First they lie, then they escalate, then they censor.
One of Canada’s leading experts on drug addiction says British Columbia’s provincial government asked him to delete a crucial database in an attempt to censor criticism of the province’s homeless policies. The incident appears to fit within a larger, nationwide campaign to silence experts who believe that, when it comes to homelessness and drugs, Canadian policy-makers are on the wrong track.[…]
In B.C., as in much of Canada, the popular approach is to herd homeless people into housing where most, if not all, residents are fresh off the streets, creating a critical mass of trauma and addiction. These residents are then given a “safe supply” of free drugs and provided few resources for recovery and social reintegration.
Somers’ study showed that if you house homeless people in a way that disperses them into normal society, and then prioritize rehabilitation, employment and social reintegration, you see a 70 per cent reduction in crimes committed and a 50 per cent reduction in medical emergencies, all without spending more money.
The study confirmed the common-sense notion that it’s better to empower people to get back on their feet, rather than foster dependency through easy access to free drugs. […]
Armed with his study results, Somers worked with 14 non-profits to call for reforms to B.C.’s drug and homeless policies. In late February 2021, he presented his findings to several provincial deputy ministers.
A week later, the provincial government sent him a letter demanding that he destroy the IMED within one week.
“common-sense notions” have no place in governance. We learned that lesson in the US in 2015 when presidential candidates insisted that a physical barrier at the southern border was not an impediment to traffic.
Just another example of “Moral Relevancy”. The lefties will scream in face … “who are YOU to impose your (religious) morals on drug users?” “They are doing them.” “Their reality.” “You have no MORAL superiority over their drug use”
“…lie…escalate…censor…”
Sounds like all the govt’s I’ve come to know & despise.
What the article fails to note is the role of Bonnie Henry our “provincial public health officer” she is most enamoured with the distribution of free drugs, and like her stubborn refusal to accept that covid had some simple and effective cures she blunders on with the free drugs culture and it seems refuses once again to accept the “science” if it does not fit her WEF world view.
You know… when “harm reduction” first came into my radar, My gut told me that there was something fishy about those “expert studies” justifying the free distribution of drugs to drug addicts on the taxpayer dole. We were all told that these policies prevent OD’s, does not promote crime, and saves lives.
My intuition said otherwise. I couldn’t explain myself, and I was accused of wanting to see people die, when I was saying all along that the way to treat these people is to get them the treatment they need to get them off the drugs. If necessary, confine them and force them to rehabilitate (the only time I would condone forced medical treatment, only because if you were careless enough to get hooked on these drugs in the first place, you can no longer be responsible for your own medical care).
Of course, I didn’t know what the agenda was at the time. I didn’t even know there was an agenda, but I knew even back then, through sheer instinct, and the knowledge of good and evil, that I was being lied to by the “experts.”
“Harm Reduction” has never been about what’s best for the addict, it’s always been about ensuring the scourge of drugs and all of the associated societal ills that come along with it will continue to weaken us allowing for socialism to strengthen its grip on our culture.
Giving an addict free access to their addiction is the same as using a flamethrower to put out a fire.
““Harm Reduction” has never been about what’s best for the addict, it’s always been about ensuring the scourge of drugs and all of the associated societal ills that come along with it will continue to weaken us allowing for socialism to strengthen its grip on our culture.”
Possibly, but I always default to the tried-and-true maxim of “follow the money”.
Here in Vancouver we have an entire industry based on the Downtown East Side, and the homelessness, mental illness, alcoholism and drug addiction that thrives there. The people who are employed by this industry are very well paid and *do not* want the gravy train to end, so they never, ever propose ‘solutions’ that might actually work.
The addict is not going to quit until the addict is ready to quit, or die. That is an immutable fact, known to everyone who has ever gone through NA or AA.
All the rest is just singing and dancing. They can throw as much money as they can throw into the fire pit of the Gods. It won’t make a damn bit of difference.
Reality is harsh.
Wrong thinking will be punished. Right thinking will be justly rewarded.
Don’t you mean “left” thinking will be justly rewarded?
The local leaders are in league with the cartels to sell their drugs.
This is a loud fore warning that the government has become a book burner.
The drug pushing reference is bang on.
The forces of benevolence have surrendered.
“Dispersing homeless people into normal society”
Stop right there. It’s just another filthy social experiment to enlarge a problem to make it temporarily appear to have gotten better while reducing the standard of living and security of the public in the newly infected areas. It will spread
The politicians don’t need to solve problems, that’s not what they do.
They create useless jobs for their supporters, not just any supporters, those with social studies since they have no other reason to live.
Common sense is not as common as it used to be, as the song goes.
Those that live on the street are pawns for the politicians to play with, show how feely they are, are really, really helping out.
That there is more and more of the street people is only helping them to show the feelings.
As it is today, there is no solution, because they don’t want to have a solution. Solutions to the problem are harsh and you can’t have harsh, you just make sure that those on the street are somewhat more comfortable and have the paid for mass media cartel approve.
Problem? What problem?
What’s not to like?
Harm reduction, is just another liberal grievance industry product. How much tax payer money goes into paying the salaries of liberal do gooders who have made a career out of the drug addicts? Programs to get them off drugs work, giving addicts free products keeps them in the gutter of addiction-and liberals have nice safe careers?
I live in Penticton, a pleasant little city that used to have a few dozen street people whom the police and EMS knew as “frequent fliers”. In the summer months the transient fruit pickers (mostly Quebecers) would add to the disarray, but their drug of choice (marijuana, primarily) didn’t noticeably add to the street drug problem/lifestyle.
In recent years, however, the Province’s solution to the homeless addict problem plaguing Vancouver, Victoria, and Kelowna included shipping them to Penticton, Williams Lake, Salmon Arm, and a host of other smaller centers. The Province bought or leased old motels and converted them to kitchenette suites, and started bussing in the new neighbours.
In Penticton they added about 800 fresh-off-the-streets drug addicts that needed a fix, needed money for that fix, and had no restrictions on movement or any requirement to maintain sobriety or even a medically-assisted detox. Locals in Penticton immediately suffered a huge increase in street crime, break and enters, and violence. We local taxpayers also had no say nor any influence on the siting of the housing and services (safe injection, etc) that the Province unilaterally decided.
NDP solutions, folks.
I keep reading and hearing that drug addiction is a disease, but these addicts didn’t start out as addicts, they made a choice to take drugs, and continued with that choice until the choosing was replaced with needing. So is it a disease or lack of ethics and morals in society that allows addiction to be acceptable? They get addicts off of what they are addicted to, by freely giving them Methodone, whereby they then become addicted to that. The difference is that they no longer need to pay for their fix, and get it free and daily from the government. They are lined up daily before the pharmacy opens at my local Shoppers Drug Mart. In my town, they even built a three story apartment block for the homeless.
This place has been dubbed Fentanyl Palace. Tiny apartments outfitted with basic needs including a kitchen. Now crime in the area has been rising steadily, and nearby residents, including two sets of homes for the elderly are calling the police daily with complaints about theft and noise, plus threats and harassment all through the night as well.
Our benevolent authorities are turning once safe streets into ghetto’s, and we are paying for it. Until society wakes up and accepts that these people are mentally not fit, and must be dealt with, using a hospital type incarceration system, meaning psychiatric institutions, the issue will continue to fester and infect our society. I know such institutions are not considered “Kosher” these days, but if society does not protect itself from this subset of humanity it will continue to decline until that subset becomes the norm for the society!
No, I won’t hold my breath!