Supervised consumption sites cause demonstrably severe public disorder and crime, yet the organizations that manage them are often unwilling to admit this or do anything about it. This obtuseness seems inexplicable — until you consider that these organizations advocate for initiatives that blatantly normalize criminal behaviour.
In fact, some centres have purposely hired drug users and dealers to carry out some of their programming.
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In 1894 Leo Tolstoy published “The Kingdom of God is Within You,” a culmination of decades of his thinking about theology, philosophy and anarchy. Whether one ultimately agrees with all of his conclusions, Tolstoy offers exceptionally perspicacious insights into the realities of human and societal interactions.
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A word that is constantly thrown around when discussing addiction is “compassion.” Rightfully so. This is a vital consideration when treating a disease that is increasingly terrorizing the streets of Toronto and other Canadian cities. But what does compassion entail when dealing with an addict?
Another 198 British Columbians died from toxic drugs in July, according to data released Tuesday by the B.C. Coroners Service, bringing the death toll in the first seven months of the year to 1,455.
The coroners service said the 1,455 deaths from January to July are the most ever reported in the first seven months of the year since a public health emergency over drug poisoning deaths in the province was declared in 2016.
“I am saddened to once again report that British Columbia’s toxic drug crisis shows no signs of abating,” said Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe in a statement.
On June 29, 2022, it was announced that Purdue Pharma had settled a lawsuit, launched by British Columbia over the opioid crisis. The company agreed to a settlement with B.C. and all other provincial and territorial governments in exchange for $150 million in cash and access to “information and documents relevant to the lawsuit.”
Research by the federal government’s Privy Council Office (PCO) finds that the B.C. residents it surveyed are largely negative about the decriminalization of small amounts of certain illegal hard drugs for personal use in their province.
A PCO report, “Continuous Qualitative Data Collection of Canadians’ Views – February 2023,” asked members of the South Asian diaspora living in Metro Vancouver and Interior British Columbia their views on the opioid crisis and the prevalence of opioid addiction in their communities, as first reported by Blacklock’s reporter on Aug. 23.
Deidra Paul-Brooks has seen first hand how hard drugs have devastated her Indigenous community on Fredericton’s north side.
That’s why she supports the decision by the chief and council of Sitansisk (St. Mary’s First Nation) to declare a state of emergency earlier in the week.
Canada’s supervised consumption sites aren’t safe for surrounding communities. While they shouldn’t be abolished, significant reforms are urgently needed.
First piloted in Vancouver in 2003, these sites are designed to reduce drug-associated harms by giving visitors clean paraphernalia, such as sterilized needles, along with a safe space to consume their substances. Trained staff are able to test drugs for contaminants, reverse accidental overdoses and provide users with referrals to social services, such as housing assistance and addiction treatment.
They began appearing on the ground around the South Riverdale Community Health Centre with increasing regularity after a new safe injection site opened there in late 2017. South Riverdale is an independent centre built in 1998 in Leslieville, just east of downtown Toronto, home to about 30,000 people. It also happens to be across the street from the house where I have lived with my wife and son for 14 years.
Ontario’s health ministry says it has launched a “critical incident review” of consumption and treatment services sites in the province following a daytime shooting that killed mother of two near a Toronto site in July.
In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said the review is starting with the South Riverdale Community Health Centre on Queen St. E., east of Carlaw Avenue.
BC pioneered safe injection sites in Canada…
Drug overdoses now the leading cause of death among B.C. youth ages 10 to 18, data show
Oregon’s drug legalization “hasn’t gone as planned,” according to The Atlantic, and has been “an unmitigated disaster,” according to Oregon Clackamas County Commissioner Ben West — and does this former legalization proponent have a few things to say about that.
Drug crises invite a temptation to identify not drugs but their prohibition as the “real” problem. This is particularly true today, during a crisis driven by an extra-potent substance (namely fentanyl) leaking into—indeed, poisoning—the illicit drug supply. But that temptation is wrong.
Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord is out with an open letter, criticizing some of B.C.’s legal drug policies as ineffective in the face of the toxic drug crisis.
Dubord writes that while he agrees with the “underlying principles of decriminalization, it is evident in the early evaluation that our communities are currently not experiencing the desired outcome from this policy change.”
He says early numbers indicate the number of drug poisoning deaths have not been going down.
h/t MW
I was drawn to the field of addiction by great mentors. Dr. Bruce Alexander shared his encyclopedic knowledge and was my first co-author. His rat park studies illustrated links between harmful addictions and isolation. My clinical mentor, Dr. Alan Marlatt, recruited me to the exciting first wave of research on harm reduction. Since then, I’ve been blessed by three decades of amazing clients, patients, trainees and collaborators. Together we’ve contributed to an inspiring body of evidence demonstrating ways to dramatically improve the wellbeing of people who experience addictions and homelessness. To date, that evidence has not been well communicated to Canadians. And there are more than a few people working to keep it that way.
