We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Liquorice"
saying something like:

On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:06:24 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

Please give to the NHS. Or return them, as the case may be. A
little
off our tax bills!

Those days are gone. H&S fears means they chuck them in the skip.

Aye, I took the ones I had back but it was clear they didn't really
know what to do with them. I can understand the H&S aspect as they
don't know what sort of treatment they have had but I should imagine
that it can't be that hard to send them to a place that checks 'em
over and refurbishes for re-use. Or even if they don't want to do
that, collect for the scrap ali and recycle them that way.

It's absolutely mental. I distinctly recall my first big bike accident
and the crutches that came with it. I was encouraged to hand them back,
as they would be checked and re-issued. That was back in the days when
such things were normal.