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Dan Pommier's avatar

This article would not be surprising to anyone with reasonable intelligence or common sense. The common sense part would exclude most leftie politicians and countless buffoons that have been gas lighted into group think in our big shitties.

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UncleMac's avatar

Kind of ironic how these governments have no issue using administrative law (mandates, fines etc) for Covid mandates, to censor "hate speech" (aka anything the collectivists hate), and to impose climate cult dogma but they can't seem to figure out how to help druggies. It's almost as if having homeless encampments and druggies sleeping on the streets is their desired goal.

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Dan Pommier's avatar

I believe that is their goal. To keep society in a state of chaos.

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James Hewett's avatar

Lived on Gore, Union and East Pender on the DTES from '98 to 2010. Talked with the terrified working girls about the psycho killer on the loose at the time and then later to a connection to the prosecuting team on the Pickton trial. Watched the safe injection site get rolled out to great fanfare but wasn't surprised when those who overdosed were dumped in the alley behind and paramedics called to clean up the mess (got to keep those success stats in line)...needle exchange, not really. Large baggies handed out, none taken back. The rooming house at Pender and Vernon , owned by an absentee Hong Kong landlord. 24/7 action...non stop drop offs and pick ups, guns being sold, the occasional fire prompting the hazmat team to show up, lots of female action and even young girls from the school down the street. Tried to get some police action, only to find out the building was also co-owned by the city of Vancouver (low income housing) Saw the black Suburbans pull up to the Edgewater Casino in the early morning hours and Asian gentlemen get out carrying large duffle bags of ?? Over the last 50+ years I've seen the drug wheels turning from Amsterdam to L.A. The product and players may change but the landscape remains consistent. It's always different ....it's always the same.

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Dan Pommier's avatar

James, I think you have seen the situation first hand, what a sham this province is and the rest of the country for the most part.

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John Walker's avatar

Once down the one way “drug street”…… of hell…… there is basically no turning back….REGARDLESS of any governments program to “right” the addiction. Oh yes…. there are the odd exception… but they are rare indeed.

Start with the very young in school program so ….that continue till graduation showing the results of hellish drug life on the street. Part of the lessons…. would be interviewing a victim.. writing a report how they got where there are. Also, having the student spend time in a shelter on the street in the winter months, to experience what it’s all about.

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K Brooker's avatar

Yes, we need to bring back the idea that doing drugs is wrong and socially unacceptable. It worked for me in the 80’s.

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K Brooker's avatar

It’s crazy how no one follows the outcomes of the policies they decide to implement. I have been to Portugal and you don’t see the open drug use like you do in Canada.

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Drew Snider's avatar

An excellent analysis (as usual, Adam!) of the situation -- especially when it comes to the bane of a policy-maker's existence: "Why don't they do it like it's done in _____?" Two points come to mind. One is that we lose sight of the fact that we're dealing with PEOPLE. People who could be our children, our parents, ourselves. Yes, you hear a lot of progressive "people-forward" terminology, like "person with addiction" or "person experiencing homelessness", but the mental attitude hasn't changed.

The other is that people talk about the "stigma" of drug abuse, but two of the people I knew on the DTES in Vancouver (pastored there from 2004 through 2015) who beat their addictions were inspired because of the shame. One had a moment of clarity when he realized he had walked from White Rock to downtown Vancouver looking for someone to rob to get a hit; the other got told-off by a judge while being sentenced for bank robbery.

There's something to be said for "stigma".

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Kat's avatar

Thank you for this story. There are too many people involved to claim naivety or stupidity.

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Trevor's avatar

Deceptive practices by a government hellbent on eugenics.

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Donna Furnival's avatar

It sounds like a small part in a big eugenics plan. Portugal had it mostly right at the start. Then their economy failed and there was no money for rehabilitation through consequences.

Was this failure of their economy part of the eugenics plan?

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