3800 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

So if you are like me, you read this headline:

 

 

 

 

Opioid deaths occurring in Saanich homes a result of stigma, says expert

83 per cent of illicit drug toxicity deaths occurred in private homes in 2019

 

 

and think, "holy ****, let's get to the bottom of this.  how many deaths per year are we talking about in Saanich?"  alas, the article never gets into actual figures.  which you think would be important.  if an "emergency" is to be declared locally (don't we already have a provincial one?  how many do we need?), it would be good for the public to know if Saanich is experiencing 2 deaths per year, or 100.

 

https://www.vicnews....ma-says-expert/

 

the article also goes on to say:

 

 

 

 

For example, 83 per cent of these deaths occurred in private homes in 2019 and 52 per cent occurred in 2020. In downtown Victoria, 32 per cent occurred in private residences in 2020.

 

 

 

 

but the sub-headline also talks about the (relatively high) 83% rate in 2019.  but is that more relevant than 2020's figure (52%)?  why would the 83% figure be used in the sub-headline when the actual number more recently is significantly smaller?

 

and why are so few overdoses happening in private residences in "downtown Victoria" when we are consistently told most happen in homes?

 

 

 

 

Island Health is encouraging a more progressive policy to support people who are using substances. It was said that society is further isolating and pushing people to use alone if there continues to be a lack of overdose protection services in Greater Victoria.

 

 

 

 

ya that sounds like a good idea.  not.     

 

but if true, the first new one should go in Oak Bay.  Victoria already has 3 or 4.  and that shitty rate above.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 October 2021 - 02:19 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Just So You Know: Those ­politicians worried about ­blowback on the topic might be interested in Daly’s further experience in the matter.

He advocated for more secure care in a Times Colonist opinion piece last April 27.

An excerpt: “Sometimes folks are so unwell that they are in desperate need of help, but because of their illness are utterly unable to make a rational and informed decision in their own best interests.

“In these situations, we believe it is the right thing to compel care. We believe that in doing so their rights are recognized - the right to be safe, the right to be housed, and the right to good health.

At the recent committee meeting, five months after the piece appeared, he said: “I got more response to that article than anything else I’ve ever said or written in my whole working life. People I didn’t even know — parents, sisters, brothers — wrote to me, saying: ‘Thank God someone finally said this, because I have a relation or a family member who really needed this, and they couldn’t get it.’


https://www.timescol...acks-1.24363789

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 October 2021 - 05:58 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

A new supervised inhalation site is coming to downtown Victoria to help combat an increasingly toxic drug supply, Island Health revealed Thursday (Oct. 14).

The satellite service will open sometime in November on an unoccupied city-owned lot at 926 Pandora Ave. to help expand services currently offered at The Harbour. The existing supervised consumption site is located across the street at 941 Pandora Ave., where space and ventilation don’t allow for inhaled consumption.

https://www.vicnews....ntown-victoria/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 October 2021 - 11:44 AM.

[Nparker]

Yeah more drugs. That's the answer.

[Barrrister]

Obviously Island health thinks that doing meth is really great for the brain. All those studies from the Mayo, John Hopkins and Harvard Medical school are obviously exaggerating the critical damage to the brain. (Besides they probably faked all those MRI scans.).

[Victoria Watcher]

what drugs are they likely to inhale here?  

 

and do some/many/most of them have a risk of immediate overdose, such that they must be consumed under supervision? 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 October 2021 - 02:15 PM.

[Sparky]

I was never really fond of cocaine.

I just liked the way it smelled.

[pontcanna]

BC MLA shares addiction story to help destigmatize overdose crisis

October 20, 2021

For many years, Adam Olsen lived in worry that people would find out he’d suffered from a drug addiction in his youth.

He told few people about the cocaine use he battled in his 20s. And the BC Green Party, under which he was elected MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, crafted a contingency plan to explain the issue if it ever became public.

 

“I felt a lot of shame and a lot of taboo around that part of my history,” he told CHEK News.

“It’s not something that I would talk about openly or publicly because there’d be a lot of judgement around it and a lot of stigma around it. And I think it’s that stigma, frankly that is taking a lot of lives.”
 

More: https://www.cheknews...-crisis-901909/

 

[Mike K.]

Meanwhile, a Sooke councilwoman with the highest rate of absenteeism (30%) joked last week that she misses meetings because she’s high as a kite on cocaine. Black Press had asked her why she missed so many meetings, and that was her answer.

[Victoria Watcher]

Let me get this right.


https://www.vicnews....-to-end-stigma/


Adam Olson does cocaine. Stopped doing it because his wife is not into it. Ie. places a stigma on it. That saves him.

And now he wants to destigmatize illicit drug use?

Strange logic.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 October 2021 - 10:51 AM.

[On the Level]

 

B.C. formally asks Ottawa for exemption to decriminalize illicit drug possession

The move has the support of the organization representing chiefs of police across the country, as well as B.C.’s chief coroner.

 

I'm not so sure that simply "decriminalizing" drugs will end up going well unless there is more of a plan that accompanies it.  We could get an increase in overdose deaths as we normalize drug use.

 

https://globalnews.c...ths-next-steps/

[A Girl is No one]

I'm not so sure that simply "decriminalizing" drugs will end up going well unless there is more of a plan that accompanies it. We could get an increase in overdose deaths as we normalize drug use.

https://globalnews.c...ths-next-steps/

And if BC goes it alone it will mean another mass migration movement of drug addicts to BC (large proportion in Victoria). Combine that with the free drugs of choice, free housing etc. It’s guaranteed to increase the overdose counts here… it might go down elsewhere as the addicts move here, but it won’t go down in BC.

Edited by A Girl is No one, 01 November 2021 - 06:12 PM.

[Barrrister]

We are turning into Seattle.

[Nparker]

I'm not so sure that simply "decriminalizing" drugs will end up going well unless there is more of a plan that accompanies it....

It will go about as well as "housing first".

[LJ]

I'm not so sure that simply "decriminalizing" drugs will end up going well unless there is more of a plan that accompanies it.  We could get an increase in overdose deaths as we normalize drug use.

 

https://globalnews.c...ths-next-steps/

Decriminalizing will have no effect whatsoever. Nobody is getting arrested for possession of small quantities. They might have it confiscated but that would be it.

It certainly wouldn't save lives, all they would do is kill themselves with semi-legal drugs. 

 

You could give them a safe supply of drugs, but that wouldn't be what they want, they will sell those so they can buy the "good stuff".

 

Absolutely ridiculous, if you want to save lives, provide secure mental health accommodation and incarceration for the criminals. 

[Spy Black]

When those who commit violent crimes in and around Victoria are simply released an hour after their arrest "with a promise to appear", and with arrests for small amounts of drugs having been non-existent for years now ... this is just more SJW posturing on the part of one level of government.

 

The portion of this that might not be outright posturing by the province is the B.C. Governments feeble attempt to legitimize into law what's already happening in B.C., lest somebody call them out on the fact that they're not currently applying the laws as they're written ... rather they're inventing their "own" legal framework, a framework very far outside of what is currently prescribed in legislation.

[Barrrister]

The city of Seattle basically decriminalized  drugs there and that has not exactly worked out brilliantly. It simply made the problem worse.

[Victoria Watcher]

The city of Seattle basically decriminalized  drugs there and that has not exactly worked out brilliantly. It simply made the problem worse.

 

Victoria and Vancouver have already done the same.  And we have the highest illicit death rates in North America.

[kitty surprise]

The problem with decriminalization in certain jurisdictions only, is the perception and resulting induced demand that results.

BC is already receiver general for this demographic and going alone with this will only make the situation worse. Wait times for ambulances, insurance premiums, tent cities, everything.

Decriminalize across Canada or don't do it at all.

[Nparker]

...don't do it at all.

This.