It was an experiment that went wrong … terribly wrong, after the BC NDP government one year ago decriminalized possession and use of small amounts of hard drugs.
The results: increased open hard drug use in several BC urban communities, not less; more opioid drug deaths, not less; more urban streets/parks, needle/social decay problems, not less; more drugged-up crazies wandering the streets scaring/threatening passersby; more retail thefts, vandalism, and more actual acts of violence in commercial, residential and even recreational areas, not less.
The NDP’s pandering to the druggies created urban communities in BC where many people feared to tread outside their homes, unless accompanied by others.
It not only destroyed Vancouver’s Granville Street as a shopping, dining, entertainment hub, but also led to increased crime/violent attacks/even murder on neighbouring streets/areas as well.
Other cities across BC experienced similar increases in open hard drug use, and also suffered from increases in thefts, drug-crazed public safety incidents and frightening unprovoked violent attacks against citizens, who were just going about their business.
The Vancouver-based media (I do not do detailed monitoring of media from other parts of the province) have been very soft on the NDP government, but I believe one day historians will agree with what I have written repeatedly on the blog … that the “bleeding heart” policies/actions/ideological blindness of the current NDP provincial government, aided and abetted in Vancouver’s case by the former extreme left City Council, did terrible damage to the social fabric/safety/economy of the city … and probably, many other BC urban communities have endured similar problems as well as a result of the NDP’s open “drug use is okay” policies.
Something had to give!
The final straw? The revelation, through a leaked memo to the BC United Opposition, that under the NDP-introduced policy , open hard drug use was even being allowed by patients in BC hospitals … potentially increasing problems/safety of other already-vulnerable and stressed out patients, staff and visitors.
Open hard drug use in hospitals … okay under the NDP!!!
When that was revealed, the government’s response? A promise to hire 320 more Security Officers to work in health facilities!
Geez!!
Last Friday, though, in the face of growing public angst/anger/fear and community, business and hospital staff open concerns/complaints … and maybe even our rants on this blog … the NDP government too had enough!
Premier David Eby announced that BC would backtrack and re-criminalize once more the use of drugs in public spaces.
“The province has made an urgent request to Health Canada to make amendments to B.C.’s exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to give police the power to step in when they see illicit drug use in public spaces, including inside hospitals, on transit and in parks,” The Vancouver Sun reported.
(The province had tried to specifically ban drug use from parks and playgrounds etc before, but a challenge by druggie supporters/advocates tied that up in Court … possibly for years. The Health Canada approach apparently will circumvent that and expedite the ban.)
It was the right move.
Possession/use of small amounts of drugs in private or sanctioned indoor locations will remain decriminalized.
And let’s keep it real: police will not likely be wholesale arresting people toking up as they walk down the street or even those using hard drugs in alleyways or other discreet outdoor locations, but at least the change could stop the open shooting up on sidewalks, in store doorways, in parks or even playgrounds, as had become so prevalent.
“Premier David Eby said during a news conference Friday that police need tools to address extraordinary circumstances where people are compromising public safety through their drug use,” The Sun said.
You can read the full Sun story here: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/bc-asks-health-canada-to-make-drug-use-in-public-illegal-again.
The province’s move is a good start to taking back our streets, parks, beaches and playgrounds … so the majority of the population can enjoy them, without feeling unsafe or worried that there’s a good chance their kids could be exposed to used needles laying somewhere nearby on the pavement, on the ground, in the grass or in the sand.
This does not mean that most British Columbians are not sympathetic or not concerned about hard drug users suffering from their affliction.
There should also be a major increase in funding for treatment programs and facilities to get off drugs those who want help to do so … but now can’t find it.
And the province and the federal government should also change the laws to force the judges too, in our current “injustice” system, to keep repeat drug dealers, violent offenders and multi-conviction recidivist thieves in custody for more than a few hours.
Then … and only then … can the reclaiming of BC cities’ core areas begin, to restore them to people places, where shoppers, diners and families can return … day or night … without the fear of facing danger.
And re-criminalizing open use of drugs in public places was a good start … if police, Crown Counsels and BC’s Judges also do their jobs!
Harv Oberfeld
(Follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new postings on this Blog.)
Once again another good one HO
Shooting up in the hospital!!
Something very wrong with our health minister ..
The election is this fall, our chance to kick those sick politicians (NDP) out!
(Response: A few months ago, I would have thought the NDP losing the next BC election was an impossibility: but no longer. Advances made by the BC Conservative Party, especially in rural BC, coupled with growing dissatisfaction with the NDP on carbon taxes, urban crime, while doing almost nothing to help middle class working individuals, families, seniors could make them vulnerable! h.o)
I’m hoping the NDP lose the next election because I feel what they just can’t help themselves from carrying out really dum and dangerous ideologically warped policies and stuff. I don’t have any forgiveness for these extreme pandering bleeding heart fools and thier soft on druggies stance. Even if one would like to see people get better, but in thier drug induced insanity many become highly dangerous to public safety. Eby made things even worse. That no good politician experimented and played with innocent peoples lives and businesses and livelihoods. After what the Eby NDP people let happen is enough. There’s no taking
back what they did. And the drug use in hospitals, well that took the cake. So Eby can go to you know where and I pray they are gone at election time. They aren’t to be trusted with our safety and running public office anymore. Their nothing but pandering bleeding heart weaklings. They don’t even care about people’s and families unaffordability crisis their in. Their idea of help is taxing people more. That’s my rant and I’m sticking to it. Enough with Ebys recklessness. And Trudeau also.
(Response: That’s not so much just a rant, but I believe a reflection of how many British Columbians … even many who voted NDP last time … are feeling these days. When working people struggle to pay constantly-rising rents, mortgages, grocery costs ..and then keep getting hit by cold, heartless government-imposed rising taxes and fees, the only action they can take is to “throw the bums out” … a proud Canadian tradition! Now, what the NDP had going for it was a lack of enthusiasm by voters for BC United and Kevin Falcon; however, increased interest in the BC Conservatives has changed the political dynamic. I’d bet Eby/NDP are sorry they ignored my rants that they had a duty to seek a public mandate for the new Premier and his programs last year! h.o)
Legal poison, taken in public locations is bonkers.
Today’s BC NDP is an organization apparently beholden to the employment of the addiction support workers, all at the huge costs to society. Oregon tried, BC was going to succeed where others failed? What are/were the differences between Oregon & BC?
Now that downtown Vancouver is a drug bazaar, boarded up retail stores aplenty, with many former hotels turned into drug dens etc., is this the goal of the NDP? Countless millions spent to accommodate the addicted, chasing away retailers, tourists and many long time residents, what exactly is the long term goal of this government? A colossal make work project for addiction support staff, a tourist industry just over the pandemic now dreading losing further customers once the rest of the world realizes the urban shooting gallery is allowed here?
Urban BC elected this NDP govt., urban BC in it’s current incarnation is unsustainable, too many in too small a piece of land, too many opportunities for the unsavoury to run amok, mostly with the blessing of the “soft on crime” & “personally never responsible” group in Victoria.
The scourge of druggies has recently effected the rural residents of BC as well. With legalized possession the addicted are invading from other regions of Canada, why not, an amount that gets you charges elsewhere is legal in BC, but not anywhere else??? The thought processes which made the choice to guinea pig BC needs to be flushed with this entire govt. caucus!
No deterrent= rampant crime, 100% of the time. Recidivism is a reality, just as tossing out politicians for not having the best interests of the majority of the citizenry in it’s decision making processes!
The sands are shifting, the Falcon party is long gone, the messes of the past leaders (mostly Christy) are still not forgotten, that is all but assured in rural BC where they are hemmoraging support due to some ridiculous choices ( reopening BC govt. investment offices in the PRC while we have a federal inquiry into PRC meddling in our elections? Is Falcon that daft?
The only thing I can guarantee is soon hoards of addiction workers & addiction support sympathizers will wail endlessly, pretending to speak for the addicted while worrying about their employment prospects. Meanwhile the majority of BC residents hope this scourge is controlled and moved far out of the neighbourhoods they inhabit! I doubt the current govt. or current crop of bureaucrats really will ever own their actions in ruining BC with this social experiment run amok.
(Response: You raise a really interesting point when you talk about “the addicted are invading from other regions of Canada”. This did not just apply to drug users, but BC’s and Vancouver City Hall’s efforts to seriously tackle poverty and homelessness as well. I get it: senior governments do have a responsibility to provide for those who are unable to care for themselves. However, it is NOT the responsibility of the City of Vancouver to provide free housing to anyone who arrives here from elsewhere in BC or the rest of Canada or other countries. It should have been obvious to the extreme left City Council that concentrated too much on financing, building, that handing out free housing just for the asking (largely funded by the NDP provincial government) would attract hundreds (thousands?) from elsewhere, setting up tent cities in parks and on city streets, demanding …and in many cases … getting free housing. And the freedom to openly use hard drugs too to boot! The results have really hurt downtown Vancouver, Victoria and many other communities as well: recriminalizing public use of drugs is a start …but a lot more has to be done to restore downtown and public safety everywhere. h.o)
A few conversations with the local constables have left zero doubt about the fact that addicts from across the nation are heading to BC for very obvious reasons, why do our politicians and bureaucrats blatantly stick to their guns with the massive price of this seemingly ineffective tact?
Picnic table outside Save on Foods in Salmon Arm, shooting gallery, rampant theft around the new homeless shelter by the dock in Salmon Arm (according to manager at Walmart causing the self checkout to be closed recently), endless parades of shopping cart urchins at night, carts piled high with questionably obtained items, doors at fast food restrooms now locked and require buzzing into due to drug use, all this in one small hamlet on the way to junkie utopia aka Vancouver!
On constable I talked with said over 90% of the urchins in Salmon Arm were living east of BC til legalization, but nary a peep from the media, why? Maybe this media bailout has effectively silenced any real critique of government policies? Why threaten the hand which feeds your dinosaur business?
The expectations of the vast majority have been usurped by the demands of the few who cannot control their own urges to poison themselves? Par for the NDP course I suppose?
(Response: I’m not sure if the media just don’t get it or are too afraid to ask/confront any of the homeless or druggies and ask them … and then City Hall and the BC government …. “Where they are from? If elsewhere, why are they in Vancouver? And, why/how is it the responsibility of Vancouver taxpayers to give them free housing, public open drug use locations, all kinds of other civic services and the loss of our own safe use/enjoyment of streets, parks, plazas, even kids’ playgrounds??? Compassion is one thing: but it should not carry with it the abuse of the majority’s rights too. h.o)
An election is coming and the electorate is somewhat “pissed off” with the current politics in this province, especially the “Hurtlands”. The NDP do not care about the “Hurtlands. because MLA mining is scarce and there is better pickens in metro Vancouver.
As I repeat so often I am a lefty and I have my ear to the ground, politics wise, because of my endeavours with transit in metro Vancouver, and I can say for sure that Eby has a very good chance pulling a “Bob Skelly”.
Something “evil, this way comes” in Surrey and Eby’s and Farnsworth’s absolute stupidity over the police issue, may jeopardize those important NDP seats in Surrey.
TransLink is another issue, with the absolutely inept operation of our regional transit planning and the massive con going on demanding more and more tax money to fund politically prestigious projects solely designed for pre-election photo-ops and ten second sound bites..
2015’s plebiscite sent a message, which all politicians and all bureaucrats remained deaf too.
Many boomers are on fixed incomes and do not share in those six figured salaries of all those who are living in taxpayer paid “Ivory Towers”, thinking of new ways to tax, tax, tax.
I think Eby is now ever more sensitive to the wishes of the voters, but has also shown his true arrogance and I do think he is vulnerable.
His announcement re drugs is purely political as an election is around the corner and I revert back to my opening sentence.
(Response: The interior and north have long been strongholds for the BC Liberals (BC United) while NDP strength has been concentrated in urban areas and Vancouver Island .. but I’m not so sure the NDP can count on city dwellers as much anymore. There are a lot of renters, young families, seniors …and anyone who drives a car or truck … who could prove susceptible to plans/promises and the messages from BC Conservatives and BC United. And I believe last Friday’s move by Eby and the government to backtrack on their open drug policy showed the NDP is aware of their growing vulnerability. I suspect we will be seeing more moves by the NDP to try and quell growing dissatisfaction among voters …maye even another “rebate”! h.o)
Very much agree with your post Harvey and the (so far) first 4 responses, a few thoughts in no particular order.
As one letter writer to the Times Colonist noted; “parts of Victoria are a drug addled gong show” which can be extrapolated to one degree or another right across the province and country. Most evenings I watch on the news from Victoria to Halifax, same stuff, drugs, tent cities, homeless, mental health, the resulting mayhem and what’s the fix.?? Answers mainly a complex word salad but boils down to, err um i dunno and shuffling the deck chairs.
Belleville Ontario.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/belleville-small-town-opioid-crisis
The question(s) that I haven’t seen asked is: why is this a continuing crisis.? What is it about our society that keeps producing a non stop conveyer belt of drug dependant populations. Often the feds. will deflect an issue by comparing Canada to another G 7 or G 20 country in terms of “but they are worse” when it makes them look good. How do we stack up against other G 7/20 countries in drug dependant, homeless, mental health populations measurables.?
In my hometown on the mid- Island, a local fast food joint has taken away 3 outside tables, one obscured indoor table and have a security camera at the front counter monitoring the obscured washrooms doors, as do some others. A landlord had to install locked gated fencing at the rear of his tenants businesses as it was being used as a shooting gallery, garbage dump and outdoor toilet. Another local one man business had to install security cameras due to theft. And this isn’t recent, this store closed 4 years ago mainly due to shoplifting.
https://www.cheknews.ca/shoppers-grocery-mart-in-parksville-closes-after-42-years-638952/
Every now and then a Mayor of a town or city will be interviewed about the state of their respective jurisdictions and the effects of this lunacy of inmates running the asylum which has been going on for years, but I have yet to see any organised pushback from the business community as a group who will readily appear on the teevee complaining that the sky is falling over every little thing imaginable that they think will affect their bottom lines. The costs associated with the mayhem and crime sprees inside and at the front and back doors of their business collectively has to be substantial.
Is not time for business organisations and chambers of commerce to collectively document the affects and costs to their members then ensure every member of the Legislature and Parliament has that info and display on their respective websites.?
(Response: Clearly, the bleeding heart well-intentioned, but sadly disastrous policies/attitude of the NDP to drugs have made things worse in many communities … much worse. Eby’s announced reversal was overdue …but welcome. We have to take back our streets, parks, playgrounds and make them safe, welcoming for the majority. However, the government should also increase its funding/programs to help those who want to get off drugs, do so! Maybe that should be a priority ..instead of providing free housing in Vancouver for anyone who comes here from anywhere around the province or across Canada? h.o)
I fully agree with this post It’s clear that the NDP is responding to polls and trying to convince voters it’s responsive to their concerns. The problem, though, is that even people on the left are horrified by the disastrous policies. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next election.
I want to post the link for a video that already has millions of views. It’s truly horrifying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwcp2mcOH0Y
(Response: Everyone should watch that: especially those who defended the NDP government’s “experiment” to allow, and tacit support for, the open public use of drugs. For people who are sick, drug dependent or vulnerable … the government “okay” to go public was clearly a signal that drug use itself was okay. I have no doubt this attracted druggies from all across Canada to Vancouver! The results have been undeniable: MORE drug use; MORE ambulance calls; MORE deaths; MORE crime; MORE violence; MORE societal fear/impacts… not just in the Downtown Eastside, but spreading into the Downtown, the West End, Yaletown and beyond. Just a few days ago, I drove along Granville from Drake to Helmcken: encountered a guy careening diagonally across the street mid-block near Davie and saw another slumped up against a storefront (great for business!). Time for governments, police, Crown Counsels, Judges to give us back our streets, our safety, civilized society. h.o)
Everyone on this blog should view the video Gilbert has posted …
It is a real eye opener … and most of what we see has been encouraged by the NDP.
Thanks for the video Gilbert…
Good replies on this topic … read them all …
(Response: Very interesting responses and a good discussion. But have to admit, I keep waiting for the NDP apologists (the NDP can do no wrong types! 🙂 ) to try to defend the terrible mess/damage the NDP’s bleeding heart, totally permissive open drug policies and actions created in Vancouver’s downtown, Yaletown and the West End and, apparently, several other BC communities as well. h.o)
I could never understand why decriminalization allowed open use, and nor could I understand the court ruling against the government when it tried to somewhat restrict its use. After all, smoking and drinking are restricted in BC. As I made clear a couple of times, I didn’t think even those restrictions went far enough. Now according to Eby the only places where illicit drugs can be used is in private homes, shelters (I am assuming homeless shelters not bus shelters) and overdose prevention sites.
Is that good enough or should decriminalization be completely scrapped like the BC United tried to do with a motion the other day.
As for your “I keep waiting for the NDP apologists (the NDP can do no wrong types!”) I guess my comment is as close as you are going to get. Nobody is saying that the NDP can do no wrong. And seriously why would anybody want to. I get enjoyment out of discussing an issue on here but I just roll my eyes when I am written off with something like “that’s what I would expect from an NDP supporter” when we are discussing foreign aid. My enjoyment of the discussion trumps the insults but not everybody is me.
On this site anybody who tries to talk in favour of decriminalization is written off as a bleeding heart. Why would someone like Petra Schulz co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm who lost her son 10 years ago come on here and say
The decriminalization pilot is being made a scapegoat,” she said, pointing out that cities like Ottawa and Edmonton are also dealing with public drug use. If anybody thinks substance use will go away if you recriminalize it, that is not the case.”
The NDP admits that there were flaws with the decriminalization. The biggest problem that I see is that decriminalization was brought in without corresponding programs like housing and safe sites and other harm reduction ideas. Eby has admitted that other jurisdictions can learn from BC.
Drug addiction is an extremely important and unfortunately complex problem. Instead of politicizing it maybe we consider Keith’s excellent question.
“The question(s) that I haven’t seen asked is: why is this a continuing crisis.? What is it about our society that keeps producing a non stop conveyer belt of drug dependant populations”.
(Response: Your last question is the most interesting and I believe the most important. When I (we) were in our 20s, many of us, while working just part time, could afford a car or working full time, our own apartment, groceries, clothes … with money left over to go out on weekends. Today, I believe we have seen a corresponding growth in drug use in direct proportion to the increase in futility, even hopelessness, among young people, too many of whom see no way of ever really getting ahead. Even if they work full time, they can’t afford to rent a bachelor suite on their own … let alone dream of buying even a small condo, or ever a house, and have no hope of buying even an old car or, at $2.16 a litre (taxes, taxes, taxes!) even renting one occasionally for a day or weekend or to travel anywhere, and, increasingly too many sadly now have to depend on food banks just to eat. Drugs provide an escape … a “high” that makes them feel good, first, often with friends in social settings …and then for more and more, deeper and deeper on their own. I doubt ANY of the druggies we see shooting up or passed out on our city streets, sidewalks, doorways, park benches etc. or shoplifting, robbing people thought they’d end up that way. And until governments at all levels step in to resurrect, rebuild a viable working middle class … restoring hope and possibilities for THEM … the attraction of escape from reality through drug use will continue to get worse. h.o)
The drug issue, so mishandled by government it has now lead to a crisis.
I am writing this because a son of an old acquaintance has passed due to his addiction. As he told me on the phone the other night, no help, no nothing from the government, just a no so benign encouragement to use drugs.
I still believe decriminalization of drugs is a good step but it should have been associated with drug treatment and rehab. It wasn’t and the result was open drug use all around.
We have open warfare on city streets, especially in the outer burbs, yet Eby and crew only pay lip service, with front-man Farnsworth pretending to be serious.
The NDP fan club largely remain supportive, echoing cheer-leading statement like they really meant something, but they do not.
This is the sad state of affairs that both Trudeau’s Liberals and the Eby/Singh NDP have lead us too.
A few years ago if i said that a lot of electoral money comes from drugs and drug dealers, I would be laughed at -oh, no, no it is people supporting the party. But today, with governments lack of anything but more profits for the illicit drug industry, I would get a silent agreement, as people are beginning to wonder how those land developer types got their seed monies.
Today’s news is the terrorist-lite crowd supporting a HAMAS setting up tent cities (so what else is new?) at universities, but another drug overdose death, well that’s yesterday’s news, too bad – so sad the government sends its thought and prayers.
It’s a mess, as government refuses to deal soundly to the problem and hire more communications types (of course on the taxpayer’s dime) to create weasel-word sound bites for the evening news!
For me, I am crafting a small tome, for a funeral of a boy/man who died too young for a small family get together; a family too ashamed that they could not find help, too ashamed to have an obituary, as all those who cared, knows.
(Response: Although I’m happy to see re-criminalization of public use of drugs, I disagree with Poilievre/Conservatives who would also re-criminalize use/possession, even in private. It should be treated like sex: what people do in private is a personal/health matter; but that does not mean they should be able to also do it on public streets, in doorways, in parks or bus stop benches! h.o)
Hard drugs at the hospital?
It was rampant when my mother was at St. Paul’s, and that was under the BC Liberals. Delivered and consumed in wards, shooting up in the lower corridors. It’s not a new thing.
What IS new (at least seems to me) are needles and paraphernalia in playgrounds, bus-stops, busses, grocery stores, community centers and libraries. The last time I went downtown to the main library was a real eye-opener.
(Response: The damage done to Vancouver’s downtown … all the way up to the Granville Bridge … under NDP policies, in conjunction with the previous radical-eft council, will take years to reverse and restore as a shopping, dining, entertainment hub, if that’s even at all possible. It really has become a scary place …even during the daytime. Re-criminalization of public use of drugs could help, but only if police get the support of Crown Counsel and provincial judges and the provincial/federal governments substantially increase the health care treatments/recovery programs as well. Better to spend public money on that than FIFA!! ho)
I took a chance & called the 2 friends I know who lost children to the scourge of drugs and asked them this simple question, “would you have preferred your child be imprisoned vs. the outcome you’ve had”?
Both answers were the same, in my sample (small as it is) a resounding yes was the reply.
These families have paid a massive toll, their losses are real, the results should terrify any decent parent, they have a huge burden to shoulder for the rest of their lives, still no real efforts to stem the importation of these poisons, bail for dealers & amateur chemists who profit from creating this garbage. This scourge has been allowed to proliferate to levels unforeseen, time to toss the rose coloured lenses & face the blinding reality of lax justice, political word salad & opportunity for criminal activity! All the current concepts have/are failing, a new, public safety model is required, the current ones are a unmitigated disaster!
(Response: Treatment is better than prison, but it’s clear, if services/programs were ramped up, incarceration for crimes committed to support drug habits could provide many of the worst victims of drug use the best opportunity to confront/address/treat their addictions. The current revolving door “injustice” policies have made things worse …for the drug users and especially our society. h.o)
Think this sums it up. Having only one pillar is like the middle finger to society. And in the end who benefits most by this approach? The drug dealers.
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/thomas-gove-b-c-s-gallant-enterprise-to-save-those-addicted-to-drugs-is-not-working
(Response: It may indeed be time to bring back compulsory, involuntary treatment in residential centers to help drug users break their habits, especially those convicted of crimes to support their habits. But first, there have to be more facilities to take them in and more programs to treat them and, if the government has $500 million to spend on hosting seven FIFA games, surely they can funds to more effectively treat hard drug users! h.o)
Good coverage a few days ago from Les Leyne.
https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/les-leyne-public-safety-overlooked-in-decriminalization-8672274
In his write –up Les notes..
“But widespread legal open use, with all the resulting alarming side effects, quickly became one of the dominant concerns. Very few members of the united front of politicians, health experts and police who advocated decriminalization seem to have seen it coming.
Eby said Monday the safety of the broader community is non-negotiable and is as important as the safety of those addicted to drugs.
But try to find that anywhere in the documentation
The actual approval of the request doesn’t explicitly mention public safety. The federal letter of requirements stressed a number of principles like ongoing engagement, increasing the health system’s capacity to treat users, and public engagement.”
The fact that the approval document doesn’t explicitly mention public safety doesn’t mean it wasn’t brought up in discussions prior to the final release. There are many reasons why that may or not be the case, but in major changes to public policy downsides to those changes if not addressed up front until they hit the fan, then become “ unintended consequences.”
This weeks irony is individual cigarettes are now coming with printed health warnings, is it not time to apply the same strategy used for smoking to drug taking,? which has to be the easiest public health initiative on the planet. There is years of indisputable data of health effects and associated costs. There won’t be any pushback from lobbyists from the illicit drug production industry, pretty much plain sailing.
(Response: Leyne is good: an old-fashioned experienced journalist, who doesn’t just parrot government messaging. And he raises a very good point … the government places all kinds of restrictions/controls and warnings on legal tobacco products (which ARE indeed bad for users), yet makes available free of charge much worse hard drugs that debilitate and kill much more quickly! h.o)
At my doctor’s today for allergy shots, she commented about how badly the Lower Mainland has become since she arrived here a few years ago. She said that the poverty, family abuse and drug usage has escalated to where it is absolutely insane.
Why didn’t the idiots who run the show see what was to come and why did they go ahead with it anyway? My guess is that it’s all about the money – providing all that drug care to the homeless is a multi-million (billion?) business now. That money would have been better spent on normal health care and for seniors and anything else but this…. Unfortunately it will take many years to undo the mess that is downtown Vancouver and downtown every other city in Canada!
(Response: People (ie politicians) who are blinded by ideology often fail to let reality put them off ideals they envision. In BC, over the past seven years, the NDP provincial government (who I have to admit I voted for back then), aided and abetted by left wing and then far left wing Vancouver City Councils (who I did NOT vote for) brought in policies that turned the city into a haven for homeless from anywhere/everywhere and a druggie heaven (easy/free drugs, needles, arrest-free open use/abuse policies, priority ambulance/hospital services and, for years, tolerance of tent cities in parks and even on downtown sidewalks .. and then moved many into free hotel rooms, including right downtown on Granville Street!) The citizens/businesses in downtown/Yaletown/Davie/Robson have reaped what the politicians sowed … and it will now take years to restore those areas to safe public use, if at all. h.o)
There is a whole series of these videos on YouTube. Does wonders for tourism.
I am shocked but I am not shocked, as our toni politicians call each other names and being tossed out of parliament, the rot in our major cities continues.
If I had my way I would force every one of our MP’s and MLA’s to spend a weekend on the streets in the DTES!
https://youtu.be/FKyJ_7FmjEM?si=EO-ePR_7BzjW-3Ev
All about the money to be made:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/profiting-from-despair-how-decriminalization-advocates-exploited-b-c-s-opioid-crisis
(Response: Many years ago, during my bleeding heart period, I got into a real argument/disagreement with a friend of mine who at one time had used hard drugs, then got off them cold turkey. He was highly critical of almost all the drug and social work agencies, their top executives and even many of their workers, complaining most of them were just well paid drug-enablers whose salaries/benefits/careers depended on drug problems never actually being solved. I disagreed vehemently, of course, but then I started hearing reports that governments/social and health now spend a million dollars a day on the downtown eastside and yet, drug use/abuse is getting worse, not better. And I have had to rethink my position: judging by the results, maybe he was onto something? h.o)
I have a loaded question. What on earth would possess a Prime Minister, such as Trudeau of course, to implement and allow hard drug use in all public spaces including hospitals. This to me doesnt make any sense. It doesnt even sound like an experiment or decision made by a warped mind or madman or a social science based kind of program try out. I would honestly at this moment perceive it to be part of a planned effort to continue a slow destruction of our society. What would one call that. I know what I would call it. I now believe so far , that this guy, and a few of his extreme nuts are into this for a reason. They aren’t actually nuts though, but are a clever bunch with bad intentions for Canadian society and the country. I think Trudeau is a menace with intent to wreck havoc on our system for some reason and he’s so far getting away with it. Heck of a question and analysis of the current situation and the current leadership.
(Response: I think people who identify as “progressives” (including me at one time) had a kind of idealistic perspective that if we treated drugs as a health problem and didn’t keep it hidden away (we allow smoking and drinking in public places), it would remove the stigma and druggies would become more likely to realize we care and can help them stop. But the massive necessary input in treatment programs/facilities did not happen: we just allowed people to shoot up in public, even gave them the needles and in some cases even the drugs!! The impact on society …streets, parks, businesses even schoolyards was terrible! Now, most people and governments realize we were wrong: drugs are still a health issue, but those who are sick have no right to impose the results of their affliction on the rest of us … kind of like drinking and driving or smoking near others. h.o)