Wednesday, May 23, 2007

What's Next - Back Alley Abortions?


According to NatPo, the Harpies are taking the first, tentative steps back into the Dark Ages. Their opening salvo will be to cancel funding for safe injection sites where addicts can obtain clean needles to shoot up.

The idea behind the clinics holds that it's better, for a number of reasons, to provide a facility for intravenous drug users.

One goal is to cut down on the rate of HIV/AIDS from contaminated needles shared by junkies on the street. Another is to draw them into a place where they can get information and counselling if they want to quit. Another nice little benefit is not having to worry about stepping on those used needles on our sidewalks and in our parks. It strikes me that measures that reduce the incidence of the spread of HIV/AIDS are probably worthwhile but that's just my opinion. Not so say the Harpies. They claim the safe injection sites are tantamount to the government facilitating illegal drug use.

A peer-reviewed (i.e. "legitimate" for you Harpies) study in the London medical journal, Addiction, "...concludes that Insite's opening in Vancouver's grim Downtown Eastside has led to a 30 per cent increase by facility users in entering detoxification programs.The study, provided to The Vancouver Sun Thursday, by the journal Addiction also concluded that Insite users who began detox programs are more likely to enroll in long-term addiction treatment and reduce injecting." (Vancouver Sun).

Message to Harpo. If you have any evidence that safe injection centres actually encourage drug use, let's see it. If, on the other hand, this is just another one of your reactionary, jackboot bents then be honest about it.

Gee, Steve, why do you hate measures to reduce the spread of AIDS? Is this part of that Rapture bullshit you guys buy into? There ain't no Rapture, Steve, and, even if there was, they wouldn't be reserving a spot for your sorry backside.

Hey, here's an idea. Why not promote trade with China instead of promoting AIDS within Canada?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

A UN committee on illegal drug control has reported that Canada's safe injections sites and crack pipe programs are illegal. I don't know how to post a link. You can find the article by googling "canada free press crack pipe illegal". It's the first item shown.

These programs should include research on the impact of drug use. We should also measure whether these programs achieve the desired results, i.e. reduce HIV and addiction.

The Mound of Sound said...

The UN's "drug czar" is widely seen as a puppet of Washington. I took a look at that character a year ago and from what I can recall of the guy I'm not at all surprised that he pronounced the Canadian program illegal. Guess what, we'll decide what's legal in this country, not that stooge. He's the guy who insists we eradicate all the poppies in Afghanistan and simply ignore that we'd be the best recruiting service the Taliban ever had. The Americans may have had their way in his appointment but the rest of the world pretty much ignores this guy.