25957 replies to this topic

[LJ]

I like this site....

 

https://www.charityintelligence.ca/

[A Girl is No one]

Question: why are there no (or almost no) people sleeping in parks when it rains?

[sdwright.vic]

Ask a judge that during the next case!

[Victoria Watcher]

i noticed that victoria has now quietly become home to 4 of the province's 20 safe injection sites.

 

https://www.islandhe...ption-locations

 

and the island is home to 9 of the 20.

 

victoria -

 

 

844 johnson

713 johnson

941 pandora

535 ellice at rock bay landing

[Nparker]

i noticed that victoria has now quietly become home to 4 of the province's 20 safe injection sites....

And 3 of them within 2 blocks of each other. 

[Cassidy]

I get the miserable and somewhat helpless depths of despair most of these folks have plunged themselves into ... but the over the top pandering to junkies seems to have a pretty solid track record of simply encouraging even more of them to venture into the COV to enjoy the excellent care and attention paid to them here ... along with the great residential opportunities.

 

The hard working, but currently unemployed single mother of two kids should have it so good.

[spanky123]

i noticed that victoria has now quietly become home to 4 of the province's 20 safe injection sites.

 

https://www.islandhe...ption-locations

 

and the island is home to 9 of the 20.

 

victoria -

 

 

844 johnson

713 johnson

941 pandora

535 ellice at rock bay landing

 

Have the % of overdoses dropped? (Hint that was a trick question)

[A Girl is No one]

Excellent article that describes Seattle’s dealings with homelessness. Obviously what city of Victoria is emulating.
https://www.city-jou...le-homelessness

« four ideological power centers frame Seattle’s homelessness debate. I’ll identify them as the socialists, the compassion brigades, the homeless-industrial complex, and the addiction evangelists« 

Edited by A Girl is No one, 26 December 2018 - 07:33 PM.

[Sparky]

^ This is a must read for anyone who has been following the "homeless crisis". Well written and seemingly factual. Some of Christopher Rufo's findings or statements are quote worthy. Thank you Agino.

 

Examples

 

"But no amount of money will make any difference until we correctly diagnose the problem and focus on practical solutions, not utopian dreams."

 

"While ideologues denounce various villains who “cause” homelessness—capitalists, landlords, racists, computer programmers—the reality is that homelessness is a product of disaffiliation."

 

"Seattle, in particular, must stop spending nearly $1 billion a year to “solve homelessness” without clear accountability and visible results."

 

"There’s nothing compassionate about letting addicts, the mentally ill, and the poor die in the streets."

[Victoria Watcher]

that's quite a read. 

 

seattle spends $100,000 per homeless individual every year. 

 

 

More rigorous academic studies in San Francisco and Vancouver suggest that 40 percent to 50 percent of the homeless moved to those cities for their permissive culture and generous services. 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 December 2018 - 06:08 AM.

[spanky123]

that's quite a read. 

 

seattle spends $100,000 per homeless individual every year. 

 

 

 

If only they would provide housing they would save $100K a year per person... wait didn't we do that?!

[LJ]

^Of course it did, just look at the much reduced calls for the police, we should be able to cut the force in half.

[Midnightly]

If only they would provide housing they would save $100K a year per person... wait didn't we do that?!

 

 

yup we did.. housed hundreds... and what did it do to the homeless count numbers? they went up!

[Victoria Watcher]

The three cities experiencing the highest number of illicit drug overdoses are Vancouver, Surrey and Victoria.

• In the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, other residences (46 per cent) were the most common place of fatal overdose followed by private residences (38 per cent).

https://globalnews.c...service-report/

 

good thing we declared it a crisis in 2016.  still hitting record numbers.  beside opening a record number of safe injection sites and flooding the streets with naloxone kits what have we done?  we've gone from under 400 deaths per year to 1400 since 2014.

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 December 2018 - 08:22 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Victoria recorded a total of 85 illicit drug overdose deaths between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, according to new figures from BC Coroners Service.

This figure ranked Victoria third overall in the province behind Vancouver with 361 deaths and Surrey with 195 deaths during the same period. In fact, Victoria has held this ranking since 2008.

Province-wide, 1380 people died of illicit drug overdoses between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, with figures for December not yet available. By way of context, 2008 saw 183 illicit drug overdose deaths. The three years with the highest recorded number of deaths are from 2016 to 2018.

https://www.vicnews....ria-reaches-85/

 

 

victoria had 85 deaths. saanich and langford did not make the top-15 as both had numbers somewhere under 20.  richmond with a population of nearly 200,000 also not in top 15.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 December 2018 - 08:45 AM.

[Nparker]

Is anyone willing to admit that perhaps the current approach isn't working?

[Mike K.]

Fentanyl would not be in the drug supply if the users didn’t demand it. It’s not exactly a secret that fentanyl laced drugs are more popular than non-laced supplies and drug dealers supply what the market demands.

The safety nets that have been established in recent years create a greater degree of certainty that an overdose won’t be deadly so we find ourselves where we do. Would fentanyl be as popular and prevalent in the supply if safe injection sites, naloxone and the rapid response of medical personnel were not factors to the degree that they are? Maybe that’s what should be studied, the unintended consequences of removing the stigma surrounding drug use. Could it be that having done so has been a dismal failure and we’re witnessing that failure through a literal explosion of deaths?

Granted, there would be a staggeringly higher volume of drug related deaths if we didn’t have the safety net in place that we do but it’s obvious there’s a chicken and egg relationship here and I believe it’s time that it is explored.

[spanky123]

Fentanyl isn't new, it has been used as a recreational drug for 40+ years. Overdoses aren't new either.

 

What has changed is that more people are dying from overdoses in some cities. The cities with the highest %'s of overdose deaths seem to be the ones which provide safe injection sites and stigma free use. 

Edited by spanky123, 28 December 2018 - 08:54 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

from the seattle article:

 

As Scott Lindsay, the city’s former top crime advisor, reported to former mayor Ed Murray: “The increase in street disorder is largely a function of the fact that heroin, crack, and meth possession has been largely legalized in the city over the past several years. The unintended consequence of that social policy effort has been to make Seattle a much more attractive place to buy and sell hard-core drugs.”

 

https://www.city-jou...le-homelessness

 

nov 2018:

 

Simple drug possession generally isn’t enough to attract much police attention anymore, Chief Del Manak told city councillors Tuesday

 

https://www.timescol...says-1.23511692

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 December 2018 - 09:01 AM.

[Rob Randall]

Fentanyl isn't new, it has been used as a recreational drug for 40+ years. Overdoses aren't new either.

 

What has changed is that more people are dying from overdoses in some cities. The cities with the highest %'s of overdose deaths seem to be the ones which provide safe injection sites and stigma free use. 

 

Clearly, the big difference today is the huge number of what we might call "regular people" dying of overdoses. This is new.