Vancouver Drug Facilities Draw Ire of U.S. Officials

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 4/1/3 | JOEL BAGLOLE

[WaveThatFlag]

Angering U.S. officials fighting the war on drugs, the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia, is opening North America's first safe-injection sites for heroin users.

Backers insist it's better to treat drug addiction as a public-health issue rather than a criminal matter. Emulating European countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands, where such sites have existed for more than a decade, health workers and politicians say they aim to stop the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C from intravenous drug use and to curb the number of heroin deaths.

[MrLeRoy]

The economic and demoralizing effects of addiction to heroin on a personal level leads just the same to violation of others rights.

How so, exactly? As Joe Whitey said, 'A right that no individual possesses is the "right" to make others live as they wish.' Nobody, for example, has a "right" to Joe Addict's productivity.

[MrLeRoy]

of all people who have ever used alcohol, 15% became dependent, whereas the comparable figure for heroin is 23%

That's because heroin is illegal

Illegality affects how many people choose to ever try heroin, but why would it affect how many of those lawbreakers become addicted?

[toothless]

"Heroin is certainly highly addictive. There is a very bad problem with it in Pittsburgh, particularly in the South Hills - to the point that Bethel Park High School is now known as "Heroin HS". For some reason it has become popular among high school kids to snort it or shoot it. The worst we did in high school was get drunk and the really "bad" kids would smoke pot. "

This, my friends, is the war on drugs. As prohibition moved people from beer and wine to bathtub gin, the drug war moves kids from pot to heroin(e).

[bigfootbob]

"Maybe what we need to do is turn the pressure up even further."

Wouldn't help. They execute druggies in China and the Middle East. Some of the most potent heroin comes from China and several of the major narcotics trafficing routes go through the Middle East. As long as there's a profit motive, people will take the risks regardless of the consequences.

[WaveThatFlag]

It is not as easy to obtain as you might think now.

[IvanT]

Government sanctioned illegal activity. Interesting. I'm just across the border from Vancouver. Since society can't seem to control pedophiles either, will we one day be funding clinics for child molesters to get their fix as well?

Our government has got to get hardcore on those lowlifes - an axe to the testes is the only answer.

[MrLeRoy]

Illegality affects how many people choose to ever try heroin, but why would it affect how many of those lawbreakers become addicted?

It is not as easy to obtain as you might think now.

I don't see what your statement has to do with my question.

[headsonpikes]

Before I read the comments, just one small point...

From the article: "There are 12,000 intravenous drug users...in the Greater Vancouver area.

That's what the headlines said in 1960.

There's been 10,000+ heroin addicts in Vancouver since the early '50s.

The billions and billions of taxpayers' dollars that have been poured into policing and incarceration have yielded only the further obligation to pay pensions to the veterans of this fatuous War.

[WaveThatFlag]

I have had enough of you. Drug legalizers can't wait to drag tobacco and alcohol into the debate because it clouds the waters. If you don't know how damaging exposure to heroin is, it is because you have not experienced it first hand. I am done wasting my time dealing in the theoretical. This is not a highschool debating club. Have a nice life.

[NativeSon]

That's a shame. Since the only "precursor" of marijuana is dirt, are they regulating that?

No, what they did do is put in place the regulations to control the solvents used in (THC) Extraction Processes.

Most of the Reg. is concerned with controling Meth and MDMA but the focus is wrong (IMO).

[MrLeRoy]

Drug legalizers can't wait to drag tobacco and alcohol into the debate because it clouds the waters.

On the contrary---it clarifies the issue, since alcohol and tobacco are deadly addictive drugs.

If you don't know how damaging exposure to heroin is

I never denied it was damaging.

[toothless]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=540&e=13&u=/ap/war_desperate_dippers

[MrLeRoy]

"the Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry are getting desperate — for tobacco [...] even begging smokes from local farmers."

LOL! I thought AMERICA was supposed to give IRAQIS aid.

[headsonpikes]

"This is not a high school debating club."

Even so, there ought to be some sort of rational foundation and respect for the facts in one's posts, don't you think?

Or are you of the school that prefers to simply echo PC slogans?

[WaveThatFlag]

Show me the facts. Those who would equate alcohol or tobacco are distorting the truth and wasting my time.

Why don't the whole bunch of you Libertarians go get your own website? Your views have nothing to do with Conservativism.

[MrLeRoy]

Those who would equate alcohol or tobacco

Nobody here is "equating" anything with anything else.

Your views have nothing to do with Conservativism.

It seems to me that justifying bigger government with vague appeals to the 'rights of society' has nothing to do with Conservativism.

[hove]

" Maybe it is working."

You forgot the April Fools!

[hove]

"How come we didn't think of this: The best way to solve North America's biggest drug problem is to facilitate. Maybe the'll all die faster..."

Hey maybe that is the strategy of the Bush administration. After all, since we "liberated" Afghanistan, they have resumed the position of the worlds leader in opium production. That means lots of pure, cheap heroin. Just think of all those junkies dying from overdoses. I bet that makes you and your ilk feel all warm and fuzzy.

[Hacksaw]

This, my friends, is the war on drugs. As prohibition moved people from beer and wine to bathtub gin, the drug war moves kids from pot to heroin(e).

Heroin was higly illegal when I was in HS (early 80's - the best decade for music if I might add) but there was not the level of abuse that there is today.