26576 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

If he suffered a heart attack after stopping the use of the opioids, it was likely that ge was undergoing severe withdrawal.

At his age and with his condition he needs to be honest with himself and just get the medication he needs, regardless of what he thinks the optics are.

[max.bravo]

Maybe the wise move is to go downtown and buy dillies?

[dasmo]

Grow weed and make edibles

[dasmo]

https://www.medicaln...articles/322051

[Love the rock]

What about other buyers who do know those same sources? Is their risk lower simply because they already know them?

 

And isn't "sources" a conspicuously discreet term to be using here? Are these "sources" not identifiable individuals? Are police not aware of these sources and what they're doing? Or are we still acting like drug dealers are phantoms or agents of random fate or whatever?

Also, we're (once again) acting like there's a vast & unknowable underworld out there in downtown Victoria. If you're not able to buy your drugs from the exact same guy at the exact same time in the exact same spot on Pandora then you have no choice but to explore the unmapped maze of a thousand dangerous streets and alleyways, full of myriad shadowy & undocumented villains that the police department has never heard of?
 

I thought we had places on pandora that tested street drugs free of charge to see if they are safe .

If you are forced to move your tent a bit  is it too much trouble to walk a bit farther back to your food supply on pandora and test your street drugs.

Buy a few government dillies off your friends for the short walk to get food and get your drugs tested.

[lanforod]

How many actually test? And do they test everything? Given how many overdoses and deaths are occurring, it may as well be zero.

[Love the rock]

How many actually test? And do they test everything? Given how many overdoses and deaths are occurring, it may as well be zero.

 Precisely , doubt hardly any people test .  Our Place says they want them here is so addicts  have more of a free safety net . I say the free safety net is all ready in place lousy excuse stated by Our Place on the news for camping on sidewalks and boulevard . 

[aastra]

 

If you are forced to move your tent a bit  is it too much trouble to walk a bit farther back to your food supply on pandora and test your street drugs.

 

 

This is the kind of thing I was getting at. If you're forced to move around then wouldn't the distances involved be a minor inconvenience at worst? It's not as if you're being pushed out to Jordan River. You're just being required to move around downtown as per long-established laws and bylaws re: vagrancy and squatting. Also, wouldn't your ultra-trustworthy preferred street dealers simply relocate themselves those same couple of blocks?

 

Addiction and overdosing is obviously a gravely serious topic, but media, politicians, academia, support services, etc. tend to embellish the narrative with these layers of maudlin drama that ultimately trivialize the core issues.

[aastra]

As I'm sure we all know, if you're sincerely interested in breaking a negative pattern in your life then moving around a bit and seeing some new scenery and experiencing a bit of disruption to your routines can work wonders re: getting the ball rolling. Thus, I find it very interesting that certain forces are so determined to keep all of these troubled people stuck in the exact same place surrounded by the exact same people.

[Love the rock]

The older I get the more I believe in follow the money follow the power. 

[Nparker]

...I find it very interesting that certain forces are so determined to keep all of these troubled people stuck in the exact same place surrounded by the exact same people.

The illicit drug/poverty industry is too big and too powerful to fail at this point. They need to perpetuate the misery of addiction to maintain their livelihoods.

[Victoria Watcher]

About a dozen tents are scattered throughout James Bay’s Irvine Park, each soaking wet after hours of heavy rain.

 

Neil Dwier pitched his tent in the park last week “because the other day, they came down to Pandora and took everybody’s tent and kicked us off the block down there,” he says.

 

On Thursday, bylaw moved in and moved out the tents and belongings of the residents living in the 40 to 50 tents in the 900-block of Pandora, including Dwier.

 

He doesn’t have access to methadone because he’s worried if he leaves the park to get it, someone will steal his tent, so he is back to using fentanyl.

Now, he says his life and the lives of the others evicted from Pandora are much harder.

 

“Because that’s where the pharmacy is, where the clinic is. That’s where Our Place is. That’s where access to everything is. The medical, that’s where the mobile van from Cool-Aid comes. And out here, there is nothing,” Dwier said.

 

 

 

https://www.cheknews...-tents-1205127/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 May 2024 - 05:43 AM.

[dasmo]

“And out here, there is nothing,” that’s how I feel.

[Victoria Watcher]

Comment: Don't ignore the rights of those on Pandora Avenue

 

 

Individuals sheltering on Pandora Avenue need to be treated as individuals with individual needs.

https://www.timescol...-avenue-8778439

 

They have all kinds of rights.  One of them is not to set up camp on Pandora.

[Beacon]

 

About a dozen tents are scattered throughout James Bay’s Irvine Park, each soaking wet after hours of heavy rain.

 

 

 

I thought there was no sheltering allowed there anymore?

 

Also, yes this is why Pandora is what it is, that's where all the free services are and not the other way around. If those free services disappeared overnight and moved somewhere else, I'd give it a month before that mess moved there.  So really, there is the ability to move the mess out of downtown if anyone actually cared enough to do it.

[Victoria Watcher]

I thought there was no sheltering allowed there anymore?

 

August.

 

 

 

 

 

The City of Victoria took a step Thursday toward banning overnight sheltering in two more city parks: Vic West Park and Irving Park in James Bay.

 

Council voted 7-2 in favour of having city staff and the city’s sheltering relocation co-ordinator partner with B.C. Housing and other service providers to find indoor shelter for those currently camping out in the two parks.

 

The goal is to find alternate accommodation before a ban on sheltering in those parks comes into effect by August, when council plans to amend its Parks Regulation Bylaw.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...e-parks-8622814

[aastra]

 

Now, he says his life and the lives of the others evicted from Pandora are much harder.

“Because that’s where the pharmacy is, where the clinic is. That’s where Our Place is. That’s where access to everything is. The medical, that’s where the mobile van from Cool-Aid comes. And out here, there is nothing,” Dwier said.

 

Again, do we perceive what we're being challenged to understand? If the support industries aren't interesting in supporting anyone who happens to be experiencing homelessness and addiction in the wrong place or in the wrong manner then exactly what are these support industries really about? Irvine Park and the other parks around the CoV aren't in the remote wilderness. They're just a few blocks away.

 

Put it another way: if life away from the Pandora services is much harder for the evicted then what is life like for the Pandora service providers now that the crowds aren't there? Presumably things must be much easier? Will we see news articles about how relieved they are because the strain has been eased?

[aastra]

There has been a mountain of effort over the years and decades to foster the impression that DTES-style "central business districts" of concentrated woe are somehow essential to the noble mission. The transformation of Pandora Ave into such a district hasn't been a negative, it's been a big plus. It needed to happen. Great things would never have occurred if not for that transformation.

[aastra]

 

And out here, there is nothing,” Dwier said.

 

Put it another another way: if the entire street community were to up and move to Brentwood Bay, would the support services remain stubbornly fixated on Pandora Ave? Why should that support infrastructure be so ponderous?

[LJ]

^Don't stop at Brentwood Bay, there is lots of crown land available where they could set up all the tents they want, move all the services and drug dealers there and give the cities back to the taxpayers.