FReep this poll and help rid America of heroin addicts

Toronto Globe & Mail ^ | 9-15-03 | Poll

[Texas Eagle]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030915.wsame0915/BNStory/National/

Globe Poll:

Vancouver has just opened
a safe-injection site for heroin users.
Do you think these so-called
shooting galleries are a good idea?
Yes
No

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030915.wsame0915/BNStory/National/

[MarMema]

Freeped.I heard about this several times on talk radio here in the NW. Amazing, isn't it? Canada sinks to a new low. OTOH, maybe all of our transients will head up over the border to Vancouver since life is so good there.

I'm running another freep over here if you are interested.

[Peach]

There was an article on FR a few weeks ago. Denmark, I think it was, is considering getting rid of its shooting galleries because of the crimes committed there and other, unintended consequences as a result of the galleries.

[MarMema]

Here's a click-on link - for this freep, not mine.

LINK

[F14 Pilot]

What's FBI doing down there?

We should get rid of Addicts all over the world.
Here is an Article related to this:


North America's first authorized drug injection site opens in Vancouver

By EMILY YEARWOOD-LEE


VANCOUVER (CP) - While some of its potential clients huddled nearby, North America's first authorized drug-injection site had its long-awaited official opening Monday.

The so-called safe-injection site won't be open to addicts for a week or so, but its political backers greeted the move with whoops and cheers.

But there were also emotional memories of addicts killed by overdoses and disease caused by drug use.

"The first thing that went through my head is the huge number of people that have died and the number that I saw and had to deal with their families," said Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell.

As city coroner, Campbell was often called to the poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside, where a vacant building was renovated to house the new safe-injection site.

The controversial government-funded project, which will give users injection kits and allow them to shoot up inside under nurse supervision, won't end addiction, said Campbell, but he predicted it will soon make a visible difference.

"Most importantly, we won't have to take people out of these hotels time and time again," said Campbell, referring to the run-down buildings that dot the crumbling neighbourhood.

Thirty-seven people have died already from overdoses in Vancouver this year, he said.

Drug users sometimes will use dirty needles and water from puddles to shoot up. Now, addicts wanting to use the new facility will be ushered into a brightly-lit room lined on one side by open, mirrored booths where they can inject drugs.

After finishing, they will be taken to a "chill out room," where they can receive counselling and peer referrals.

On Monday morning, knots of raggedly dressed people huddled at a street corner just metres from the new site.

One long-time drug user said he hoped the pilot project would make a difference in his neighbourhood.

Steven Bannon, 43, said he knows too many people who have died from diseases acquired through drug use.

"A person who chooses to use the injection site, the main thing, I think, is less risk of HIV," said the soft-spoken man.

Melody Kitchener, 41, said she would be comfortable using the injection site.

"I've used on the street, but I don't like to," said Kitchener, who has been using drugs for 28 years. "You know what they say, it's not a good idea to use alone."

Not everyone was celebrating the site's opening Monday.

The pilot project represents the wrong approach to combating addiction, said Canadian Alliance MP Randy White.

"The priority to get people off drugs, not keep people on drugs," said White. "Every cent we spend away from that objective is money wasted."

Health Canada has committed $1.5 million to pay for research during the pilot project and the B.C. government will also give $2 million to help cover costs.

Another $1.2 million from British Columbia went toward renovation costs.

But that money is just going toward creating a legal zone for drugs, said White.

"If somebody suggests this will get people off drugs or prevent HIV, that is not the case," he said.

Concerns have also been raised about whether a police presence in the area will scare off potential users.

On Monday morning, two officers stood across the street from the injection site.

Officers would be working in the general area and want to facilitate addicts being able to use the injection site, said city police Chief Jamie Graham.

But the street in front of the injection site will not be a "bubble zone" for drug dealers, he said.

"It is not the police intention to intervene or interfere with anyone entering the site unless there is a lawful reason to do so," said Graham.

"The site will not be a sanctuary for anyone (who is the) subject of an arrest warrant or someone who is or was engaged in criminal activity.

"Routine visits by other police officers to the site are not envisioned at this time as we accept that a reasonable degree of comfort must be developed."

Standing with other drug-users outside the site, Bannon said he didn't think a police presence would drive off many people.

"Some might see it that way," he said. "I don't see it that way."
http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/09/15/193630-cp.html

[bluester]

Instead of helping them you would want to simply get rid of them as though they do not exist? One wonders....

[weegee]

This "helps" them about as much as giving a bum a couple of bucks for his next bottle of alcohol or rock of crack.

[MarMema]

bump, this poll needs help!

[zoesmom]

i agree. while this might make some politicians feel warm and fuzzy that they are providing a valuable service for addicts, the effect of this program is that it takes away several incentives to get clean.

also, i don't think i understand the public policy behind providing providing a safe shooting gallery. what is the government's interest here? it propagates a problem rather than providing any long term solutions. using addicts are still using addicts no matter how safe the delivery method. a safe delivery method does not encourage them to be responsible, productive citizens, it actually enables them in their addiction.

[Huck]

I have known more than one person who was or became a heroin junkie. It is no favor to them to distribute needles. The only rationale worth mentioning as far as I can tell is the public health at large, i.e., stopping the spread of hepatitis and other blood borne pathogens for the sake of the community as a whole. The best thing you can do for a junkie is intervene, put them in a hardcore treatment center. Once H gets hold, it is very very tough for someone to rebound. I have seen it destroy what were nice, decent young people. It also helped to destroy a great musical talent named Jerry Garcia.

[Huck]

what is the government's interest here

Public health--preventing the spread of disease. Not saying it's a smart policy, but that is the rationale.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[CSM]

Ah, yes, the same country that bans smoking in privately held property. They are providing "shooting houses" while forcing the non alcoholic bar used by AA to serve alcohol in order to allow smoking on its premises. Canada, the land of the insane!

[Wolfie]

Ah, yes, the same country that bans smoking in privately held property.

Yeah, that coud never happen here.

[robertpaulsen]

But it does nothing to stop the overdosing (due to questionable purity) or the crimes committed to obtain the heroin.

That will be solved by Phase II (I predict) where the addicts are provided free heroin.

The Swiss program provided heroin as did the Dutch program.

[MrLeRoy]

the effect of this program is that it takes away several incentives to get clean.

If the ravages of the drug itself aren't incentive enough, I don't see side issues like hygeine doing the trick.

[MrLeRoy]

help rid America of heroin addicts

Vancouver is in Canada.

My "yes" vote is recorded.

[Huck]

But it does nothing to stop the overdosing (due to questionable purity) or the crimes committed to obtain the heroin.

Right. I am saying that some have argued that the needles programs benefit public health by attacking the spread of infectious disease--the blood born pathogens. Of course, it seems that has to be weighed against the promotion, if it is such, of heroin use, which is in itself a horrible disease. I may be using the term "disease" too loosely in that last sentence. I am not suggesting that heroin use is an ailment absent the free will of the person who chooses to use, just that once someone is hooked, it is a nasty, life and soul destroying spiral to hell.

[weegee]

Dee Dee Ramone's autobiography Lobotomy detailed his almost 35 year addiction to heroin. There were times that he moved to less "hip" cities just so he would be that much more removed from places he could score drugs (and "friends"/"fiends" who would come by his place at all hours with free smack to share or begging to help them go score a fix).

In the end, he died of an overdose (possibly a suicide but not openly discussed as such).

[Texas Eagle]

Vancouver is in Canada.

Uhhhhhhh.......I know.