3849 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

https://komonews.com...ugly-reflection

i promise that is worth your time reading in full.

Fisher Plaza (KOMO’s HQ) is right in downtown Seattle near the Space Needle. They’re experiencing what they’re reporting on, on a daily basis.

To anyone who’s been to Seattle, you’ll know that the reality there can be very imposing and downright frightening. I would never walk the streets in the dark by myself. No way. Downtown east side in Vancouver? No problem. I’ve done it. But Seattle is in a different league entirely. Seattleites are right to demand action and change because the status quo is shocking and the impact the drug scene is having is occurring on a large scale.

Funny story. One time I stayed in Seattle I couldn’t find a single hotel room due to multiple events and some sporting thing that fleeced the city of all lodging. Except this one motel north of downtown, a motel where the attendant had a shotgun under the till and instructed us not to open the door if anyone knocked (she would call if she was coming) and to prop a chair against the handle. And we had the last room.

And that was back in 2009 or thereabouts.

[Love the rock]

I agree Mike ,some of our politicians remind me of the old horse race movies where the horses raced with blinders on so as not to be distracted. General tax payers are now the distraction unfortunately.

[Mike K.]

I think we missed this news, but this will have massive implications locally.

China announces new crackdown on fentanyl in win for US President Trump
https://www.google.c...intl/index.html

[Victoria Watcher]

Kitten discovered in mall garbage bin tests positive for meth

Victoria Animal Control Services says kitten ‘has already come a long way’

 

https://www.vicnews....itive-for-meth/

[rmpeers]

Reading news item about an Oak Bay teen who overdosed. Tragic. Can someone explain to me how that could happen in a place that's over-policed? Seriously, with things like this happening, why would anyone who doesn't have a personal stake in the local street drug industry try to claim this region is over-policed?

[Rob Randall]

Most of the drugs he consumed were prescribed. Hence the inquest.

[Mike K.]

Suicide by prescribed drugs is not entirely a foreign situation.

[rmpeers]

Most of the drugs he consumed were prescribed. Hence the inquest.

In the story I read (CTV), the father talks about his son's earlier overdose and how the kid was upset about it because he'd purchased the drugs from a person he'd previously bought from. Not meaning to ignore the role of prescription drugs either; but clearly this poor kid was getting meds from official and unofficial sources.

[LJ]

^I believe his prescription ran out and he was using only street drugs.

[A Girl is No one]

Adam Stirling had someone on talking about the BC plans to increase income assistance payments for drug addicts because giving them more money will actually help cure them. There were a bunch of other planned increases / new coverage but this one really caught me by surprise.

[Midnightly]

https://vancouverisl...nf_N-yxMpAZsj_4

 

"One told the inquest that he and Eurchuk bought heroin online and that Eurchuk used money he made from mining Bitcoin to buy drugs.

The same witness testified that he and Eurchuk used heroin together hours before the teenager died."

 

the teen was buying illegal drugs online (and i can only imagine at the street level too), as more of this plays out in the news this is about more then just prescription opioids and the parents being unable to access his medical records, by the sounds of it he had surgery, was given opioids for pain (this is common) and he became addicted, we don't know if he was using them as prescribed or if he was using them in excess and ended up addicted... one can only guess that a doctor cut him off then he turned to street drugs to fill the addiction

 

reading the article it sounds like his father knew his son had a problem just not the extent of it.. an addict is usually very good at hiding their addiction especially from the ones that love them

 

now i do think teenagers should be allowed some privacy when it comes to their medical records and their prescriptions... but with things like opioids and the current state of addiction in Canada that information might be somethings parents should be able to look into and possibly add it to a larger case looking into medical professionals over prescribing addicted opioids

[Rob Randall]

I just don't see how you can give parents permission to examine their kids' prescription painkiller use without the possibility of having fanatical religious parents prying into their 16 year-old's family planning decisions. 

[Midnightly]

at 16 it is a tricky area to navigate.. they are old enough to visit the doctor without their parents, they are old enough to drive, to work, i could say old enough to make medical decisions on their own... but still considered minors

 

even if the parents did have access to the medical records they would have seen what they should hopefully already known.. the child was prescribed pain killers after a surgery, which is common, and then they would see that maybe there was a refill... but then the doctor stop prescribing them (or should have)... i don't think a doctor would be prescribing them months and months after a surgery if the surgery went well..  this does make me question did the doctor over prescribe pain medication, that is something that could be seen in a medical record

[Mike K.]

I just don't see how you can give parents permission to examine their kids' prescription painkiller use without the possibility of having fanatical religious parents prying into their 16 year-old's family planning decisions.

Mom and dad’s family planning doesn’t end when their 16-year-old decides to start family planning or is forced into family planning by a domineering boyfriend and his family’s family planning.

Parents absolutely should be involved. It’s not a decision society should be expecting grade 10 students to handle on their own or under the direction of strangers who see a dozen such patients a day.

The breakdown of the family, in fact, is literally causing so much of the pain and suffering our society is experiencing and “family planning” orgs are encouraging even greater schisms by separating families and familial obligations along imaginary lines.

[Victoria Watcher]

I think this overdoes death is a one-off anomaly. tragic but not very preventable. luckily it’s very rare.

[Mike K.]

Lana Popham's teenaged step-son died from an overdose as well, and I believe there have been several others over the last five years. Drug use among teens is definitely more prevalent.

[Jason-L]

Lana Popham's teenaged step-son died from an overdose as well, and I believe there have been several others over the last five years. Drug use among teens is definitely more prevalent.

 

I don't think it's more prevalent.  Growing up in the 80s, it was pretty prevalent... what's different is more discussion about it, and it's less swept under the rug.

Edited by Jason-L, 20 June 2019 - 07:59 AM.

[lanforod]

I don't think it's more prevalent.  Growing up in the 80s, it was pretty prevalent... what's different is more discussion about it, and it's less swept under the rug.

 

The type of drugs has shifted, hasn't it? More opioids now, less pot, meth, lsd.

[Mike K.]

It has. Kids weren't doing heroin in high school in decades past. You'd rarely hear of someone trying cocaine at a party, and it was a huge deal when it did happen.

[Victoria Watcher]

https://www.timescol...-use-1.23861440

they all knew the dangers but did the drugs anyway.