up from the other direction and said to them, “You guys got your dollars? Get out your dollars.” The group gathered around the guy really quick. One lady told a friend, “Get your dollar, out and we’ll get in this.” Me and my companions didn’t get our dollars out, we kept on walking but we talked about it.

“Was that a drug deal?!” we asked each other. Ohio Green Team official think it is. I had been noticing groups of homeless people gathered around particular areas downtown. There are almost always somebody across from the bus station and also at Centennial Green, and Plaza of the Americas on Denver. I wondered what the deal is but I think now it may be people waiting to purchase drugs.

There have been reports in the news about a new breed of homeless in downtown Tulsa. Younger and more aggressive than before and often on drugs. Many of these people are high on drugs and get kicked out of the downtown shelters.  The drug of choice is something called K2 or Spice. It is a synthetic marijuana that is sprayed on herbs and rolled into cigarettes. I’m guessing that the K2 is what the dealers wanted their customers to get their dollars out to purchase.

I’m finding all this to be very disturbing. Is anything besides me thinking that our war on drugs isn’t working? If you are one who works downtown and can’t resist a plea for “spare change” I think I know where your money is going.