3857 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

i'm tired of hearing about all these "supports" too.  what it should read is supervision.  these idiots need to be looked in on continually and that can't happen behind locked doors at hotel suites or the 844 johnson model.

[On the Level]

Without supports, supervision and highly customized services a housing first approach is doomed, and yet we keep pursuing it one private property acquisition after another.

 

We need to look at *who* is promoting which approach and what personal gain they have at stake.

 

In the example I posted above, we have a viewpoint from a psychiatrist vs. a viewpoint from someone that runs social housing buildings.

 

If you are running social housing, you're more likely to benefit from additional social housing.  You are also less likely to acknowledge issues from "housing first" and are more likely to ignore/discredit other members of the community that are being impacted.  You are not representing the community at large, only the groups you are trying to help.

[Victoria Watcher]

more supports! you bigot. homes not hate.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 July 2020 - 12:14 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Who thinks we are helping this guy?



In the morning, David Keeler starts off with a dose of methadone dispensed by a pharmacist. A few hours later, he swallows 28 prescription pills of hydromorphone, a synthetic opioid prescribed by a doctor. By late afternoon, the 44-year-old Victoria man is turning to his own stash of drugs he bought from a dealer.


Some days, he doesn't even take the pills, which is why a stockpile is building up in the supportive housing unit he lives in.

"Maybe more than half of the people that I know that are on these are looking to sell them," he said.



Keeler, who works with the Society of Living Illicit Drug Users (SOLID), equates giving hydromorphone to a serious addict with giving Tylenol to someone who has just had major surgery: It is nowhere near strong enough.

He would like to be prescribed heroin.

"Give people what they need, because if they don't get what they need they are going to go after it."




https://www.cbc.ca/n...upply-1.5668370

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 August 2020 - 02:26 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Some would say spending $100/k/ year on that waste of skin - for 30 years now - is not worth it.

Hs proposed solution s free heron.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 August 2020 - 01:58 PM.

[LJ]

Useless eater.

[Victoria Watcher]

The B.C. government says the $10.5 million in funding will scale up overdose prevention services, expand access to safe prescription alternatives to separate people from toxic street drugs and add new outreach teams to help prevent overdoses while connecting more people to treatment and recovery options.

 

According to a press release, 17 new supervised consumption sites and 12 new inhalation services will be established in communities hit the hardest by the overdose crisis. These locations are aimed at reducing the number of people using alone.

 

 

 

https://www.cheknews...utreach-689010/

 

 

 

 

 

 

deaths keep going up to record monthly highs so the idea is to do more of what we've been doling - with more money.  great plan.

 

 

 

 

expand access to safe prescription alternatives to separate people from toxic street drugs 

 

 

just a few posts ago a guy with "lived experience" told us as many as 50% of the people on prescription opiods are selling that supply off as street drugs.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 August 2020 - 03:19 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

more garbage here:

 

 

 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the overdose crisis — B.C. has reported record numbers of overdoses in May and June — but advocates say the pandemic isn’t the problem. They point to criminalization of substance use, the resulting stigma and a lack of safe supply of opioids as the reason for the rising number of deaths.

 

“This is all very preventable with an easily accessible safe supply. If we’re able to get drugs that people want out there, they would engage with the system,” Cameron said. If it was possible to regulate the amount of fentanyl that someone is getting in each dose, “the number of overdoses wouldn’t be countable on one hand, I’d assume.”

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...nces-1.24183201

[Rob Randall]

Homeless woman sentenced to 18 months in jail for selling drugs to Victoria police officer
Officer paid $20 for a substance consisting of heroin, fentanyl and caffeine

 

Jeannine Frances Kielt, who struggles with a heroin addiction, was seated under a tree with another woman when an officer approached her and bought 0.2 grams of a powdered substance. Keilt handed the substance, which consisted of heroin, fentanyl and caffeine, to the officer.

 

A pre-sentence report states that the 53-year-old moved to Victoria from Ontario in 1992. She currently lives in a tent with her partner of 14 years and while she is not currently employed, she has held jobs in Victoria.

 

 

Not sure how I feel about this. Users like her are usually selling to other addicts to fund their own addictions. But who sold it to her, and who sold it to that person. That's where I'd rather see scarce police resources used. I don't really see the point, unless this woman can access effective treatment and counselling in jail. This arrest is not going to deter addicts from using of selling to other addicts, it's not going to make our streets safer or cleaner or get drugs off the street.

[Mike K.]

The higher level dealers also need trustworthy lower level dealers. And take out enough trustworthy lower level dealers and the house of cards can collapse as eventually the higher level dealer will be flushed out, or ends up on the street dealing the drugs him or herself.

[Dexter]

But taking them out never really happens. They just end up out again and start selling in the same circles. The problem is a justice system without teeth. Habitual offenders have little to fear. The get a criminal defence lawyer who goes on about their troubled childhood and struggles with addiction and poverty and off they go with a suspended or light sentence. The person mentioned above has 17 cases on file ... and 18 months in never 18 months. 2/3 of the sentence max will be served, minus time and a half for any pre sentence time in custody. In a case involving my family, the perpetrator ended up with a 7 year sentence but 3.5 years in custody before day parole started...

Edited by Klapecki, 08 August 2020 - 07:53 AM.

[Nparker]

 

The problem is a justice system without teeth

We do not have a "justice" system. We have a legal system. There's a BIG difference.

[Mike K.]

Yes, it can be frustrating. And police know it. Even when they arrest a volatile individual they’re out on the street awaiting their first court date which who knows when it’ll be.

[Rob Randall]

Vacuuming up low-level user dealers just shuffles the money around. It does nothing to affect supply and demand. 

 

I'd much rather see the immense effort of an undercover sting operation used to crack the stolen bike ring that sees vanloads of stolen bikes bought from the local chop shops and shipped out of the city. 

[Mike K.]

In prison these individuals have access to programs and some level of supports. There are attempts made to change people’s lives.

If we want to help people, sometimes the only way to try is to confine them to a prison where the system can at least make an attempt.

[Rob Randall]

I have heard anecdotal reports of addicts stealing over $5000 in order to get fast-tracked into a prison drug treatment program.

[Mike K.]

Yes, I can imagine. Healthcare, treatment, healthy food. It’s a potential way out for someone who really wants it.

[Dexter]

I believe it’s termed as “institutionalized” where they are so used to having everything done for them inside, that they reoffend when released to get back to it.

[A Girl is No one]

Not sure where to put this one....

From the Capital Daily:
Officers save man who had overdosed and was also on fire
On Saturday, a pair of officers on patrol in Burnside Gorge "noticed an unresponsive male in his ground floor unit, overdosing with his lit cigarette catching fire to his hair." They busted down the door, put out the fire and administered naloxone. Read the full description of the incident by Victoria police chief Del Manak.

[Victoria Watcher]

put it in the “some people can’t be trusted with their own apartment” file.