Stop Shooting Up Or I'll Shoot

The CBC has reported today that Vancouver Police intend to start arresting heroin users who shoot up in public. On the surface this sounds like a no brainer. But what are the alternatives? Are there enough treatment facilities? Is the single Safe Injection site enough for the thousands of users? Is this the direction Vancouver will be taking with the election of the NPA?

Well, at least they're being consistent. New Mayor Sam Sullivan is being scrutinized by the VPD for his own admission that he paid for drugs to feed an user's addiction. All in the name of "research" claims Sullivan.

In its one year report, the Safe Injection Site, officially called Insite, officials claimed to have saved 72 users from death. The report also says a total of 262 users have been referred to addiction counselling and another 78 were referred to withdrawal management programs, such as detox.

But Insite has only been open for two years, and since it cannot administer the drugs, people who need help shooting up are out on the street.

Dr. Anita Palepu says, "addicts going through withdrawal can't wait in lineups at the site" and she fears the crackdown will prevent them from being treated for communicable diseases. She also fears that they will be displaced into outlying communities where attitudes and treatment differ.

"Inspector Bob Rolls says the aim is to steer addicts to the injection site", but it is my personal experience that you can't simply force people into recovery, they must be able to enter of their own will. Anything otherwise will be felt as though one is cheating the system by using again, as opposed to cheating your self.

It is my opinion that further criminalisation of drugs is futile. The US style Drug War is failing miserably. This will undoubtedly create more crime, not less, as users now have to face the prospect of jail time. The war on poverty is equally a failure. Initiatives such as The Safe Streets Act are an act of class warfare, as the act's architect Lorne Mayencourt was the only member of the Parliament to vote against repealing a wage increase for MLAs. Combine this with accusations that the VPD have been illegal red zoning, where police ban street people from certain parts of the city, using beatings and threats of beatings; and breaching where people are driven outside the city and forced to walk long distances back.

We have seen this kind of behaviour before, namely the preparation for Expo 86. We are seeing it now in preparation for Vancouver 2010.