4846 replies to this topic

[Sparky]

Now that the city has started to "crack" down on the chaos of Pandora's Box, the addicts are left to their own devices on where and how to use drugs in the downtown core, especially on a Sunday afternoon when the streets are busy with pedestrians.

 

We witnessed a resourceful addict on Yates Street from a window table in a nearby restaurant. The challenge is to not be seen right? To accomplish this, our crafty user brought along a nice clean flannel bed sheet that he proceeded to unfold and cover himself up in an alcove directly beside the entrance to an open shop. After much ado (where we assumed he was sucking on a bong under his ghostly disguise) his shape started to morph from a standing position to one where he stood folded in half for a while....then gradually tucked down, as the drugs kicked in, onto the concrete and into a nice neat pile that resembled a load of laundry. (told you he was crafty)

 

So there he lay for an hour or so hidden from the people entering and leaving the store (he was only a couple of feet from the door) as he only received the odd glance from passersby.

 

Out of sight and out of his mind. Priceless.

 

Is this the new Victoria?

 

[Victoria Watcher]

Proposition 36 – which was backed by many law enforcement and business groups, conservative lawmakers and some Democratic mayors, including San Francisco’s London Breed and San Jose’s Matt Mahan – promises to address two of the state’s most visible issues, homelessness and fentanyl dependence, by sentencing dealers to longer prison sentences and creating a court-mandated drug treatment system for people struggling with addiction.

 

 

https://www.theguard...prop-36-results

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 07 November 2024 - 08:57 AM.

[Mike K.]

California has lost 1.4% of its population, between 2020 and 2023.

[Contractorguy]

probably due to the cost of housing.  a crap box bungalow in SF and SJ starts at $2 million USD.  Its cheap here compared to there

[Mike K.]

It’s largely due to taxes and politics, it sounds like.

[Contractorguy]

https://www.deseret....-of-california/

 

I spent some time in California this year and I didn't see anywhere hear the homeless issues like we have in Victoria.

 

If taxes were huge then people would be leaving Canada in droves, because California is much cheaper than the great white north..

 

Cost of living is huge, I paid $8 USD for a latte in downtown SF.  I would move there, but the cost of living is just too high.  Not paying $2.8 mil CAD for a starter house

[Mike K.]

https://www.deseret....-of-california/

 

I spent some time in California this year and I didn't see anywhere hear the homeless issues like we have in Victoria.

 

If taxes were huge then people would be leaving Canada in droves, because California is much cheaper than the great white north..

 

Cost of living is huge, I paid $8 USD for a latte in downtown SF.  I would move there, but the cost of living is just too high.  Not paying $2.8 mil CAD for a starter house

 

California has North America's worst homelessness problem.

 

What was in those lattes you were drinking, if you didn't see it? 

[Victoria Watcher]

Vancouver Island doctors set up overdose prevention sites without government blessing

 

 

The sites are being set up at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria and Nanaimo General Hospital, and organizers plan to run them all through this week.

 

https://www.timescol...lessing-9825199

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 November 2024 - 10:08 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

Vancouver Island doctors set up overdose prevention sites without government blessing

 

 

The sites are being set up at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria and Nanaimo General Hospital, and organizers plan to run them all through this week.

 

https://www.timescol...lessing-9825199

 

 

 

Doctors and volunteers received a frosty welcome from Island Health security guards on Monday when they tried to set up unsanctioned overdose-prevention sites on Victoria and Nanaimo hospital grounds. 

 

Doctors for Safer Drug Policy had planned to run two unsanctioned overdose-prevention sites this week at Royal Jubilee Hospital and Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. 

 

The group is made up of Island physicians who say overdose-prevention services at hospitals are needed for drug users accessing health care and to reduce incidents of illicit drug use within hospitals. 

 

“I think strategic patience has shown itself to be ineffective,” said Dr. Ryan Herriot, who helped organize the overdose-prevention sites. “Enough is enough.” 

 

 

_______________________

 

The group’s attempts to set up shop on Monday, however, were met by a large number of security guards and police. 

 

In Nanaimo, Dr. Jessica Wilder said their group was met by Island Health security guards who threatened to remove her and other volunteers from Nanaimo Regional General Hospital grounds by force. 

 

“They said that we would be charged and arrested for trespassing if we refused to leave. The RCMP were there with a van prepared to arrest us if needed,” Wilder said. 

Those who drove to Royal Jubilee Hospital on Monday morning with a rented van to set up an outdoor overdose-prevention site were also met by security officers. 

 

Traci Lett, a member of Moms Stop the Harm who had come from the Lower Mainland to support the site, said 12 to 15 security guards converged onto the grassy area as soon they began setting up. “It got a little tense there for a bit.” 

 

Herriot said guards immediately began dismantling the site and did not want to talk or negotiate. 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...lessing-9825199

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 November 2024 - 05:39 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

A patient in a wheelchair and well-known to Nanaimo hospital staff used the pop-up overdose prevention site on Monday while awaiting admission through Nanaimo’s emergency department, said addictions specialist Dr. Jess Wilder.

“He had recently been housed and we hadn’t seen him at the hospital in a really long time, but he came in to the emergency department [Monday], and he was very sick and needing to be admitted,” said Wilder. He was escorted back to the emergency department in the evening after the site, which opened at 10 a.m., closed at 6 p.m.

At about 4 a.m. Tuesday “he overdosed in the bathroom of the emergency department and died,” she said.



https://www.timescol...-doctor-9835683



Probably the best outcome for all. He likely had little to live for.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 November 2024 - 04:19 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The B.C. Nurses’ Union says it’s “disturbing” that physicians in Victoria and Nanaimo have had to take time away from their work and resort to erecting pop-up overdose prevention sites for hospital patients struggling with addiction.

 

Those services ought to be provided by the health authority, the BCNU said in a statement to the Times Colonist this week.

 

The BCNU, which emphasizes that it believes in harm-reduction practices for patients, has also supported nurses who have complained about walking through plumes of toxic smoke in hospital hallways as a result of a permissive attitude toward drug use in hospitals.

 

The issue became a political flashpoint in the spring, with nurses and patients complaining of patient drug use or possession in hospital rooms and halls.

 

An Island Health memo dated March 12 to acute-care hospital staff instructed nurses not to stop open use of illicit drugs in hospital rooms and to even teach patients how to inject drugs into their IV lines as part of a harm-reduction approach — despite the fact government officials said drug use is not permitted in hospitals.

 

 

https://www.timescol...spitals-9848018

[FawltyVic]

A patient in a wheelchair and well-known to Nanaimo hospital staff used the pop-up overdose prevention site on Monday while awaiting admission through Nanaimo’s emergency department, said addictions specialist Dr. Jess Wilder.

“He had recently been housed and we hadn’t seen him at the hospital in a really long time, but he came in to the emergency department [Monday], and he was very sick and needing to be admitted,” said Wilder. He was escorted back to the emergency department in the evening after the site, which opened at 10 a.m., closed at 6 p.m.

At about 4 a.m. Tuesday “he overdosed in the bathroom of the emergency department and died,” she said.



https://www.timescol...-doctor-9835683



Probably the best outcome for all. He likely had little to live for.

I don't ever want to see hospitals used as safe injection sites. Doing so would put the majority of citizens at risk of theft and violence.

 

And I don't see how this guy didn't get in to see a doctor right away. I know he was under the classification of "housed", but every street person with the exception of one, at my last Vic General emerg visit, were all allowed to bypass the waiting room. It was as if they had a go see a doctor card in their pockets.

[Victoria Watcher]

Do big drug busts actually cause more harm?

 

Researchers and advocates for drug policy reform argue drug seizures lead to more overdoses and violence

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...-harm-1.7390337

 

 

 

 

 

Congrats, BC.  Deaths have increased over 6x since 2013.  We must be doing something right, no?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 November 2024 - 06:35 AM.

[Mike K.]

What happened in 2015?

And what happened in 2019?

[Victoria Watcher]

Is there a chance just reporting was poor due to Covid?  ie. collecting the 2019 data in 2020 was challenging.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 November 2024 - 07:58 AM.

[Barrister]

So when is the province going to start institutionalizing these poor souls so that they can be protected. They promised to do that in the last election.

[Mike K.]

My first thought was, how many people who died of an overdose, but were listed as a COVID death?

[Sparky]

So when is the province going to start institutionalizing these poor souls so that they can be protected. They promised to do that in the last election.

 

Do you have a link to that promise?

[Kungsberg]

Do you have a link to that promise?

 

https://vancouver.ci...ictions-in-b-c/

 

^ For a short video clip

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