Rezoning bylaw prompts concerns
By Letter to the Editor on August 19, 2021.
Editor:
Once again it seems Mayor Spearman and his gang of enablers (Campbell, Carlson, Coffman, Crowson, Miyashiro and Parker) are at it again. Foisting yet another half-baked plan, full of unspecified objectives, on a public that is losing patience with substance abuse schemes, is not aging well. A few concerns about the Bylaw 6275 for redevelopment and Bylaw 6276 for rezoning:
1. Who filed the request for rezoning?
2. Where is the accompanying documentation for the request including impact studies, analysis and reports showing this will be in the public interest?
3. Why is this process being hurriedly pushed through when there is so much sensitivity around the issue of supervised consumption sites which these changes will facilitate?
4. Where is the public consultation process ensuring that all affected areas of the community are being heard rather than just the mayor’s inside voices?
5. Where is the plan detailing the desired outcomes including what the components will be, how they will be implemented, and what monitoring and metrics will be in place to ensure the desired results?
These are the same batch of actors involved in producing “SCS” The Original.
These bylaws will set the stage for them to produce”SCS” The Sequel. Nobody should expect a different outcome the second time around while the details are kept secret. If experience is any guide, this latest initiative will not achieve what should be our collective objectives: Reduce addiction, reduce crime, increase treatment, and increase public safety.
If this is the best our city council can produce in the way of problem solving, we need a change. It’s time to clear the decks and free up those councillors who cannot be counted on to do the right thing. Voters might even insist they follow the mayor out the door to carry on with their life’s work elsewhere.
Your concerns do matter. A public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 24 at 4 p.m. at City Hall. All citizens can participate with a written or verbal submission. Information on how to participate is available on the City of Lethbridge’s website.
Dale Leier
Lethbridge city council candidate
14-13
Well said! I have a letter into this paper as well. No idea if they will publish it but this merry go round has to stop.
The only people who believe an SCS actually work are the ones employed by it. The only people who state that SCSs work are those that directly or indirectly benefit from it. So you will get Hospitals to say they work because they lessen the work load they have. You will get Doctors who are part of the rehab process to say they work because they financially benefit from this totally inept and costly program that turns out poor success rates
You also get Newbie Drug Creators/Meth Labs to support SCSs and say they are great because they use the SCS to test out their latest batch. They give a freebee to a Naloxone Group Type and see if he walks out, if he/she does, the batch is good, if he/she is carried out lifeless then start a “New Batch”!
Naloxone Users will also say SCSs are great because they take Death off the table and they can “Really get crazy with mixing what they consume”.
We do this, we destroy cities, we tolerate the thefts, crime and the optics for a 1% success rate from less than 2% of the people who live here? So to put this in perspective, we have 200 Naloxone users that will use an SCS. We will kill the “Community of 100,000 Residents of Lethbridge” to host the 200! Of course they will say Rehab success is higher than 1%, really? Then why do you stop tracking addicts after 1 year, Why do you report success rates immediately after rehab is done? I know why and soon so will Lethbridge! So 50 people enter Rehab, and 20 make it to the last stage of rehab before the year is done, then when 5 pass you report 25% success rate?? That’s great math but Joe Public Paid for 50, you have 5 pass, that’s a 10% success rate. Then after all the supervised part of Rehab is done you do not report success rate after the second year, why? I will tell you why, because 70- 90% failure rate after 1 year. Why do you not report your success in clear numbers? So suddenly 50 becomes 1 or 2 and suddenly you are recruiting the failure for “another go at it at $100K a pop. Why do you report Addicts success mixed in with Alcohol and Other addictive substances?
I will tell you why, because success at AAA and Glue/Gas Sniffers are relatively high. So you wash your failed numbers in Drug Addiction into the other two groups in hopes no one notices.
It is why you parade your successes without letting ANYONE know how many failures it took to get those successes. So if you parade around 20 success stories, why not tell us that we paid for 1000-2000 addicts across Canada rehab programs to get those 20. Then in the second year where the highest failure rate is, why not tell us how many of the 20 are left?
I again will tell you why, each rehab failure equates to about $60-$100,000 leaving taxpayer pockets going to someone else’s pocket. We can have an addict loop through their system 5-6 times and its a money making machine for a select group! Follow the Money!
Its really too bad, that the general public do not investigate this con, but of course if you stand up to the con, you get called a Killer, and an uncaring person. Its just to Socially UN-Acceptable nowadays to out con artists, better to believe the BS then challenge them, all part of the New Society of entitlements! This is how Dr. TailFeathers goes unchallenged (except my letter to this paper) where she claimed 91 of her people have died “because Lethbridge SCS closed! A total fabrication that has no basis in truth except the listening bleeding hearts who would kill this city if given a chance! https://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/letters-to-the-editor/2021/06/23/lethbridge-deserves-an-apology-for-comments/
Is this program any better than the program of 50 years ago? NO
What did we have 50 years ago? Nothing. Addicts either died, managed their addiction, or quit!
Today, we have a program that relies on an addict either dying managing their addiction or quitting($100k please)! Wow what a leap? Success rates of 50 years ago are about the same as todays success rate unless of course you talk to the Bleeding Heart Nut bar that thinks he/she is making a difference.
Why are there more deaths today then in the last two years? Easy answer but the Nutbars will give you a different story. Here is the real answer. Border was closed, that choked off a clean supply, A meth addict sat there and said Geez, I can make this crud on a Coleman Stove. I can spike it with Horse Pain Killer and make a fortune, addicts started dropping like flies. Solution, try another batch with less Horse Pain Killer!
Don’t answer this post with the term homeless, that’s Spearman’s Con! I have no issue helping the homeless! I have great issue helping someone who spends $3000 a month augmented by every child’s bicycle and a families private property! Big Difference! but, this clown council doesn’t seem to understand the difference! Hopefully the new council won’t be as uninformed as this one!
Just to be clear, do you really think that those medical professionals who see value in the supervised consumption site model hold that view because (a) they want to reduce their workload (in ER’s I presume), and (b) for financial gain?
Medical Professionals (not front line workers)are the people that have decided obesity is now a disease. The Medical Hierarchy is into relieving people of personal responsibility and they take on that responsibility for a very specific purpose. I will let you guess at what that is.
The lower echelon of the Medical World like Doctors and front line workers have to cope with COVID and various other emergencies. So most ER professionals support the “Medical Professionals” position on SCSs because it gives them time to deal with the already hectic overload most ERs endure.
To give you an example, I and my wife were in the Emergency Room because of a personal emergency. While waiting for our turn (about 2.5 hours) we watched 6 ODs appear at the doors, with friends screaming that their friend was dying and for everyone to drop what they were doing and deal with the Addict.
At best its a zoo in the ER here as its a never ending onslaught of ODs and hysterical hallucinating patients. I admire what the front line workers do and respect their tenacity and resiliency.
So what I am referring too, is ERs do see a benefit to an SCS, because SCSs administer naloxone, and then call Ambulances. Ambulances can and do bring the person back, reducing ER visits by one for every OD they see .
Everything else an SCS represents is at best a Con and is a breeding ground for people looking for a free ticket to the Pearly Gates. An exampIe is the SCS claimed “thousands of live saved”. Yet when it closed thousands did not die. In fact the numbers were literally the same, before and after the SCSs existence. The reason “thousands were saved” was because the 100s of users decided that if death is off the table then lets go nuts on concoctions and experimentation.
I have watched SCSs from the days they were called “Fix Rooms” (50 years ago) in Europe and the only thing they provide is safety to consume and that encourages experimentation because Death has been taken off the table. It creates irresponsibility and abuse of drugs by the addicts they serve. An SCS is no different then any Drug House in Lethbridge. The person in charge is generally the dealer, in our case it was someone making $343,000 a year. The Drug House has 15-20 house guests and has a vested interest in keeping them alive. He will deliver Naloxone if needed and call an ambulance. So why are we formalizing something that naturally occurs? Is it to create another Clubhouse like the last one? Give more white people a job? What’s the purpose other then to make every one working there feel oh so goodie inside? Does it make the addicts life better, NO! Does it make him/her take more risks? YES! Does it make them enter rehab quicker? NO! So other than promote a clubhouse that saw addicts rise to unheard of levels in Lethbridge because we had an SCS, what does it do? It does allow groups like MSTH to start another shuttle service to bring addicts to Lethbridge and promo the hell out of something that destroys a city! Have you noticed that crime is down(10% according to COP) and the numbers of visible addicts decreased after the SCS shutdown? That was not coincidence!
If you believe in the theory that Rock bottom must be hit before an addict will be convinced to rehab. Then removing death just makes his/her life easier because the only thing they fear more then death is Rehab.
If you do not believe that Paragraph above, walk down to the Soup Kitchen and get to know a few of the addicts. But make sure you talk to those that have the need for Naloxone at least 2-5 times a week. It is abundantly clear that they fear Rehab more than Death. They treat Death as a side effect and Rehab as Death. So now knowing that is Portugal a success? They have gone from 10% Naloxone Group to 50% which means they have enabled more addicts to take more drugs….cuz they can, and, they have more people in the “Pending Death Group” then they ever had!
Thats why, ANY interference in the decision making process of an addict seeking help, lessens the odds of success significantly. It is why we spend far more money catering to an addict and the results are the same as they were in the 70s. The more you interfere, in their decision, guarantees the $100K loop, which works really well for those on the money earning side of that loop!
Feed, clothe, house an addict and he will never reach rock bottom. He can 100% focus on his addiction and if he is too busy to use toilet paper he will use his coat, after all, he knows a Do Good Organization will always give him another one! So where is Rock Bottom now? Tough Love? Nowhere to be seen, and so the hard core addicts increase everyday and we are helping to create them!
You have provided more than enough information, albeit in a rather long-winded and rambling form, to adequately evaluate the basis for your statements.
I tend to get in as many issues in one statement as I can. The LethbridgeHerald will and can stop allowing comments on an issue. You never know when that might start.
Numbers Manipulation- X people died in Lethbridge, then First Nations people break out the numbers of people who died across Alberta that are indigenous, and says 91-94-100 people died during period Z and Y people died in Lethbridge. The People that want an SCS then add X and Y together when they know they are double counting. X included everyone. The First Nations people take X determine whom were indigenous and then report “their total”.
So SCS supporters purposely go out of their way to inflate deaths, and Dr TailFeathers goes out of her way to blame ALL deaths in Alberta in a given period on the Lethbridge SCS closing. So you have to double and triple check everything these people say.
SCS supporters then use percentage increases to scream WE NEED AN SCS. So during the last year there has been X % increase in deaths in Lethbridge. But if you then go to Calgary, Edmonton etc where they have fully functional Bricks and Mortar SCSs, you find they had X% increase in deaths as well. Which tells you SCS stop nothing.
An SCS caters to at best 10% of the drug population of a city. They want you to believe that given time they will cater to all addicts. That has never occurred since the inception of Fix/Consumption Rooms. The people who manage their addiction and/or participate in drugs during weekends and work during the week, would not get caught dead at an SCS.
So, SCSs cater to 10%, no one caters to the other 90%. When the Death numbers come in, they scream they could have prevented deaths, they cannot, and do not!
The Life they saved in the SCS by administering Naloxone is being saved by their drug buddy on the street who administers Naloxone. The 10% of the drug addicts that attend SCS do not attend SCS every time they shoot up. So there is a 50% chance that an SCS attendee will die when not attending the SCS to shoot up.
Now couple that with the 90% who will Never Attend an SCS and what you have is a debateable 2-4% of all deaths could have been saved if the guy/gal had chosen to go to the SCS as he had in the past.
So if there are 50 deaths in Lethbridge. 80-90% are from people that either have never attended an SCS and just got a bad dose and another 10% are people who decided not to attend the SCS the very time they OD’d and died. Leaving about 2% that might have been on the street but chose to use the SCS and got saved. Those are statistics I am willing to argue. 2% of 50 is ONE PERSON.
At the Peak of Lethbridge SCS they had 164 Clients. Out of what they had told City Council was in excess of 1900 registered drug users.
So the Plan by all of the SCS supporters is to try to get you to believe they could have saved all 50 which is total garbage and they know it and I can prove it! Statistically the number is closer to 1 or perhaps 2!
This is why MSTH and other SCS supporters do the “Even if One life is saved, its worth it”. That really depends on whether you want a safe and secure City, or one that caters to the many addicts SCSs attract and the net result of the ensuing chaos and crime? This is where the cruel cold hearted person accusations arise and why they package it as “We’re Savin Lives here” as if “We don’t care what we do to your city, we are doing Gods work”( at $343,000 a year)!
So now you have to ask yourself the tough questions. Do you let these people install an SCS inside the soup kitchen building, attract more addicts from outside of Lethbridge, increase the crime rates, the chaos it creates, the stain on the image of this City it leaves, and import more Drug Dealers to satisfy the demand it creates, for 1 or 2 people per year? Remembering of course that 1-2 people relies on “right place (SCS) at the exact and precise time”
This council allows a brick and mortar SCS in Lethbridge and I predict LAPS will spend alot of time keeping Galt Gardens clear of vagrants/addicts and the net result is every little park in the area will become the new nesting spots for our newly acquired permanent residents. MSTH will restart their shuttle service and there will be addicts “everywhere”! Then once attracted here the same group will DEMAND HOUSING for a problem THEY CREATED! They won’t be able to handle it, this time. So new Council will be stuck with a major issue. How do we tell justify buying a hotel for the People that this group invited here?
We might as well start labeling Galt to 5th North DTNS Lethbridge, just like DTES Vancouver. Once you start, there is no turning back, so this council better think long and hard!
When Residents become complacent special interest groups take charge. What do you want for your Lethbridge? These people are deciding for you! https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/mobile/alberta-advocacy-groups-sue-province-over-harm-reduction-changes-1.5555049?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+New+Content+%28Feed%29&utm_medium=trueAnthem&cid=sm%3Atrueanthem%3Actvlethbridge%3Amanualpost&utm_source=facebook
If I was Government I would take them to task on their numbers, its the weakest part of their argument and always has been.
How do you argue you can save all the lives when only 8.5% of the drug population will use your service and 91.5% will never use your services? Now, determine how many die that are not part of your 8.5% and I can easily demonstrate you are saving 1 or possibly 2 AT BEST!
Mr. Bremner,
There is a great line from one of my favourite short stories, “A River Runs Through It”, that I think applies to this and many of your posts. Young Norman shows his father, a Presbyterian minister of Scottish extraction, an essay he has written. The father reads the child’s work and makes some corrections and edits. Then he hands the paper back to the young boy and says: “Again, half as long”. Those, are words to write by.
When you have a group or groups that want Lethbridge to be the Southern Alberta Rehab facility and will alter, adjust and create numbers to support their position which will destroy Lethbridge, brevity should not be your point! Full explanations of how and why these numbers are fabricated are needed! Whether you like it or not, some people just cannot comprehend easily how this is being done and what their agenda is!
SCS people do not like people like me, I do the research and know they are committing a con! I also know why they are doing it, so its easy to spot smoke and mirrors from a mile off.
I want my posts public because I am forecasting what is about to happen. Lethbridge is NOT prepared for it, I have done my part!
“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.”
— Aristotle
https://www.lethbridge.ca/NewsCentre/Pages/Rezoning-Application-Withdrawn.aspx
Sorry to see you’re against saving lives, Dale. Not what I look for in a City Council candidate.
Council “Candidate”: Don’t help people in need…especially if they aren’t white and middle class!
Same person: I don’t understand the development and land use process, but I’ll spout off anyway and try to sound intelligent and non-racist