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[Victoria Watcher]

Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto said she supports the province continuing its decriminalization experiment so it can be properly evaluated at the end of three years, but was glad to hear of the ban on drug use in public places.

 

Alto said the changes will be beneficial for downtown, since police can move people along from public places like Centennial Square, Government Street or Bastion Square.

 

“The reality is people are uncomfortable in certain circumstances watching other people use drugs when the use of that drug creates unpredictable behavior, and that is what people are often very fearful of.”

 

The province says it will also take action across B.C. to prohibit illicit drug possession, use and purchase in hospitals.

 

The rules will be made explicit to all patients and visitors in outpatient clinics, emergency departments and during admission, it said.

 

Patients will not be searched for drugs, but if they tell staff they have illicit drugs, they will be stored until they are discharged and the patient will have their withdrawal symptoms medically managed as prescribed by an addictions team, it said, adding existing overdose-prevention sites at hospitals will continue.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...spitals-8660805

[Victoria Watcher]

The Dirty Little Secret About Homelessness Is Also The Key To Ending It

 

The US Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments about what cities can and cannot do to end homelessness.

 

"What if there is a bed available in the Gospel Rescue Mission, but Ms. Johnson, a person, doesn't want it? Doesn’t wish to leave their pet. Her Rottweiler's not permitted there. So that is a difficult question for a person and a difficult policy question..."

 

What everyone agreed on was that homelessness is a difficult problem.

 

"Many people have mentioned this is a serious policy problem… So, the policy questions in this case are very difficult….Martin speaks in terms of someone who is involuntarily homeless and that raises all of those policy questions… We usually think about whether state law, local law already achieves those purposes so that the federal courts aren't micromanaging homeless policy…"

 

I think most people listening to the Supreme Court would agree: it isn’t going to solve homelessness.

 

That is a job for state legislators. So why haven’t they? Why has homelessness gotten worse? The answer that many homeless advocates give is that it’s because we don’t have enough homes, and poverty has increased. But neither is true. Poverty has steadily declined since the 1980s, when homelessness first became an issue of public concern. And very few people are on the street simply because they can’t afford the rent.

 

The evidence is overwhelming that the majority of people on the street are there because of untreated mental illness or addiction, which leads people to use all their money to support their drug habit and be high, rather than work. People who can’t afford the rent but are able to work and aren’t in the grip of addiction or untreated mental illness find a cheaper place to live, move somewhere cheaper, or live with family and friends.

 

It’s true there aren’t enough shelter beds, case workers, group homes, and psychiatric hospitals to care for the homeless. But a big part of the reason for that is that advocates for the homeless have, for 40 years, demanded that funding for dealing with the homeless go into giving people private studio apartments rather than building sufficient shelter beds.

 

 

 

 

VIDEO on X: https://twitter.com/...543625517060575

Edited by Victoria Watcher, Today, 12:47 AM.