Someguy again

I was reading something today about a centre in Vancouver's infamous drug areas (the most cases of drug problems in Canada) and that its a progam of support and outreach workers giving out small dosages of heroin and cocaine for addicts to inject in themselves to get their daily fix. I find it interesting, what's you thoughts about it?

I think its a great way to get rid fo the middleman, which is the drug dealers by breaking the drug traffic cycle where its produced in pakistan/afghanistan, shipped to eastern europe, then produced and trafficked across the world. With the canadian governement probably buying the heroin straight from Pakistani farmers and giving it out in outreach progams like this for free makes dealers in vancouver quickly die out. even with statistics that crime rate (stealing) and OD rates are going down after a few months this program opened up.

few of my classmates in the support worker program is moving to vancouver to work there, and also thought about having a program like this in toronto

'trane

i assume you are talkin about the safe injection sites.

not only does it cut out the middle man, but it also reduces hospital stays, reduces petty crime (people don't have to steal to support their habit when going through withdrawal) and it connects them to a safe and supportive service that can help end their dependency.

strongly in support of this.

Ligeia

InSite is a wonderful success story that the Conservative Party utterly ignores. I, too, would like to see one in Toronto but that's a tougher sell than in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

LX

There is one in Kitchener isn't there? It's unfortunate that communities need to become desperate for this sort of thing before it happens.

Someguy again

I don't think this is a desperation move to stop the increase of addicts, but a great alternative where the positives far out weigh the negatives, a desperation move would be 'cold turkey' treatment sort of thing.
but I would gladly have one in Toronto just because anything that lowers the crime rate is good for me

LX

These tend to be located in areas where the numbers of addicts are pretty much out of control. So communities become desperate enough to accept controversial alternatives, although they would actually be a good way to prevent huge problems in the first place, before the problem is seen as being completely intolerable. It's just too easy for people to look past the positive aspects until they get an inkling that they might be effected if the problem is ignored any further.

Benzo

There is one in Toronto.....Leaslieville area I think.

Actually might just be a place where you can get clean needles...no inject

Ligeia

There is only one safe-injection site in Canada.

Rob Ford will never allow one in Toronto. When it was being discussed back in 2009, he came out and said some very stupid things about a feasibility study being started at the time. It should also be noted that the drug issue in Toronto is a bit different than in Vancouver; in Vancouver, it was already fairly concentrated to a particular region of the city.

Harper wants to close InSite in Vancouver. When the BC RCMP and the BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS wanted to come out with a joint statement saying "These studies are showing that there are positive benefits", the BC RCMP was instructed by Ottawa to immediately disengage.

LX

I guess the Ontario programs are needle-exchange only