[ridenrain]

What we're doing now is only sustaining the problem.
These people will never be cured of addiction unless they luck out and get a recovery bed then get out of the area. They need far more help than this.

What poitics? This system has been going for how long?
Larry Campbell was a huge supproter of this yet he never enacted any of the other steps. Considering this first step breaks the criminal code of Canada, those other steps were pretty easy to take.

[romanP]

Johnny_Utah Johnny_Utah:

lily lily:

Johnny_Utah Johnny_Utah:

Ah yes another Liberal program using tax payer dollars pushing the use of illegal drugs, it's a beautiful thing..

Is there a point in telling you to educate yourself?

Probably not.

I thought I would add this you Liberal Dion Sheep, I've seen first hand what drugs does to someone, I have a cousin who fucked up his whole life and lost everything he had because he became a drug addict of his own choice..

Do you think that putting him in prison would have unfucked-up his life, or that denying him easy access to clean needles would have decreased his chances of becoming infected, or that denying him an easy route to counselling would increase the chances he could admit he had a problem so that he could at least try to quit, or that ignoring the problem altogether was going to do anything at all?

What is your solution, if not safe injection sites? I have not seen one critic suggest a better idea, and prohibition is a proven failure.

[romanP]

ridenrain ridenrain:

So why is that? I'd say it's so the drug dealers can keep selling product to addicts. These addicts won't get cured nor will they die, and their numbers are probably growing because this is the drug-friendly west coast, after all.
I imagine the kick-backs and bribes must be huge.

If the drugs weren't illegal, that wouldn't be a problem.

The only material items provided at safe injection sites are the means for safe injection, not the drugs themselves. These clinics are not in the business of getting people hooked, they are in the business of making sure that people who are already addicted don't hurt themselves further and have a fighting chance of recovering from their problem.

[romanP]

ridenrain ridenrain:

What poitics? This system has been going for how long?
Larry Campbell was a huge supproter of this yet he never enacted any of the other steps. Considering this first step breaks the criminal code of Canada, those other steps were pretty easy to take.

It's not the program that needs to be changed, it's the law. If we're going to have alcohol and cigarettes, then it shouldn't be illegal to choose to put anything else you want into your body.

This is the politics that's slowing down progress for addiction treatment and safe drug use: people who are so adherant to the letter of the law that they can't tell the difference between a just law and an unjust law. They have no rational mind about it; the law is the law, and things are illegal because they're bad and they're bad because they're illegal and that's the end of it.

[dog77_1999]

Personally I think drug addicts should sweat it with some hard labor on the tar sands. A win win situation for Canada and the addicts. Then again, I firmly believe you have to take responsibility for your actions. Society shouldn't be responsible.

[Scape]

I think methadone maintenance should be administered via a suppository. That would make recidivism drop, especially if the pharmacists who get the witnessing fee have to administer it!

[DerbyX]

It is no surprise that the most virulent war proponents who decry the enemy forcing its religion on everybody have no problem forcing their own personal morality on everybody.

Lives have been just as destroyed by alcoholism and gambling. Aldutery has torn families and lives apart just as badly. We help those people and at our best without judgement.

Would they be better off if those practices were also criminalized? Would they be preveneted by punishing such acts with harsh punishment?

If you answer yes then you and your local imman should just pack up your mosque and hit the bricks.

Helping people like those who become so hopelessly addicted to drugs that it controls whats left of their life is exactly the measure of a society that we should aspire to.

An attitude like "they get what they deserve" and such is exactly the attitude that prevails in all those wonderful lands you guys say we should be bombing for just those attitudes.

When societies start criminalize morality choices we all lose because sooner or later the most righteous rise to the top determined to stamp out everything "evil" and "immoral" by their personal religious interpretation of whatever book they claim is divine instructions.

Drugs, prostitution, alcohol, fatty foods, whatever should be legal. Personal choices are just that and you know what?

When they seek help we give it to them. Druggies, fatties, alkies, whatever they are get the same care and treatment as anybody else because in the end they deserve it and even knowing they will do it again they still get the same treatment.

Anybody who feels they can decide what others like is illegal should prepare for the day when the things they like are criminalized.

[romanP]

dog77_1999 dog77_1999:

Personally I think drug addicts should sweat it with some hard labor on the tar sands. A win win situation for Canada and the addicts. Then again, I firmly believe you have to take responsibility for your actions. Society shouldn't be responsible.

A good deal of the people working the Alberta oilfields are meth heads because there's nothing to do in their spare time and they hate their lives. I doubt that would have much positive effect.

[snuggles61]

Johnny_Utah Johnny_Utah:

Ah yes another Liberal program using tax payer dollars pushing the use of illegal drugs, it's a beautiful thing..

I can understand and appreciate your abhorrence towards this and I used to feel the same way too until I lived in a neighborhood constantly littered with used syringes.My main concern is children finding them and hurting themselves with them.Although it's highly unlikely they'd contract HIV from them Hep C is a big concern.So every junkie who participates in the program translates into one less syringe a child may pick up.Obviously this doesn't make the problem entirely go away but if we just use a random statistic(10% which I chose from a Social Studies project I did back in high school which at that time was the success rate of the war on drugs)meaning 10% less children finding these things and since the norm of society seems to be content with this success rate of the cops war on drugs a success rate of 10% less syringes on the street should jive with that.Combine that with the fact that as Scape mentioned the program is as cheap as borsche to run as versus a methodone clinic and it makes these junkies accessible to health care workers and gives if nothing else the illusion that somebody is concerned about them.

[ridenrain]

The main problem, despite all the spin, is that these people are still out in the community stealing or begging to get money to buy these illegal drugs. Vancouver is a North American leader for property crime and this is because, with our lax drug slaws, we've become the national dumping ground for addicts. When so many innocent people are being victimized, the health and well being of these addicts drops far down on the list.