Trudeau Considering Supplying Vancouver With Drug Money
On Thursday, November 21, 2019, Prime Minister Trudeau had
an in-person meeting with the Mayor of Vancouver, Kennedy Stewart. At this
meeting, the drug overdose problem was discussed and Mayor Stewart presented a
request for $6 million of federal tax dollars to purchase clean and safe drugs
for drug-users in Vancouver. Vancouver Coastal Health is the organization
applying for the federal funding from Health Canada. They claim that having the
safe and clean supply of drugs to provide will prevent, or at least minimize,
the fatal overdoses caused by drugs being laced with fentanyl or carfentanyl, according
to the Global News article. It should come as no surprise that Trudeau has not
refused this request, in fact the mayor has stated that he was “open” and “encouraging”.
After the meeting, Mayor Kennedy Stewart had the following to say, “(Trudeau)
is open to having conversations and looking to us to lead, with health care professionals,
to try and figure out the best solutions.” Which is actually kind of sad and
amusing. Our Liberal government is open to using tax payer dollars to fund and
enable Vancouver’s drug problem, but they are not willing to help the rest of
the West with their economic struggles, nor even listen to Premier Scott Moe
about changes that needed to be made. I am sure glad we have a federal party in
place that is willing to stand up for Canadians, so long as they are druggies,
or Eastern sheep, that way no one has time to think about the bribes and
scandals we see from Prime Minister Trudeau, who should be in jail for his
crimes.
Stewart also stated earlier that he hates the idea of “western
alienation”, blaming it for hindering the drug overdose crisis and the housing
crisis from getting the attention he feels it needs. He states, “I feel like we’re
being a little bit hijacked by Alberta’s agenda.” As a portion of the west
being alienated, we must thank the mayor of Vancouver for continuously thinking
only of Vancouver and themselves, rather than thinking of the west as a whole. We
in the rest of Western Canada, love the thought of being used and abused, then
cast aside when detrimental government policies are implemented. People are
starving, committing suicide, dying, and going homeless due to poverty, including
our veterans, and yet the federal government and mayor of Vancouver think that
drug overdosing in Vancouver is a more serious problem. Yet our Prime Minister
talks of speaking and working for the middle-class. What about the fact that the
middle-class segment is declining as more people fall into the impoverished categories,
including our Indigenous/Inuit populations?
The Mayor has stated that Vancouver still has an overdose
death every day, which shows how deep the drug problem goes. Vancouver’s Chief
Medical Health Officer, Dr. Patricia Daly, also supports having a clean drug
supply for Vancouver. City Council has already approved these requests to the
federal government, based upon the recommendations of Daly and BC’s Centre for
Disease Control. Trudeau had previously stated not being willing to provide this,
but now seems “open” to the idea. This year he had stated a focus on treatment,
programming funding, safe consumption sites, and methods of preventing harm. Trudeau
must feel that providing clean drugs is a form of harm prevention, which it is
in theory, except for the fact that it also enables them to stay on drugs longer,
since there really is less risk to drug use. Vancouver already has one of the
few safe injection sites in world. This has been controversial since it was
founded. Opposition states that these sites encourage drug use and bring crime
to the surrounding area, which is logical with making it easier and “safer” for
addicts to get a fix. The pro side states that it saves lives and helps an
addict reconnect to society, enabling them to get health services. Again, they probably
do save lives and saves the spread of HIV/AIDS, but a better way to reconnect
to society would be to make it harder to get drugs in the first place, not
promoting drug use, or providing funds for clean drugs.
At these safe injection sites, addicts are provided with
clean injection supplies, to avoid disease spread, health care, in case of
overdose, which comes in the form of staff providing breathing masks, naloxone
(antidote for overdose), information on safe injection, and drug addiction
information, as well as several other health services. These sites do prevent
deaths, proof in the fact that no death has ever been reported at the Vancouver
facility. Keith Humphreys does research in addictions and teaches psychiatry at
Stanford University. According to NPR Health News, Humphreys supports finding
better tools to combat the drug crisis, but he also states that although
supervised injection sites don’t appear to be harmful, they have not actually
shown a decrease in deaths due to overdose, likely due to the users of these
facilities not solely using the facility. The Vancouver facility has enabled
3.6 million injections, and has saved more than 6,000 overdoses, having no
deaths since opening in 2003. The facility, Insite, claims that their presence
has not increased or encouraged drug use, but the question for them is, how do
you know how much a user is actually using outside the facility? And how do
they know how much the addict used before they located the facility? Insite has
claimed that overdose rates around the site decreased, yet the city still
claims that the overall Vancouver rates are remaining steady. They also claim
that people using the facility are less likely to utilize actions that could
lead to HIV, and are more likely to use drug detoxification, using treatments like
methadone, yet still we have not seen a decrease in drug use. Insite prides
itself in being a “non-judgemental place that accepts them for who they are”,
according to NPR Health News. Is this really a good thing though? Yes, judging
addicts is not the way to implement healing, but enabling the drug addiction, encourages
and makes it easier for them to continue using illegal drugs. Vancouver has
actually seen a reduction in drug overdoses this year compared to last year.
Suspected OD deaths were 7/week in 2018, according to Vancouver.ca, yet the
last couple weeks of October this year only saw 2 and 4 suspected deaths. The
year 2018 saw 387 confirmed OD deaths, compared to this year’s 182 up to the
end of August. A dramatic decrease in deaths, without the funding Vancouver is
requesting.
If Vancouver is the focus of drug prevention, what about the
rest of Canada? According to CCFA, Canadian Centre for Addictions, drug abuse
has been growing in Canada and to fight the problem is quite costly, costing
taxpayers $22.8 billion per year through treatment, policing, and equipment.
Over the last decade Canada has seen an increase in drug production
exponentially, especially in the categories of producing ecstasy and
methamphetamine. This has also led to increased crime, gang influence, and
violence. These drugs have been making their way around the world, particularly
Australia, the US, and Japan. The supplies used to make these illegal drugs
come in through our Toronto and Vancouver airports, through countries like Mexico
and India, although they are originating from China. With Canada’s large
borders and coastlines, it is difficult to prevent these drugs and their
supplies, from making it in and out of the country. Canada also has fairly lax
drug laws and the enforcement of these laws are laughable, being exploited by
drug traffickers. The problem continues in the form of new and unique drugs
making it into the country, drugs our addicts are not used to having access to,
which results in more overdoses caused from these new forms of drugs. Canadian
citizens will now be forced to deal with the consequences of a federal government
that has allowed an easy path for increased illegal drug industry activity. Crimes
related to this industry will continue to rise, until something is done. Crimes
like gang violence, drug seizures, and general crimes to supplement the cash of
addicts to purchase increasingly expensive drugs. Dealers start users off at a
cheap rate, increasing it slowly as the addict needs more to meet their body’s
demand.
With these facts in mind, a conclusion can be formed. Canada’s
federal government should NOT be using tax payer dollars to fund the purchase of
“clean” drugs. Enabling an addiction does not help an addict heal and reform.
It will encourage problems with addicts demanding more and more. Last I checked,
these drugs were still “illegal”, though so is indecent exposure, but that law
is ignored in Toronto rallies. Here is an idea, instead of blowing millions of
tax payer dollars on “safe” injection sites, and considering giving clean drugs
to Vancouver, our government could invest that money in drug prevention, and
enforcement of our drug laws. One can argue about the money saving overdosing
lives, but isn’t prevention a way to save lives as well? Canada needs to strengthen
our border security measures, make laws surrounding illegal drug use and
supplying have harsher punishments. Focus hard on seizing drugs and tracking
down those making them. Put more funding into drug rehab programs, and research
programs or methods of helping people stay clean. Don’t use my tax dollars to supply
drugs for an industry that is illegal. To allow this funding of clean drugs,
would be just another criminal act by Prime Minister Trudeau, but he already
knows that there is no one who is able to hold him accountable. Since when has
our Prime Minister ever cared about what the law states?
Join Unify The West Server
Join Unify The West on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/443787693008469/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave your comments below. I would love to hear your opinion on my posts!