“I can tell you bluntly, there is no downside,”
I don’t have a solution for the drug problem (short of the way they handle it in Singapore and Malaysia), but I think I can be pretty sure enabling addicts isn’t free of a downside.
The junkies have to get their junk, and they don’t pick it off bushes on the side of the road. Whether they’re getting their drug money through petty crime or violent assaults, society is paying a price for their addiction. Cold-hearted as it may seem, those that were being culled from the herd by overdoses and needle-promoted diseases no longer are in the Vancouver approach. And if there are any who survive after reaching rock-bottom and in desperation seeking help, they’re less-likely to do so with the government running a “Needles-R-Us” operation for them.
Every junkie should be allowed a triple dose of 100% pure stuff. The guberment has confiscated enough of this crap to pass it out that way.