Government approved "shooting galleries" to open in Canada

[BA]

I still think it promotes drug usage though.
Good arguements though, people!

 

[shannabanana]

So, what makes Vancouver so special out of the rest of canada ? Haven't seen much of crack alleys in toronto....
Well, the use of the word "downtown" is a bit of an exaggeration, it's mostly restricted to the east side. Not that the problem isn't very big there, but generally most of downtown is "clean".

to me.. if i were to be child growin up in vancouver, and see all the junkies
I grew up in Vancouver and I never saw a "junkie" until I was probably 19, when I started going to nightclubs that were near E. Hastings. It's a very poor, sad area, but like I said, it's a specific area.
And yes, the idea is to saturate the galleries with social workers. Short term goal: safer ways to use heroin (and remember, we have free health care still in BC). Long term goal: decrease heroin usage.

 

[RicoTheKid]

Convince them to start smoking chronic instead
free chronic for everyone!

 

[KYROLLS]

I used to live in B.C., which is the island of Vancouver. Just about every year i go to BC for x-mas or during the summer to visit my family. Drugs are so easy to get there! You litterally walk downtown on a certain street and kids and junkies walk up to you asking you if you need anything! Last X-mas i was there and i bought a sack of Chronic (1/8 8) i payed 25.00 canadian bucks and got what we pay 50.00 bucks for here in Kentucky! BC rocks when it comes to nugs!!!!!! However when it comes to Heroin Canada sucks! The government has no idea on how to tackle the problem. My brother who is 29 lives in downtown Vancouver and says that there isnt a day that goes by when he walks downtown and sees someone shooting up or asking him if he has any or if he wants any! He says that junkies are all over, and you know what the cops do, they just turn and look the other way. Thats not a good thing! Pot is onething, weed can't kill you or seriously fuc* up your life, herion can! Canada -Vancouver get real!
[ 18 November 2002: Message edited by: KYROLLS ]

 

[edarrin]

Well that is harm reduction in action. Nobody claimed it would stop drug use. Just acknowledge that there is a problem and try and make it less devastating to the afflicted and society in general. It is a social problem and not a criminal problem Certainly crime accompanies addiction because of social problems (unemployment, finances etc) . At least it may reduce the spread of disease and lessen the burden on the healthcare system. I think it is a definite step in the right direction. All we need to do is look at the US approach to see that that is certainly no solution. It accomplishes nothing of value. Sending people to prison costs more money through legal and court fees not to mention housing an inmate is not cheap. As far as what makes Van special is this type of progressive thinking. I live in TO and have been around the scene since tha early 1970's. There are sections of Toronto that would equal Vans downtown east side. Sherbourne and Queen area has open daylight usage right in the street and the park there is full of used needles. I drove by about a week ago and the police had set up a mobile police station in the fucking park. Some drug runner kid got shot there and people were going through his pockets as he lay on the sidewalk it said in the paper. The whole area between approx Jarvis, Dundas,Parlament and Queen is crackhead/junkie central. And nearby Regent Park is a gang infested place with plenty of crackhouses and shooting galleries but they are more indoors. not hard to find. That is a really rough area and not for novices. You will be burned and maybe worse in there. In my heavy using stage of life I have been beaten up, robbed, had knives pulled on me by gangmembers in there. Don't kid yourself, there is plenty of shit right here in downtown TO. In fact many addicts I know summer in TO and winter in Van because of the milder climate.

 

[*SWeeT-e*]

To be honest, this is one area that I detest the government wasting my tax dollars on- drugs. Anything to do with drugs- preventing it, prosecuting it, trying to cure it, whatever. Being an addict is different than requiring government assistance just for poverty. You choose to take the drugs and you choose not to help yourself. You may not choose addiction, but you certainly assume the responsibility that it may occur should you choose to take addictive drugs. Kinda like driving your car drunk. Yes, your judgement is impaired, but you know what you're doing, and you should have taken reasonable precautions, like leaving the car at home. Before you jump down my throat on this, I've experienced drug addiction myself, so I'm not trying to be judgemental here.

The point is, if the gov would just legalize the damn things so many of these problems would go away all on their own. You control the quality so there are less OD's. You take it off the black market and the price goes down. You put the drug lords out of business and immediately decrease crime. You tax the drugs and use the proceeds to pay for treatment for addicts (based on some other philosophy rather than the 12-step model). No need for "shooting galleries" in which all of the same problems prevail, nothing is really solved, and you pay a bunch of staff and social workers to help people who will only be helped if they want it themselves anyway. It's a statistical FACT that most addicts/alcoholics who recover do so all on their own, without any treatment facility or psychological counselling.

It's an individual problem and an individual responsibility.