3808 replies to this topic

[Barrrister]

Stop arguing with Moderation, he is a troll. for the woaking dead. 

[On the Level]

Stop arguing with Moderation, he is a troll. for the woaking dead. 

 

He certainly has a differing opinion on many topics than many on this forum, but I'm not sure name calling is the answer.

 

I am trying to understand how segments of the population can be so far apart on virtually everything.  From policing, transportation, community interaction, addiction, mental health support, how can there be such a consistently huge divide between the 2 camps.  Everyone wants less pollution, less homelessness, more affordability, etc, etc, etc, but we are so divided on what the solution might be.  

[Nparker]

...Everyone wants less pollution, less homelessness, more affordability, etc, etc, etc, but we are so divided on what the solution might be.  

The current "solutions" don't seem to be working very well, certainly not those that target homelessness and addiction.

[phx]

Many think they are being virtuous by supporting harm reduction.  They don’t stop to notice the resulting disaster.

[Victoria Watcher]

Sooke mayor worries for firefighters in opioid crisis, despite low call numbers

‘Our firefighters are put into many tragic circumstances,’ says Maja Tait

https://www.saanichn...-call-numbers/#

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 January 2022 - 10:47 AM.

[pontcanna]

North Island doctors call for more detox facilities

 

“You kind of have to just tough it out and hope you don’t die by the time you get the phone call that you can go,” says Joseph Costello of waiting to get into detox.

 

Times Colonist - February 6, 2022

 

After getting a bed in a medical detox facility and spending time in a treatment centre, Joseph Costello has been sober for five months, the longest period in more than a decade. The Courtenay man and doctors in the north Island see a need for more detox facilities to support people who want to stop using drugs

 

After years of struggling with addiction and a stint living on the street, Joseph Costello feels like he’s on track to get his life back.

 

The 39-year-old Courtenay man has been sober for five months — his longest period of sobriety in more than a decade — and he’s ready to look for work once he starts an injectable once-a-month medication to treat opioid addiciton, called Sublocade, next week that will mean he no longer has to go to a pharmacy every day for a similar treatment.

 

It took about two months from the time he was ready for help to be admitted to Clearview Community Medical Detox in Nanaimo. While he was waiting, he continued to use fentanyl.

 

“You kind of have to just tough it out and hope you don’t die by the time you get the phone call that you can go,” he said.

 

It’s difficult situations like these that have two doctors pushing for more medical detox facilities on the Island.

 

More: https://www.timescol...ilities-5032936

 

 

[Victoria Watcher]

The 39-year-old Courtenay man has been sober for five months — his longest period of sobriety in more than a decade — and he’s ready to look for work once he starts an injectable once-a-month medication to treat opioid addiciton, called Sublocade, next week that will mean he no longer has to go to a pharmacy every day for a similar treatment.



Maybe the fact a middle aged adult can get by without working for a decade tells you our social safety net is already pretty robust. Maybe too strong.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 February 2022 - 02:32 PM.

[Midnightly]

 

North Island doctors call for more detox facilities

 

 

 

 

yup and we need more staff in hospitals, we need more doctors in family care, we need more walk in clinics, ones without 4+hr wait times that fill up within the first hour of the day, we also need more staff for blood services clinics (it takes over a month to book an appointment)...and we need more urgent care facilities to lighten the load in the ER's...

[On the Level]

Maybe the fact a middle aged adult can get by without working for a decade tells you our social safety net is already pretty robust. Maybe too strong.

 

I don't agree.  Why do you think we see crime to fund addiction?  Perhaps if we had a social safety net that included rehab and mental health support we would see some compassion.  Instead we see woke UVIC bullshit that victimizes the mentally ill and addicted.

[Victoria Watcher]

"I am so sorry for your loss."

The voice of British Columbia's Chief Coroner Lisa LaPointe was filled with emotion Wednesday morning as she expressed her condolences to the loved ones of the 2,224 people who died due to suspected illicit-drug overdoses in the province last year.

It is the deadliest year ever recorded, representing a 26 per cent increase over 2020's death toll of 1,765.


https://www.cbc.ca/n...r2021-1.6344991

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 February 2022 - 02:57 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Les Leyne: B.C.'s opioid failure — 42.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2021; it was six 10 years ago

“I am so sorry that now in the seventh year of this public health emergency, the updates are still so tremendously devastating.”

https://www.timescol...-fronts-5047785

There has never been a wider, more tragic gap between a specific goal sincerely set by governments and what they’ve delivered.

____________

A peer clinical adviser from Vancouver, Guy Felicella, joined Lapointe at the briefing and issued a blanket indictment of the current approach. “What we are doing is not working. After six years of this it’s clear that we’re not learning from our mistakes.”

He also rapped the established pattern that has been locked in place for years now: “Why do we only hear from some [officials] once a month, at best simply acknowledging the number of people who have died, taking a public flogging for a day and them moving on?”

That didn’t stop the pattern being repeated 90 minutes later, when Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson and Premier John Horgan continued the ritual in the legislature.

_________

The only defence that can be offered in this historic failure is that it could be worse. Some deaths have been averted, but the number is unknowable.

Horgan’s remarks were slightly startling. Virtually all the officials now condemn the “war on drugs” approach, but Horgan devoted part of his response to some tough talk about drug dealers, which was reminiscent of the old approach.

“I want to condemn those who prey on the vulnerabilities of others. … We have to track down those predators in our society that are killing people every day because they don’t give a darn.”

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 February 2022 - 05:19 AM.

[Barrrister]

Until we at least acknowledge that these poor souls have badly damaged brains and look at the clear science behind addition we have no chance of actually helping the vast majority of addicts. Government policies seem to have been hijacked by by a rather self serving group of poverty pimps combined with some well intended but totally misguided  people who seem to have absorbed some bizarre social justice theories.

 

What I find amazing when discussing this with people involved with drug addicts is that it is not a matter of a disagreement about the science behind the brain damage but am absolute rejection of the science as even being relevant. 

 

The simple science behind long term drug addicts is that they have major brain damage and they need to be institutionalized and cared for properly. The scientific truth is that it will take the brain years to recover and in many cases they may never recover. And to be clear I am talking about involuntary institutionalization in a proper medical facility. 

 

When talking to the poverty pimps behind the policies in this city I feel like I am talking to radical American Trump supporters. All science and reason goes out the window. The science is not theoretical just look at the work done at the Mayo,John Hopkins or the UofT where it comes to brain damage in drug addicts. Even a total layman can see that the scans show major damage. 

 

Leaving these poor souls to suffer in their motel rooms borders on the criminal. 

[kitty surprise]

Barrister, you need to send your note to provincial & federal governments, and cc media outlets & their investigative arms (5th estate, W5 etc) as well.

Well said!

Edited by kitty surprise, 10 February 2022 - 12:54 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Following B.C.’s deadliest year from opioid use – the second-deadliest for those under 19 in five years – Threshold Housing Society has opened a new home specifically for 15 to 21 year olds at risk of homelessness and overdose.

 

The two-storey craftsman-style home on Niagara Street is the first to be fully purchased by the society in its three decades of housing work across Greater Victoria. It includes eight beds in five bedrooms, each of which has its own washroom. As well as necessities like storage space, laundry, a full kitchen and office space, guests have access to daily addiction recovery sessions and, in light of a shortage of in-person mental health services during the pandemic, text-service counselling.

 

 

 

https://www.saanichn...duce-overdoses/

 

 

Threshold staff do not supply Niagara residents with a safe drug supply; the program is abstinence-oriented, and prospective guests are required to have seven days abstinence before admittance. However, the adolescents have the final say on their recovery goals. Prescription “safe supply” from the Foundry harm reduction centre is an option for them, said Cait Marco, a Threshold youth engagement liaison.

 

__________________________

 

For adolescents who use opioids, addiction and its related activities become a placebo for community by offering connection, Stirrett said.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 February 2022 - 09:18 AM.

[Nparker]

...Threshold staff do not supply Niagara residents with a safe drug supply; the program is abstinence-oriented, and prospective guests are required to have seven days abstinence before admittance. However, the adolescents have the final say on their recovery goals. Prescription “safe supply” from the Foundry harm reduction centre is an option for them...

Addicts will never get better as long as they continue to use. "Guests" of this facility, who are not of legal age, should not be able to decide for themselves in regards to using a "safe supply" of opioids. Officially, we don't let underage people consume alcohol; why should we allow adolescents the choice to use drugs?

[Victoria Watcher]

CBC long read:


But there was another side to the teenager whose friends and family called Liv. Her best friend says she was addicted to heroin and methamphetamine.

On Nov. 17, 2021, Liv died alone, in the doorway of a historic, red brick building on Wharf Street in downtown Victoria. It’s believed the 17-year-old died after smoking heroin that was likely laced with fentanyl.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...rents-treatment


They hung out downtown, often at a place known as the Whale Wall, a meeting spot next to a park and just around the corner from where Liv died.

“It’s friends, it’s drugs, it’s like, just being around people,” said Mika, who considered herself Liv’s protector. “The one time I let her go … she died.”

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 March 2022 - 01:56 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Lapointe said more than 9,000 people have died of an overdose since the province declared a public health emergency in April 2016.


__________




"We really do want to ensure that we don't lose another 2,200 members of our community in 2022," she said, referencing last year's record of 2,224 fatalities from overdose.

Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson said the report confirms the urgency of the government's work.

"We agree that one of the most important actions we can take to save lives is to separate people from the toxic drug supply. That's why B.C. implemented in 2020, and expanded in 2021, a safer supply program, the first and only province in Canada to do this," Malcolmson said in a written statement.


https://www.timescol...-crisis-5144661

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 March 2022 - 01:59 AM.

[Mike K.]

The Fifth Estate documentary on Victoria youth dying from laced drugs shed light on a government that has talked a lot about drugs, and now that Housing First has failed, they want to supply people with government drugs that users won’t want, until their then at rehab comes up. In the meantime people just keep dying.

If we agree drug use is higher than it has ever been, and overdose deaths are the highest they’ve ever been, and we have taken an approach that doesn’t preach abstinence, do we not see the correlation?

[Victoria Watcher]

It’s hard to understand why the province* with the highest illicit drug death rate is looking at more permissive policies and free drugs instead of studying other jurisdictions with lower death rates.




Nearly 92,000 persons in the U.S. died from drug-involved overdose in 2020, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids.

https://nida.nih.gov...ose-death-rates

^ if I work that out for the entire US population we get 278 per million population.

In BC last year we have over 400 deaths per million people.

* So we may well have the highest death rate in all of North America.

Based on 2019 numbers posted here:

https://en.m.wikiped...otals_over_time

We do have a higher death rate than any US state except West Virginia.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 March 2022 - 03:18 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Michael Egilson of the Office of the Chief Coroner chaired both review panels.

 

He said Wednesday: “Twice as many people are now dying as when the public health emergency was first declared in 2016.

 

“A new approach is required.”

 

He said the government’s interventions in the crisis have not been sufficient to reduce the deaths. “One of the major thrusts of the panel’s recommendations, it’s recognizing that if what we’re currently doing isn’t working, we may need to be looking differently.”

 

 

https://www.timescol...-supply-5145198

 

 

Will the "new approach" include not normalizing drug use, like the last approach did?

 

 

And where are the statistics on the total number of drug users?  Have recent policies doubled the number of users?  And what are we doing to reduce that number?

 

On providing a safe supply, what will be done to ensure that the free drugs we give away won't be traded and sold amongst groups?

 

On providing a safe supply, why would we think people would choose to stop using drugs if A.) they are give them for free, and B.) they are encouraged to use them in facilities filled with the most vulnerable (all the safe consumption spots opened in conjunction with homeless housing).

 

Finally, where are the statistics from the people currently enjoying a safe supply, that shows them leaving drug use?   I suspect it's as effective as "housing first" is at having people leave the homeless housing facilities.  ie. it simply does not happen.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 March 2022 - 06:12 AM.