Numbers of addicts and drug deaths will increase if issue not addressed
By Lethbridge Herald on May 11, 2024.
Editor:
I am really not sure if politicians are switching to woke because the votes are good, or they legitimately do not know what they are doing, so any vote will do?
Recently, a B.C. minister said that the intention of legalization possession was not to make people feel unsafe in their neighbourhoods, parks etc.
Ah, yes it was! Just like applying a catch-all to drug addicts called the “homeless” has the intent in the end to move drug addicts and crime into the same neighbourhoods and parks if the feds get their way! Why the charade?
Media is proclaiming the Alberta and B.C. plan a failure. No idea why that is a surprise. Deaths will increase every year as more and more deadly drugs are circulated.
The numbers of drug addicts will increase every year as the public is perceived to accept them for what they are! That is also fact!
There are only “two ways” to prevent drug addiction and thecCirculation of drugs. The first which has failed miserably, is remove drugs from the addict!
That includes removing drug dealers etc. We know from the past that does not work!
The second way to prevent drug addiction is to remove the addict from the drug Supply.
Let’s not put lipstick on this pig any longer – you either do the first way or you do it the second way!
Choosing any other way, results in more drugs, and more drug addicts!
Outlaw the use of drugs in every city in Canada. If you are found consuming drugs, you will be removed from that city/town to a facility on the outskirts where services are waiting for you.
When an individual (Broward County Florida) can stand in front of news media and state he has no intention on rehabbing and you look down and can see the bones in his fore-arm you know hat playing “Miss Congeniality and washer of feet” leads to a dead addict with clean feet! If that is your plan, its working!
So lets call a spade a spade: continue with the ill-thought out plans of absorbing drug addicts into the neighbourhoods of Canada or downtowns of Canada under the guise of homelessness and you won’t be a politician for long! You will be doing what B.C. is doing which is backing down to save cities and neighbourhoods!
Dennis Bremner
Lethbridge
17-16
There’s not much use trying to deal with drug use and abuse if the bottom-line social determinants of them are not dealt with in the first place, in a proactive manner. Poverty happens to be one of them, although drug addiction can be no lover of persons. There doesn’t appear to be much acknowledgement of the drawbacks of an unequal society though, overall. Folks with a good education, gainful employment, a roof over their heads and being able to afford adequate nutrition are less likely to get into the addiction/crime trouble. A hand up in this regard would be pound-wise, not just the attitude of ‘get off your butt and help yourself.’ The defunding of education, particularly post-secondary education, is a red flag and a precursor of negative things to come.
The extreme differences between the haves and havenots on the Indigenous reserves and a very deep dive into the imbalance of the power structures therein, might be a good place to start.
Perhaps more, how the top 1% for wealth in Canada hold more than 20% of the country’s total net worth needs to be revisited. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives are guilty of propagating this, thus, generating poor wealth distribution. Successful countries like many of the Scandinavian countries know how to do successful equal wealth distribution, and still allow for individual wealth. Their citizens feel that they get good return on their taxes. They have the happiest societies in the world…..’happy’ folks get into less trouble.
Some good points Dennis!
Yesterday afternnoon, evening I witnessed a lot of young people on our streets downtown, new faces who must be town for some event and saw many drunk or high, some visibly high on opioids by their stance and looking like they were only 15 or 16 years old, but dressing like and acting like ‘gangstas’ from New York city. Sad!
Organized crime has been allowed to flourish under the liberal progressive ideas that state that police should not be involved and thank God that leadership across North America are waking up, realizing what a mistake this was and bringing law enforcement back into the equation. You may not be able to arrest your way out of the problem, but you can dramatically reduce drugs on the streets and the senseless loss of lives and ruined families!
It will be much harder now that the cartels and organized crime have further embedded themselves into society including impacts in Lethbridge, and instead of the Mexican Mennonites bringing in large volumes of toxic drugs into southern Alberta, we have seen the cartels increase relationships with the US Blackfeet tribe in Montana, who use the Canada Blackfoot tribe as conduits to bring even more toxic drugs into our region. This is nothing new! Indigenous have been smuggling tobacco, guns, illegal drugs, people into Canada using their reserves for decades back in middle and eastern Canada.
How can a people stop the crime and corruption in their communities when organized crime and gangs are so prevalent? Then they say they are doing something by banishing the small drug dealers from their reserves and boarding up the houses so they rot, making it now a Lethbridge problem, how does this help?
How many young Blackfoot kids are left to die on our streets and/or Calgary and Edmonton streets? Is it worth the money that is made by drug smuggling to lose generations of your people?
Sadly I have heard from first responders recently in conversations that we will never see an end to this crisis . . . it will always be here!
I disagree! I have hope! I see positive change!
I see leaderhip changing and realizing we can end this crisis and make it manageable, seeing only small numbers of fatal overdoses per year. We will never end addiction issues altogether, but we can dramatically reduce it with efffective treatment programs and return to the ‘Say No To Drugs’ programs and firm law enforcement, which can include more drug courts . . . Not enabling and encouraging young in their addictions!
We can do this! But many have given up and believe it is the norm now!
It is not the norm yet!t. . .Stop it! . . . Stop it from killing off all our youth! . . . Stop it from bankrupting our support programs needed so that those funds are redirected to enable and encourage addicts to continue in their addiction. We will see more programs cancelled such as the Seniors Abuse program if we do not end this!
BC pumps billions of federal, provincial and municipal tax dollars into non-profits annually who do not treat or focus on rehabilitation, but on supplying all the paraphernalia needed to do drugs, social programs to support by food/clothing/tents, SRO’s, 50 supervised consumption sites, etc., with only a fraction going for treatment.
How much is the safe supply program costing the taxpayers? The failed safe supply program!!
In BC, your 12-17 year old child will be able to go for 2 step consultation for a free prescription to do safe supply opioids (stronger than heroine), cocaine, meth without you, the parent been advised or consulted. This is, or is being put into legislation!
Seriously . . . where do you draw the line! We all have a choice what type of city we want to live in! We can end this carnage if we stand up for our city!
We can to this if there is a will!
Appears to point out a number of uncomfortable realities that I’m not sure the wisdom and cooperation among the various parties exists to address.
It appears as though this summer will see a marked increase on all aspects of this conflict..
organised crime flourishes wherever bogus drug laws make naturally cheap drugs into expensive drugs, and safe drugs unsafe.
Since you like doing all those free drugs I would suggest you move to BC where you can get free prescribed opioids, cocaine, meth and supportive housing, with free clothing, food and other support services.
Go enjoy your drugs and have a nice life there!
i am hopeful you have more intelligence and maturity than your entry suggests? ditto to the one(s) that give it a positive.
Mr. Bremner: were drugs in BC “legalized” or “decriminalized”? There is a significant difference.
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022MMHA0029-000850
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/overdose/decriminalization
Legalized possession decriminalized usage as long as it remained a “personal amount”
I agree there is a difference, but we may be splitting hairs or word smithing. Legalizing possession made it so police cannot arrest you for having X grams in your possession. Decriminalizing suggests that you will not be prosecuted while using said drugs.
An important opinion on the issue!
https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/bcs-horrific-experience-with-drug-decriminalization-a-warning
if we legalised natural drugs (those that grow and are not processed and/or require minimal processing) such as coca leaf and opium, we could ensure quality control, and affordable pricing. thus, we have far few overdoses and addictions issues.
societies forever have been able to deal with “drugs” – be it mushrooms, peyote, coca leaf, opium poppy, cannabis, coffee….the issues all arose when control freaks decided to control the rights of others to their body, and/or, to exploit these substances for massive profits. as any sane, non-brainwashed person knows, the vast majority of users do so without issue. today, our issues revolve solely around highly synthesised, highly processed poisons…much like our societal “sugar” addictions (not natural sugar via the likes of fruit, but processed stuff like fructose, glucose, liquid invert sugar…).
btw – please note how suckered so many had been on the bs propaganda – underwritten by govts, no less – that cannabis is a “gateway” drug. laughable, but sick. and, imagine, vilifying a drug and criminalising people, and stealing away their right to their body, because a “drug” is too weak, thus it leads to “harder drug” use…boneheaded masses.
Whew, back to disagreeing with biff. Totaly against legalizing any drug like he mentioned including pot. And yes pot is a gateway drug if used in abuse and easy for younger people gain access to, harder drugs would be worse yet. Have seen those go from pot to harder drugs because they want a bigger buzz. There are enough poison out there so why make it easy to add more to the list for those that chose to do so. Quality control makes no sense if abused. Like good quality rum makes it less addictable when drank by a gallon at a time? Water can kill you if drank in a large volume.
I know biff you are a crusader for decriminalizing drugs period. The problems you do not forsee are many, and when I say many, I mean many. Drug Addicts won’t be happy with decriminalized or safe drugs, why? Because they are ALWAYS looking for the newest and best thing on the market. Govs could never keep up with the newest drug on the market or its effects. So the moment a newer, higher, longer lasting drug appears, the addicts go for it.
Thats the point of the Broward Example in the article. Crocodil has been around for years it has Xylazine in it. There are addicts who have no skin left on their arms, legs, back, bones exposed, flesh rotting and they will not rehab.
So the concept of decriminalizing is a red herring that stinks as bad as the rotting flesh. When you decriminalize, society then has to be responsible for all the effects of these drugs because after all, you decriminalized them?
So suddenly court cases appear where a fellow had his arm amputated and he swears he never took a drug with Xylazine but used your “approved” drugs and he wants $4million for pain and suffering. So if there are “boneheaded masses” out there, I would have to suggest you run for the leadership
to jim, dennis, and pursuit..et al: so that i can be clear –
1)pot is not and has has not been proven to be a gateway. there may be a link between people willing to take personal risks, including flouting a law that has no business being a law – trying to tell a person what they can and cannot do with their body – but there is nothing that proves pot use leads to addiction with any other substance. simply put – there are those that are willing to explore beyond what a third party says thy can, and those that will not. meanwhile, go a head and google away on whether pot is a gateway, and be sure to read whatever you drum up all the way through.
2)to vilify pot for being too weak is ludicrous – it is an example of how easily and fully the masses can be and have been suckered…on so very many things, too. moreover, were pot a gateway, then we would have unimaginable numbers of hardcore addicts, according to your outlook ever seeking out the most nefarious synthetic “drugs” out there. that is not the case. pot users do not even seek out processed drugs such as cocaine and heroin with any significant rate of addiction.
3)you each seem to focus entirely upon the worst examples of additions, rather than acknowledge the reality that the vast percent of users of personal med choices are able to do so responsibly. we now have lifetime users of various substances, that includes a cross section of highly intelligent, artistic, and athletic people that demonstrate consistently how each can choose their preferences and at the same time uphold respect for the rights of others.
4)we will agree that the addictions that hit our streets prove to be a challenging affair, as they often infringe upon the rights of others. the most likely difference between they the great minority and the the great majority that are responsible users and contributing members of society is that addictions have most everything to do with spirits broken by the likes of unresolved trauma and a lack of consistent mental/emotional functioning. moreover, these addictions have nothing to do with any drug natural to the planet and natural to human dna. hence the further issues. consider as a parallel peoples that have had no longstanding experience with alcohol and the effects upon them relative to the bodies of peoples that have had alcohol among them for thousands of years.
5)the crimes related to hardcore addictions are most due to theft to support expensive habits, and, to: unresolved personal/mental/emotional issues; synthetics and also refined substances, whereby the artificial product or natural form of the product has been altered such that the human system no longer is able to recognise and interact with product in a healthy and natural fashion.
6)supplanting the street poisons with cheap/free quality controlled clean drugs in their most natural states will reduce addictions over the long term, will pretty much eliminate theft related to supporting addictions, and will greatly reduce poisonings and overdoses.
You cannot get much purer than the opium which China was flooded with during the opium wars! I would suggest you do some more research on your rant because it lacks support of any tangible proof.
The opium wars blows your ‘theory’ out of the water, obliterating it! All drugs are foreign to the body and all have for the most part, negative influences.
You can always find a few out of the man who have positive results, or those who use prescribed drugs to mask issues, or take away pain.
Pure opium is highly addictive and the China opium wars showed how it destroyed society!
The medical community is now realizing the cannabis is not the wonder drug was once thought to be.
Sad people need to do drugs to hide from the world and escape reality. What sad lives you must have!
indeed, and this underscores my point about politicizing/criminalising drugs. chinese society was hardly affected by opium before the colonial power used it as a way to control and undermine.
Oh please, the issue is you are blaming everyone and everything for your addiction and not being able to get what you think is the answer, which is pure drugs. The Chinese had pure opium and look what it did to them. If you are not happy here move to Vancouver where you can do all the drugs you want, anywhere you want on the taxpayer dime! I am tired of your Colonial BS. Grow up and take some responsibility for your own actions and quit trying to drag things up the happened hundreds of years ago!
Lethbridge is on lands agreed to in treaties that is not Indigenous land! I could bring up the savagery in which the early settlers, men, women and children were raped and slaughtered.
The Indigenous think they own the world, even made claims of the Moon! Too much peyote and bad drugs! Agreements were made, those agreements were bad for all parties, but unlike areas in BC, Lethbridge is no ceded lands!
Again, if you like your drugs so much, go to Vancouver!
” ….Opium had long been valued in China as a medicine that could ease pain, assist sleep and reduce stress. By 1840, however, there were millions of addicts across the country, largely sustained by illegal British imports……”
Yan Fu, a scholar and newspaper writer, wrote at the time: “Their lives fall drop by drop into the opium box, and their souls flicker away in the light of the opium lamp.”
your entry here and very often elsewhere very often exudes racism and general ignorance.
so as not to repeat all i have said, i will say one more time: ‘drugs” have grown among pretty every society on the planet throughout the ages. “drugs” have never undermined a society; rather, they have helped to medicate, and to enhance spiritual experience.
as for suggesting i am an addict, and it further seems you see me as a native (which does not bother me per se, just that you tend to make incredible leaps of inference) – how do you get there? then you go off on first peoples throughout the world, as though they all are the same. newsflash: no colour/ethnicity are all the same, nor are those identifying as christians.
drugs that have grown on this planet over many thousands of years are not foreign to the body. as to whether they are deemed good or bad for a body is moot given that a person gets to have final say as to their body. we each have our preferences, outlook, and conscience, and however else one decides for themself has no bearing on how another decides.