[Newsbot]

<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="/link.php?id=30083" target="_blank">Safe-injection clinics are okay, legal cannabis is not, Dion says</a> (click to view)

<strong>Category:</strong> <a href="/news/topic/14-misc-cdn" target="_blank">Misc CDN</a>
<strong>Posted By: </strong> <a href="/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=userinfo&username=Hyack" target="_blank">Hyack</a>
<strong>Date: </strong> 2008-02-09 15:54:55
<strong>Canadian</strong>

[uwish]

typical liberal.

[mtbr]

The federal Liberal Party has no intention of advocating the legalization of cannabis, looks like they just lost a bunch more votes to the green party.

[sandorski]

Disagree with him on Pot, but Safe Injection sites are good.

[kenmore]

surprized harper isnt chirping about legalizing pot....imagine the tax grab the tories could get.. I mean to fund the war and all...
injection sites are a good thing... dirty needles are a real hazard to the general population not just the addicts ... not a cure all but a good thing to start.. and the other side is that when addicts come to the exchange clinics they make contact with health care workers.. it may lead to detox or them becoming clean.. a good thing...

[Public_Domain]

[kenmore]

actually as much as I think pot is ok... there isnt a party in canada that will legalize it... if it was going to be it would be the liberals..
I mean they are the party for all the people... they legalized same sex marriage and instituted gay rights... that is not a neg comment .. I am not homophobic and agree with that issue..

[TattoodGirl]

Insight is a great thing...it has taken a lot of rigs of the street, got folks into detox, treatment, and hospital if health issues need to be addressed. Clean rigs slow down the spread of Hep and HIV, and helps eliminate the chances of a needle poke in parks and on the street.

[ridenrain]

I haven't noticed the Vancouver east side get any better. In fact, I see even more homeless out there.
What a great election promise: A Vancouver East End in every city.

[ShepherdsDog]

sure, send the message that you support people using hard core narcotics but pot is eeeeeevil. Talk about a skewed sense of what is socially acceptable.

[TattoodGirl]

ridenrain ridenrain:

I haven't noticed the Vancouver east side get any better. In fact, I see even more homeless out there.
What a great election promise: A Vancouver East End in every city.

Safe injection sites arent meant to address homelessness, that is a whole other issue. I have worked in the DTES as a front line worker for years and insight is working in the ways I mentioned. But we need way more to address the issues that lead to homelessness and addiction. We need to treat Mental Health illness seriously and promptly. It is a sad state when we can spend millions on useless Olympic games, but turn our backs on the sickest in society.

[ridenrain]

Sure, it's more complex than that but for all those that might be saved from overdoses, how many more does it enable, how many now can live on with Hep or have simply become an army of numbers for the poverty pimps.
While we need to treat addiction as a desease, I don't see shooting galleries as the road to curing the desease.

We need the ability to put addicts in detox, even if that tramples their precious rights to be drug addicted child prostitutes.

[Public_Domain]

[TattoodGirl]

ridenrain ridenrain:

Sure, it's more complex than that but for all those that might be saved from overdoses, how many more does it enable, how many now can live on with Hep or have simply become an army of numbers for the poverty pimps.
While we need to treat addiction as a desease, I don't see shooting galleries as the road to curing the desease.

We need the ability to put addicts in detox, even if that tramples their precious rights to be drug addicted child prostitutes.

Yes we do, but we also need the follow up to address the pain that most are numbing by drugs/alcohol, immediately when detoxed. Detox is only 3, 5, and 7 days and then you are shipped out the door back to the shitty SRO and war zone you came from. Its a bloody vicious circle, insight isnt about a cure, its about harm reduction...lowering the spread of disease, getting people in contact with A&D support and medical support which can lead to change, but it will never be a cure. Underlying issues need to be addressed for an addict to be successful.

We also need to prosecute these asshole pimps and dealers that prey on the vulnerable and put them away for a long time.

[ridenrain]

Ok. We have some common ground here then.
I thought the detox took longer but I guess that's just the chemical dependency. Dumping them back into the same enviroment that made them is just asking for the cycle to repeat.

Do we start up Esendale or the other sanitoriums again?