Years into a drug overdose crisis, Canada is facing backlash against government-sanctioned programs such as legal injection sites designed to keep users alive without curtailing drug use.
The British Columbia government has walked back a pilot project to decriminalize small quantities of illicit drugs in public places in the province. Police there also are prosecuting activists seeking to make safe drugs available.
And the man who may become Canada’s next prime minister, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, has said he wants to shut down some sites where users can legally consume illicit drugs under supervision, calling them “drug dens.”
The backlash reflects growing fears in Canada over the use of narcotics in public spaces, encampments where drug use is seen as common, and the specter of needles in playgrounds. Some critics of the so-called harm reduction programs see a rising number of overdose deaths in Canada as evidence that existing measures are not working.
But public health experts worry that dialing back the programs would endanger the health and lives of drug users, contributing to even more deaths.
Usually they decriminalize because that is easy and then they don’t follow up with the increased support services.
Then it’s all shocked Pikachu when nothing changes or it gets worse.
This looks like more of that.
Here of course, step2 is whinging by the cons and even decriminalization is killed.
And who pays for cops to stop and frisk for a half a gram? Why, everyone pays. That’s some smart spending from a life-long outsider.
If you think Conservatives are going to pay for cops and courts and jails, I have a bridge to sell you. Oh, they’ll talk a good game, but they won’t spend a red cent.
Conservatives represent the rich. The rich can ignore this problem because they live and work in places where they’re rarely, if ever, affected. They can afford to let the problem get really bad–especially when they’re making bank on real estate and paying record-low taxes–so why would they pay for more cops or judges?
Maybe we’ll get private prisons, but the US has shown that those actually cost more money, and it still doesn’t address the gaps in the court system. Doug Ford could partner with Galen Weston on No Frills-branded prisons, where you can use your Optimum Points for, eg, smokes or rations, and even then it’d be a hard sell because other rich people aren’t going to pick up the tab for the taxes needed to fund it.