3834 replies to this topic

[LJ]

I bristle every time I hear someone or some group "demanding" something, asking is so much better.

 

And while I'm at it, I hate the expression "out of an abundance of caution," one person says it once and then you hear it everywhere.

[Victoria Watcher]

Island Health issues overdose advisory for Greater Victoria

 

https://www.vicnews....ter-victoria-2/

 

 

For safer use, Island Health advises having substances checked, carrying Naloxone, using with a friend or using close to help, and doing a tester before a regular hit. The Lifeguard App, which offers a CPR and Naloxone guide, as well as a crisis and 811 nurses line, is also a recommend tool for drug users.

[rmpeers]

Island Health issues overdose advisory for Greater Victoria

https://www.vicnews....ter-victoria-2/


For safer use, Island Health advises having substances checked, carrying Naloxone, using with a friend or using close to help, and doing a tester before a regular hit. The Lifeguard App, which offers a CPR and Naloxone guide, as well as a crisis and 811 nurses line, is also a recommend tool for drug users.

Odd how encouraging people to seek ways of beating the addiction is *never* one of the suggestions. "This thing that will likely kill you? Keep doing it, just be careful."

[Victoria Watcher]

and the science behind that messaging is obviously sound.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LJ]

Apparently suicides are down 24% over the past 12 months, so the pandemic deniers can't use that as an excuse for their freedom activities.

[pontcanna]

Officer Injured In Assault By Youth In Crisis

April 14, 2021 - File: #21-14029

 

Victoria, BC – A Patrol officer was injured after coming to the aid of an impaired youth in the midst of a mental health crisis yesterday.

 

Yesterday, Patrol officers were called to a downtown intersection for a report that a man in crisis was running in traffic in an attempt to cause harm to himself. When officers arrived, they discovered that the man was in fact a youth, who appeared intoxicated by drugs while in the midst of a crisis.

 

Officers were able to de-escalate him and safely remove the youth from the roadway. BC Emergency Health Services paramedics arrived to transport him to hospital. An officer rode with the youth to the hospital.

 

Upon arriving at the hospital, the youth experienced further negative effects of drug intoxication and his condition began to deteriorate. Paramedics then administered naloxone and the youth began to recover. The youth then suddenly became assaultive with hospital staff, paramedics and officers, attempting to spit on one officer before kicking another officer in the face.

 

The youth was brought under control by officers without injury. He was held in hospital for treatment under the Mental Health Act. The officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the assault, and was treated at hospital, but was able to complete his shift.

 

This file remains under investigation.

 

If you have information about this incident please call the VicPD Report Desk at (250) 995-7654 extension 1. To report what you know anonymously, please call Greater Victoria Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

 

[Victoria Watcher]

^ none of that would have happened is only those drugs had been decriminalized.

[On the Level]

^ none of that would have happened is only those drugs had been decriminalized.

 

and since the Police were there, it's all their fault.  

[Nparker]

 and since the Police were there, it's all their fault.  

Should have let social workers deal with the situation.

[Victoria Watcher]

interesting letter from a local lawyer:

 

 

 

 

 

Minister is late to decriminalization idea

 

I have read with interest Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson’s “initiative” to seek support from the federal government to decriminalize simple possession of narcotics in B.C.

 

The minister should be aware that it has been some years since simple possession of drugs has been actively investigated and charged, let alone prosecuted, anywhere in Canada. Simple possession of drugs, therefore, has in effect been decriminalized.

 

The toxic drug supply that is tragically killing our citizens, however, requires government’s urgent attention.

 

Roxanne P. Helme, Q.C.

 

Green & Helme
Victoria

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...arts-1.24308404

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 April 2021 - 05:27 AM.

[Mike K.]

The City of Victoria has scrubbed its announcement of half-masting flags at City Hall on the fifth year anniversary of the opioid crisis, which landed during the half-masting of flags to mourn the passing of Prince Philip.

The opioid half-masting press release is gone, and the City issued a Prince Philip announcement on the 15th. I may be wrong, but they also issued a half-masting press release immediately following the prince’s death, followed by the opioid press release.

So what happened? And why scrub the opioid press release? Was it auto-scheduled?

[Rob Randall]

Friday, April 9 the half-mast was for Vimy Ridge so there were up to three things simultaneously.

[pontcanna]

Saanich council supports mayor’s call to reinstate non-police security for mental health patients at hospitals

Saanich police spent nearly 1,200 hours waiting with patients at hospitals in 2020

Apr. 21, 2021

At the request of Mayor Fred Haynes, Saanich is calling on the province to re-establish non-police security at hospitals to take custody of those apprehended under the Mental Health Act to reduce patients’ trauma, remove some of the stigma and reallocate resources.

On April 12, council unanimously agreed to have Haynes write to the province and Island Health to request that special constables be reinstated at hospitals and trained to take custody of mental health patients apprehended by police. He’ll also request that Island Health devise a new, non-police system for bringing these patients home after a mandated treatment.

 

More: https://www.vicnews....s-at-hospitals/
 

[Victoria Watcher]

Saanich police spent nearly 1,200 hours waiting with patients at hospitals in 2020

 

 

saanich has 181 officers.  assuming a 40-hour week and 4 weeks off holiday that's about 350,000 hours per year.  i just do not see this as an issue.  police in a hospital waiting room might be seen as a nice thing for safety, too.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 April 2021 - 10:21 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Vancouver Island could be at its worst point of overdose crises yet: medical health officer

 

Island Health issued overdose advisories for Victoria, various communities in the last two weeks

 

https://www.vicnews....health-officer/

 

 

 

 

bah.  whatever.  

[kitty surprise]

Vancouver Island could be at its worst point of overdose crises yet: medical health officer

Island Health issued overdose advisories for Victoria, various communities in the last two weeks

https://www.vicnews....health-officer/




bah. whatever.

I have to abstain from doing all the things I normally love doing, and I have to do other things I never had to before, all in the name of protecting myself, and more importantly, protecting others.

Overdose crisis? Just copy and paste public health measures with a few tweaks. Best to abstain from doing the things you normally love doing, to protect yourself.

Unfeeling? Probably.

Edited by kitty surprise, 22 April 2021 - 05:05 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

I have to abstain from doing all the things I normally love doing, and I have to do other things I never had to before, all in the name of protecting myself, and more importantly, protecting others.

Overdose crisis? Just copy and paste public health measures with a few tweaks. Best to abstain from doing the things you normally love doing, to protect yourself.

Unfeeling? Probably.

 

smoking cigarettes makes you shitty at sexual intercourse.  i'm told by our government.

 

 

 

 

doing crack and meth and heroin fentanyl makes you look like a complete loser.  that should be good enough reason to abstain.  but also you are quite likely to die.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 April 2021 - 05:10 PM.

[Nparker]

Smoking cigarettes makes you shitty at sexual intercourse.  I'm told by our government...Doing crack and meth and heroin fentanyl makes you look like a complete loser.  that should be good enough reason to abstain.  but also you are quite likely to die.

Does no one else see the logical disconnect between the deliberate stigmatizing of tobacco and the de-stigmatizing of illicit drugs?

[Victoria Watcher]

Island Health issued a warning Thursday about increased overdoses related to a toxic drug supply, on the heels of paramedics reporting the worst single-day high for related calls.

 

In the previous 24-hour period, paramedics around the province responded to 138 potential overdoses. B.C. Emergency Health Services said it was the highest day on record for overdose calls since the opioid overdose crisis was declared a public health emergency five years ago, with 45 calls in Vancouver and 10 calls in Victoria.

 

https://www.timescol...alth-1.24310880

 

 

 

 

and wednesday was welfare day of course.

 

 

 

 

The health authority is urging drug users — especially in Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox Valley and Campbell River — to use strategies to stay safe when using and to reach out to others, especially men, who are dying in the highest numbers, to talk about safer drug use.

 

Strategies for safer use include having your drugs checked by an overdose-prevention services, carrying Naloxone and having an overdose-response plan, testing a little before doing a regular hit and not using alone, or using where you’re close to help.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 April 2021 - 10:06 AM.

[A Girl is No one]

Wasn’t it the new and improved welfare Day? With the latest payment increase (not on the rent side because we know housing costs are flat, but on the free spending side)?