4864 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

They just can't bring themselves to call them illegal drugs, it's like irregular immigration.

 

And our Island doctor is all in on free drugs for everyone.

 

 

 

 

"The ideal policy landscape would be one where all psychoactive substances were strictly regulated and controlled under a public health framework. This means that regulations would be devised, monitored and evaluated, and changed as needed to address potential and actual harm of each substance," the report noted. "Creating and maintaining effective policies and regulations is a societal challenge that requires sustained commitment to public health goals and implementing, evaluating, and adjusting regulations as needed."

 

Gustafson wrote that "extensive harms" have come from drug prohibition including illegal markets and organized crime, violence, increasingly potent substances, criminalization of already marginalized groups, stereotypes, discrimination, stigma and even reduced access to supports and services.

 

https://www.nanaimob...d-drugs-7691708

 

This was the headline in the e-mail:

 

Island Health report explores the 'extensive harms' of prohibition

 

 

 

 

 

Another white knight female in charge, running things into the ground.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 December 2024 - 08:20 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

BC Coroners Service sees 'significant decline' in drug deaths, but reason unclear

 

In Greater Victoria, 136 deaths were attributed to unregulated drugs in the first 10 months of the year, while in Nanaimo the number is 82.

 

https://www.timescol...unclear-9931058

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 December 2024 - 08:19 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

They just can't bring themselves to call them illegal drugs, it's like irregular immigration.

 

Yes, up until just months ago, they called them "illicit" drugs.  They rarely use that term anymore.

 

According to the BC Coroners Service, 146 people died of suspected illicit drug toxicity in June 2022 – a 17 per cent decrease year-over-year, and 26 per cent fewer people than in May 2022.

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 December 2024 - 08:25 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Despite the improvement, unregulated toxic drugs remains the leading cause of unnatural death in B.C. for those ages 10 to 59, and account for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural disease combined.

 

The service says 22 per cent of deaths in October were female, and in 2024, the rate of death among women and girls more than doubled what it was five years ago.

 

 

https://www.timescol...unclear-9931058

 

 

 

 

“The toxic-drug supply remains one of the most serious threats to public health, affecting people from all walks of life. While we have seen encouraging progress, with the lowest number of deaths in four years, there is still much work ahead,” she said.

 

 

 

What work?  Nothing is being done in this "emergency".

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 December 2024 - 08:27 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

 

https://news.gov.bc....PSSG0091-001626

 

 

 

What are these "stimulants"?

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.dea.gov/...ulants-2020.pdf

 

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 December 2024 - 03:30 AM.

[Beacon]

I wonder if the Canada Post strike and delaying delivery of Social Assistance cheques had something to do with this drop in ODs - will find out if correct if Dec is much higher than normal.

[Victoria Watcher]

These were October numbers, no relation to the strike.

[Victoria Watcher]

Premier Doug Ford's government is introducing new legislation that it says will give municipalities and police services legal tools to dismantle homeless encampments and crack down on public drug use with fines or jail time.

 

"These encampments are taking over public spaces, with illegal drug use happening out in the open, creating huge safety risks for people and communities," Ford said. "Enough is enough, this has to stop and it will stop."

 

Ford announced the pending legislation at a news conference Thursday morning, the last day the legislature will sit before leaving for winter break.

 

The bill will include two amendments to the existing Trespass to Property Act that the province says will stop encampments from re-emerging once they are cleared. The amendments would give courts the power to consider repeat offences and the likelihood to re-offend against the act as aggravating factors in sentencing.

 

Attorney General Doug Downey said the amendments would not change any of the existing penalties in the act.

 

The legislation would also allow police and provincial offences officers to ticket or arrest people using illegal drugs in public, with penalties of up to $10,000 or six months in jail.

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...tario-1.7408376

 

 

 

The premier also announced an additional $75.5 million Thursday toward homelessness prevention programs, including $50 million for affordable housing, $20 million to expand shelter capacity and $5.5 million to top up the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit so as to immediately free up emergency shelter spaces.

 

That is in addition to nearly $700 million annually the province says it puts toward homelessness prevention programs and a recently announced $378 million to create 19 homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs, with up to 375 supportive housing units. Those hubs are being established in place of 10 drug-consumption sites the province intends to shut down in the spring.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 December 2024 - 09:27 AM.

[Barrister]

Until one starts to institutionalize drug users for long periods of time they have next to no chance of any type of actual recovery. The drugs cause addiction by damaging the brain and with severe addiction one is longer at anywhere from one to five years totally clean before the brain has a chance to recover. In some cases it will never recover. 

 

Those are horrible facts of science but until we acknowledge the science behind addiction we are just pissing millions away to the poverty pimps while not actually helping these poor souls.

[Victoria Watcher]

Why don't we try somewhat remote, camp type settings?

 

You have to be abstinent, but if you are, you get a dorm-style cot and three good meals per day.  It would cost less to run that a jail.

 

It doesn't have to be hundreds of miles away, but it should be an hour or two away from where people can source more drugs.  

[Mike K.]

You don't think drug dealers would find a way to take control of such facilities? It would be a goldmine, with a captive audience and police far away.

[Victoria Watcher]

You don't think drug dealers would find a way to take control of such facilities? It would be a goldmine, with a captive audience and police far away.

 

I don't.  #1, you get drug-tested often, at least at the start, you must remain abstinent or you have to leave.

 

#2, it's away from where you can do petty-crime to afford drugs.

 

#3, it takes more than your $500 shelter allowance, you pay an additional $250 for those meals.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 December 2024 - 10:36 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

[Mike K.]

If only the Premier could exit stage left on that policy.

[Barrister]

Ebby had promised to institutionalize the most suffering of these poor souls and now the election is over he seems to have totally forgotten his parties promises.

[aastra]

 

...he seems to have totally forgotten his parties promises.

 

Somebody should make a note of this historic moment in politics.

[Barrister]

aastra, what is the symbol for sarcasm and why is it not on my keyboard?

[Mike K.]

It’s the aastra key, right next to the left space bar.

[Victoria Watcher]

Two involuntary secure-care sites are due to open in the province in late spring for people struggling with severe addiction, brain injury and mental illness while overdose prevention sites planned for Island hospitals remain on pause.

 

Premier David Eby, in an interview with the Times ­Colonist, said the province’s first chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and brain injury has worked non-stop since being hired in the summer with a target date of May to open the first two secure-care facilities.

 

Dr. Daniel Vigo was tasked to find better care for a growing population with severe addictions, brain damage from repeated overdoses, and mental-health disorders and psychosis — people often in a revolving door of correctional and health-care systems.

 

Vigo has previously said that a few hundred brain-injured people in the province have such severe mental illness and addiction that they require involuntary care.

 

Vigo’s appointment came on the heels of stranger attacks in Vancouver — which left one man dead and another with a severed hand — and in Victoria, where a man assaulted three people on Government Street, including a woman who was pushed over a bench and hit her head on the sidewalk.

 

Eby said the horrific attacks are not only awful for victims but for everyone’s sense of safety and expects Vigo’s work will make “significant inroads” coupled with several other interventions.

 

 

https://www.timescol...spring-10032904

[Barrister]

Well, it is a good beginning but years overdue. Suspect the poverty pimps will not be thrilled.