3857 replies to this topic

[Matt R.]

The provincial government, and others I am sure, are experts at the art of "mixed messaging".

[Victoria Watcher]

It's going to be funny seeing the new no smoking / no vaping / no cocaine use / no MDMA use / no meth / no heroin / no opium / no fentanyl use signs.

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 January 2023 - 08:57 PM.

[Matt R.]

Meanwhile, come on into our safe alcohol consumption site, take a seat.  Your drug will be right over.  Pull tabs are just over there, sir, and Keno as well.

[Nparker]

Most people who consume alcohol don't end up living in the 900 block of Pandora.

[Victoria Watcher]

Most people who consume alcohol don't end up living in the 900 block of Pandora.

 

Hey now!  Many hard drug users are good-looking men.  And your co-worker.

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 January 2023 - 09:44 PM.

[Nparker]

I'm retired. I have no co-workers.

[Matt R.]

Most people who consume alcohol don't end up living in the 900 block of Pandora.

Same with most people who snort cocaine, I would think.

[Nparker]

That would be outside of my purview.

[Matt R.]

Probably not as much as you think.

[Nparker]

I'm only saying it's never been part of my life or the lives of those close to me.

[Victoria Watcher]

Aren’t we overdue for the December and 2022 final death toll?

[Victoria Watcher]

Death at 844 Johnson: 'We both knew this building was going to kill him'

 

In a video shot by his daughter just before Christmas, Jamaal Johnson said it was impossible for him to fight his addictions while living at 844 Johnson. He was right

 

 

Jamaal Johnson knew the only way he was leaving 844 Johnson St. was in handcuffs or a body bag.

On Jan. 10, 2023, his premonition came true. The 43-year-old Victoria man collapsed in his bathroom in the social housing residence and could not be revived.

 

While the B.C. Coroners Service investigates his death, a video of Johnson outside the 147-unit building is circulating on social media.

 

 

https://www.timescol...johnson-6448319

 

 

 

“What’s that doing for anybody? How is that supportive? You’re supporting nothing. People are dying in these places and nobody cares,” said Courtney. “The building is unlike anything you’ve ever encountered in your life. It’s disgusting and deplorable.”

 

People are living in the hallways, in cubby holes or in someone else’s room, she said.

 

 

_______________________

 

Jamaal started living in a tent city in Centennial Square. During COVID, he was moved to the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre temporary shelter. In 2021, he was transferred to 844 Johnson St.

 

He was hospitalized several times for drug overdoses, which took a toll on his body and his mind. The first time, Courtney found him slumped inside his tent in Centennial Square, his lips blue.

 

Jamaal thought he had taken crack cocaine, but it was heroin laced with benzodiazepine. He was unresponsive for 15 minutes. The overdose caused significant damage to his heart, said Courtney.

 

He had two overdoses at 844 Johnson, each requiring more and more Narcan to revive him. “He was never the same,” Courtney said.

 

_______________________

 

A few hours after Jamaal’s memorial service Friday at Our Place, however, Courtney said PHS ignored her husband’s cries for help.

 

“He was really passionate about getting the hell out of that building. He would talk to anyone who would listen about getting out and becoming better for his family,” she said.

 

“[PHS] said he had to hit three of the categories for us to put him in for a transfer. I asked: ‘Why are you not transferring this man? He’s dying in this building. What more do you need?’

 

“Oh now, he’s dead. Funny how that works, eh?”

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 January 2023 - 06:20 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Measuring success: There's no agreement on how to decide whether drug decriminalization works

Decriminalization of simple possession is the first step in treating drug addiction as a health problem instead of a criminal one

https://vancouversun...104a1c6fe1/amp/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 January 2023 - 06:54 AM.

[Nparker]

Decriminalization of simple possession is the first step in normalizing addiction and making it an even greater problem than it is now.

[Victoria Watcher]

“We want decriminalization as full decriminalization, meaning no thresholds,” said Vince Tao of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. “That means hands off users, hands out of our pockets.”

Tao is disappointed that drug users with lived experience were not invited to weigh in on shaping the policy or how police officers are trained, which is a key factor in reducing stigmatization and criminalization.




“Hands out of our pocket” says the guy with the organization funded almost entirely by taxpayer dollars.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 January 2023 - 07:48 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Glen Grier says it would have been hard enough to learn of his son’s death 10 months ago from Victoria police or the B.C. Coroners Service.

 

Instead, last week, the father from Stony Plain, Alta. learned from a Google search that his 35-year-old son Scott had died, been cremated and buried in a Victoria cemetery without his knowledge.

 

_____________________________

 

Grier just wasn’t feeling right and started his usual searches. At 9 p.m., he decided to Google “Scott Grier, Victoria, B.C.”

 

The first thing that came up was the missing person report from 2020. The second was an obituary with Scott’s name, date of birth and date of death — May 16, 2022.

 

_____________________________

 

The next day, the coroner said they had Scott’s fingerprints and confirmed he had died from a fentanyl overdose. He collapsed on the street and couldn’t be revived.

 

_____________________________

 

He and Michelle are still waiting to find out why they weren’t notified. Glen’s name and phone numbers were on the missing person’s report and he’d received a phone call when Scott was found.

 

“Glen’s been on every single file in his life. Whenever there was trouble or he ended up in hospital, Scott would give the doctors Glen’s name and number and say: ‘You can tell my Dad anything,’ ” Michelle said. “We’ve had the same phone number for 30 years. It’s all very frustrating.”

 

The Griers had to find out where Scott is buried. They are now trying to retrieve his ashes.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...-search-6450679

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 January 2023 - 06:59 AM.

[UDeMan]

No mention of who created the original obituary for Scott Grier.  Someone must have paid for it.

 

I don't think the police, coroner or Ministry of Social Development would put up an obituary.

[Victoria Watcher]

Danya Fast, a research scientist at the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, worries about the unintended consequences of excluding youth under 18 from decriminalization. The abstinence-based drug approach for youth has not worked, she said.

 

“Whenever we’re excluding youth under 18 from an important policy change, we’re risking deepening the harm for that population and deepening inequities in terms of health and social outcomes,” she said. “We know that very young people use drugs, we know that very young people deal drugs.”

 

Oregon does not have an age limit on decriminalization.

 

Abbotsford Police Chief Mike Serr, who co-chairs the Canadian Association of Chiefs and helped draft the decriminalization training B.C. officers will receive in the coming months, said when police interact with an adult who is found to have less than 2.5 grams of drugs on them, they will give them a resource card with localized contact information for available health supports.

 

If a person under 18 is found with drugs, police have the authority to seize the drugs.

 

“I understand the [concerns around] stigma, but I also know it scares me to think of a 16-year-old, a 15-year-old, a 17-year-old using these very toxic dangerous drugs and us having absolutely no mechanism to try to get them in to see somebody that can give them support,” Serr said.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...t-works-6450793

 

 

 

If a person under 18 is found with drugs, police have the authority to seize the drugs.

 

 

 

Now, are most parents opposed to the above seizure policy, like Danya Fast is?   Would parents like to see children with booze or cigarettes left alone too?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 January 2023 - 02:28 PM.

[Nparker]

People like Danya Fast are why we have such a rampant addiction problem today. 

[Victoria Watcher]

(Danya) Fast says that there have been efforts from the province to not heavily criminalize young people — but that some of the young drug users she worked with likened addictions treatment to incarceration.

 

"We're moving toward decriminalization … but we're replacing that with what can be experienced by youth, even if that's not the intention, as a very coercive pathway into housing, into treatment," she said.

 

Fast's research has found that young people having negative experiences with the health-care system could lead to them becoming "very adept" at evading that system, further exposing them to dangerous conditions.

_________________________________

 

Other advocates, including from the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, have called on B.C. to stop prioritizing treatment over a safe supply of drugs.

 

"While currently technically available to youth ... [safe supply] remains practically inaccessible because of systemic barriers to care and physician reluctance to prescribe to minors," reads a statement from the group.

 

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...youth-1.6712663

 

 

 

and physician reluctance to prescribe to minors

 

 

Some sanity still prevails.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 January 2023 - 02:38 PM.