People still dying despite efforts to address addictions problems
By Lethbridge Herald on July 1, 2023.
Editor:
As we continue to argue over which approach is the politically correct one, we continue to see that none are working. NDP scream UCP wrong, yet the NDP program in B.C. is a disaster. The UCP believes that everyone will rehab if given an opportunity but that’s also a dud that failed in Europe. So what we do is we argue, or better yet, we get to watch the eye-rolling of the higher learning of Lethbridge.
We get people using terms like “evidence” as if it is a “proof.” We make comments like SCSs save lives! Anytime you can supervise an addict is one less time he/she can die. We use this as “evidence” that SCSs save lives!
Let us suppose we could train a monkey to stay with an addict 24/7/365 and could recognize an overdose, and administer naloxone and call 911. We then could say “monkeys save lives.” In both cases anytime you are with an addict, you are reducing his/her odds of dying.
So unless we come up with the ability of producing a cold weather monkey, then its easy to say that we are going to permanently need to assist addicts, permanent, is “forever”!
All political parties treat this as if it’s a solvable thing! If only they were in power they could clean this mess up once and for all! The facts say otherwise, yet we treat our downtowns as if this is a done deal soon!
How does society co-exist with a group that, as a byproduct of their addiction, intentionally destroys that same society, and will do so, forever!
That is the question that no one wants to answer! The political/religious answer is to sacrifice society, to fix addiction. We create the “Savin Lives-Killing Livelihoods” dichotomy that no one wants to address.
Why are addicts dying in Lethbridge? We shelter them with immediate access to dealers. We scour the streets nightly to find those OD’ing, so they can be saved! We slap the wrists of dealers when caught, we slap the wrists of the addict when committing a crime, and we release those who did jail time into the same drug infested pit?
No one wants to make the hard decisions, just appearing with another old, new idea is obviously enough! The “highly educated socially acceptable eye rollers”? Well, they continue to unite, and 56 addicts die in Lethbridge!
Dennis Bremner
Lethbridge
13-12
Well said. The powers that be have it set up to fail. But never mind the jobs and money keeps rolling in. There is an OPS and more set up at the shelter. But instead many still die blocks away (near their dealers) or in government sponsored,council and nonprofit approved death traps called SROs. If this is someone’s idea of God’s work, are they ok with it, as long as it is not near their house?
Only 23% of the Alberta fatal overdoses were in public, the rest where they resided.
You are correct . . .We need to treat this people first and Safe Consumptions Sites have people walk out and die closeby, they give a false sense of safety/security, and in this case that means a LIFE !
What evidence do you have that these people die after walking out of a safe consumption site? As opposed to taking contaminated drugs unsupervised and having nobody to administer Narcan?
Some very good points Dennis, but I would like to suggest that Europe is very different . . . they don’t have the largest Indigenous community in Canada next to them, with 3 others in close proximity that impact our city directly. I am not going to get into why the addiction and crime issues are and have been for decades very high in these communities, but they are, and until change is made in the homes of those communities, they will continue. When someone is problem, they banish them or at least evict them and they end up on our streets which I call the killing field.
Alvin Mills had a plan to get some of them off the streets this summer, while we wait for the treatment beds and new legislation the UCP promised to come online . . . for this summer at least, they should have funded his camp by Kipp. I believe he has looked at how to improve some of the issues from last year and it would have helped some . . . He asked for $120,000, but was refused . . . instead we see over $660,000 put into a playground in Galt Gardens, the epi-center of the addiction issues where security doesn’t work in the winter and not overnight, so the playground will be fair game for the criminals/addicts to destroy and graffiti as they have the rest of the park and downtown.
Note that the BC government has had 20 years to prove that harm reduction and safe injection sites work and proven by example in those years that it is a failure. The BC government keeps making exuses why it is not working, blaming drug supply and even criminal charges creating a stigma to addicts . . . laughable if it were not such a serious problem!
The UCP plans were hampered by the NDP’s harm reduction programs which increased the issues and made it hard to turn around. It takes time to build the infrastructure and staff the new treatment centers and I know that the Compassionate Intervention Act will work and save lives.
Harm reduction enables them, falsely thinking they will make the right decision, for now we need to give them all the drug paraphernalia and places to do the drugs that kills them. Part of harm reduction also demands less police involvement . . . so here we are now, the results of less policing and free and open drug use which has dramatically increased organized crime numbers, gangs and the related criminal activity: human trafficking, prostitution, drug dealing/labs, gun and weapons trade, stolen goods brokers,vehicle chop shops and on and on.
It sent the message that doing drugs is okay! . . . Okay? I see 25 year olds walking around like they are 80 years old, with sores from the drugs and hunched over and/or limping.
In what sane world it is okay that we stand back and allow them to slowly kill themselves in this manner?? It is evidence we have slid into the abyss and no longer care about our people . . . they are expendable.
Alberta is on the right track but it takes time, but we need to rebuild our police after harm reduction/defund the police crowd and get these people into treatment however possible and . . . YES you can force a person to be successfully treated and I have seen it in the US!
We need to get back to what worked and has worked before . . . firm policing against drugs and drug dealers and effective treatment programs following by job placement. We need a justice system the is not afraid to put these people away and penal system that works, instead of a correctional/penetentiary facility that has safe injection sites inside . . . how are the drugs getting into a ‘secure’ facility . . . people go in not addicted and come out addicted . . . more insanity
Transaction takes time, especially to reverse the damage done by the NDP harm reduction and it would have been nice if Alvin Mills camp, which was trying to to get people off the city streets away from the city killing fields, into a camp by the river where they could detox and talk about their addictions and issues which caused the addictions as a pre-treatment detox while the new treatment centers were online.
We need all hands on deck!
Why do we now have all the bad drug supplies? . . . we do know that addicts want that extra buzz that is in those drugs and if people are overdosing, they want that drug so the get that buzz, but why would dealers/manufacturers not want their addicts to live so they can sell more drugs to them? Do they believe there is an endless supply of people to get addicted? Does China who supplies most of the precursors for these drugs to the cartels and illegal drug labs in Canada just trying to weaken our country? Are the gangs moving in trying to kill off the competition?
No one knows . . . This year has been one of the worst in Western Canada and Lethbridge, impacting all of those provinces, increasing fatal overdoses.
Here is last years totals showing the provincial populations, number of safe consumption sites/overdose prevention sites, fatal overdoses and per capita numbers to compare.
This totals from 2022 show that we are on the right track.
If Safe Consumption Sites (SCS) worked then per capita numbers should be lower in BC with all the sites and in MB and SK the numbers per capita should exceed BC’s 4.2.
Population of: No. of SCS/OPS’s Fatal OD’s 2022 = Per Capita
SK, 1,214,618 1 450 3.7
MB 1,360,000 0 450 3.3
AB 4,600,000 7 1630 3.5
BC 5,399,118 0ver 28 2272 4.2
Yesterday morning got up early to do some early grocery shopping. Found half of dumpster of garbage strewn all over the covered parking area, syringes and areas where they urinated, one area was all over the doors of the entrance.
Police could do nothing because they are tied up with other crimes that rightly so take precidence.
That evening around midnight with addicts hanging out all over the block across the street and by Petro Canada, there was one young male with only his shorts running around high banging on things and trying to damage one of the yellow parking pedestals by Vital Aire, as he kicked and hit buildings and windows along the street he moved along in a ‘happy’ dance. Another one was crossing 6th avenue south by the Petro Canada, walking kitty corner, oblivious that he was walking slowly along a busy avenue while traffic had the green light.
Then a fire broke out in the back yard of the only house on that block, surrounded by businesses, watching a tree go up and the flames spread in that backyard I called the fire department, concerned with all the fuel and a senior who was probably asleep not knowing that his home could soon be in flames. The fire department came, put it out and part of the fence was also burned so they went the extra mile to help the owner, who was now awake, put some wire fencing up that a neighbour had given them. A great neighbour and a dedicated city fire department.
Where were police in all of this? Understaffed and off in another area of the city looking after other crimes that supercede the constant addicts actions in the downtown core, higher on the priority list and it isn’t their fault but their leadership’s fault and the city council’s fault for cutting $1.4 million from their budget a couple of years ago. Counciil fell into ‘defund the police’ sheep!
Now wait, that isn’t all: over an hour after the fire department arrived and were finishing their great work a Battalion Chief’s pick-up was now on 6th street with his spotlights on a female with a knife threatening to stab a male, who were both gang members, for some unknown reason. That fireman probably prevented a stabbing by remaining in his vehicle, observing, while trying to get police on scene.
Firemen now policing because we don’t have enough police to protect the people of this city.
This was all observed downtown within 2 hours, with no police seen, marked or unmarked.
Don’t blame the constables, look at leadership! Look at council! We as citizens are promised a safe and protected place to live and that is not happening! Money is blown on revitalization which has failed along with gentrification in Vancouver DTES and will fail here. You cannot build something to push out addicts, they will still be there or move closeby. Vancouver DTES or the East Hastings encampment was right across from million dollar investments made that were supposed to push out the addicts.
You need to treat them and you need to enforce the laws that already exist.
This is not Calgary and it isn’t Edmonton and just because they have all the issues doesn’t mean we need to have them here. We have a choice and we still have a chance to reverse the damage done and get these people off our streets. Leadership needs to understand this. That is why I am against bringing in outside leadership who have not grown up in this city and understands it and it’s citizen’s.
Our addicted homeless (which is 90% of our homeless) are committing crimes (remember?… the drugs they are consuming are actually illegal), never mind the vandalism, violence and Insanity that goes with drug use. One way to clean up the crisis and fast is, totally omit the ‘middle man’ who has No success and is costing us millions and billions nation-wide. RECOVERY or JAIL (and without SCS’s). Their decision. Lethbridge needs only safe, sober/with Abstinence transition housing. SRO’s rate of death for substance users is 72% and as high as 87% in some locations. That is not the answer… only another non-profit curve ball for it seems our Council to close their eyes upon. Has anyone seen a home lived in by users?? Not pretty. So much damage (and quickly) that home owners have actually lost their homes. So City Council/Admin…when nothing changes, nothing changes. Matters only get worse and costs the citizens more.
PS Great article! Where can I purchase a Monkeys Savin’ Lives t-shirt? Perhaps on the other side we could add ‘Chicken’s with their heads cut-off Savin’ Lives’?
Some very good points/facts! Vancouver DTES has placed SRO’s a priority over treatment for years, putting ‘the cart before the horse’ at a high cost in lives and tax dollars.
The greater Vancouver DTES spends over $400 million on over 260 non-profits for social and housing issues and only 1/3 of that is from donations, the rest is on the tax payer. BC’s fatal overdose stats are similar to Alberta’s when you look at fatal overdose locations in one area with 25% of fatal overdoses in their private homes which include SRO’s or single resident occupancy. They tried SRO’s in the YWCA, which included an safe injection site and there were several deaths in a short time before they ended their ‘experiment’.
The greater Vancouver DTES is only 20,000 people. This has been ongoing for years so billions have been blown just in this small area of Vancouver.
Imagine if that money would have been put into effective treatment programs how many lives would have saved and how many families would not have been devastated!
The highest number of fatal overdoses happen where the person resides whether it is in a shelter, SRO, long term hotel, home or apartment.
SCS and OPS sites have zero impact and ask police how many people were dying or police gave Naloxone to within a block or two of people leaving the Lethbridge SCS when it was operating.
A person may look fine, but within an hour they could overdose after they have moved around and there is increased blood flow. People HAVE died in these sites in Alberta and BC, but I have heard very little reporting.
“How does society co-exist with a group that, as a byproduct of their addiction, intentionally destroys that same society, and will do so, forever!”
Careful Dennis, your inner fascist is showing.
Please provide this YQLDude with a dictionary. Even though there are free online dictionaries they can use, he/she has demonstrated that he/she does not comprehend the English language and does not know the definitions of vigilante and fascist in comments.
It is clear that he/she is a part of the movement that is tearing apart the very fabric of this nation, which helped shape it into a free and democratic nation that is respected all over the world and is now being torn apart by their socialist and progressive ideas.
While I’m sure this will be wasted on you, but in case someone interested in learning accidentally stumbles into these comments, it’s worth looking into the properties of fascism put forth by Umberto Eco. Fascism is internally contradictory which makes it hard to define, but there are some common properties that are usually present.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism#Umberto_Eco
A few of these 14 properties stand out in the many, many, many words on this topic spewed out in these letters and comments:
1) “The cult of tradition” – there’s no new learning around addiction, it’s all futile, all we can do is repeat the war on drugs from the past
2) “The rejection of modernism” – new knowledge represents a descent into depravity (“society is being torn apart by progressive ideas”)
4) “Disagreement is treason” – anyone who disagrees or presents facts or reasoning is “part of the movement that is tearing apart the very fabric of this nation”
5) “Fear of difference” – people who live different lives than me are scary, dangerous, and bad
6) “Appeal to a middle class” – “regular people are just trying to lead their lives, but are being oppressed by the addicted”
7) “Obsession with a plot” – the people in these comments are afraid of Galt Gardens, they’re so convinced of the nefarious evil of the “other” that they can’t even go to a park
10) “Contempt for the weak” – addiction is treated as a personal failing deserving of contempt.
13) “Selective populism” – we the people are taking back our city from the addicts – you claim you represent the will of the people while writing off anyone who disagrees
In short, “fascism” looks a bit different each time it appears, but people commenting here sure check a lot of the boxes.
Lol. Wikepedia. About as reliable as Global.
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Spot-Fascist-Umberto-Eco/dp/1787302660
You’re more than welcome to purchase the source material. Personally I felt that a summary was more helpful than “buy a book”.
Ah yes, another case here of Cannabis-itis this poor Dude suffers from.
Marijuana over activates parts of the brain that contain the highest number of these receptors. This causes the “high” that people feel.
Other effects include:
·
-altered senses (for example, seeing brighter colors)
·
-altered sense of time-changes in mood
·
-impaired body movement
·
-difficulty with thinking and problem-solving
·
-impaired memory
·
-hallucinations (when taken in high
doses)-delusions (when taken in high doses)
·
-psychosis (risk is highest with regular use of high potency marijuana)
·
-worsening symptoms in patients with schizophrenia—a severe mental disorder with symptoms such as hallucinations, paranoia, and disorganized thinking.
Cannabis-itis has been overlooked during this opioid crisis but we can see how it impacts the minds of so many!
LOL
“While I’m sure this will be wasted on you”
Called it. Can’t educate someone that will respond to a well respected Italian political theorist with a weird rant about cannabis of all things.
1) “The cult of tradition” – there’s no new learning around addiction, it’s all futile, all we can do is repeat the war on drugs from the past
Ans: Vancouver is one of the longest pieces of failure in Canada and the world. The new learnings as you suggest has resulted in what we see today and yesterday. Whatever new learnings have been learned, has resulted in more addicts coming in per month then “graduate per month” into sobriety. So the culminations of learnings is a failure, period. Here is a new learning example “addicts deserve a home too”! Suddenly SRO’s appear, Gov pays the rent, the rental agency makes bundles of money and resultant “evidence” was instead of 95% of Addicts dying on the street where “WE” could have access to them. 75% die behind a closed door Single Resident Occupancy Unit (SRO) What do we do? We hail SRO’s because “thats where the money is”! In fact if you raise this statistic, you get an eyeroll in unison because no one wants that evidence to see the light of day. So the day, I see SRO’s go the way of the DoDo bird, I will think maybe someone actually does care? Savin Lives? How about starting with that “learning”? Lets work together, NO SRO’s for Addicts in Lethbridge, PERIOD, because after all you care right? Who would pass up a chance to save 75% of the people every month, right? Remember, if you are not winning, you are losing.
2) “The rejection of modernism” – new knowledge represents a descent into depravity (“society is being torn apart by progressive ideas”)
Ans: The new knowledge is being developed through failure. Generally new knowledge that is developed through failure is last ditch resort thinking. So when failure is imminent, you justify handing it out for free, safe supply, putting them in SRO’s when you know full well up to 80% die there. This is neither progressive or new knolwedge. When a failing system is desperate it tries to pass desperation on as new knowledge and attempts to justify it as progressive when in fact it is regressive.
4) “Disagreement is treason” – anyone who disagrees or presents facts or reasoning is “part of the movement that is tearing apart the very fabric of this nation”
Ans: Disagreement is labelled more as being a heartless bastid. I have been accused of wanting people to die, or that I do not care. So disagreement is only treasonous to those that believe they are doing God’s work and you are getting in their way of reaching the pearly gates. If you disagree with SRO’s you get push back from the money earners! Why? Its evidence you have produced, one of the reasons you treat Disagreement as treason is because you are selective on your evidence. The selection of the evidence you support somehow has another group making more money from the addiction. Strange eh?
5) “Fear of difference” – people who live different lives than me are scary, dangerous, and bad
Ans: If “difference” was the only issue, then it would not be a concern. If “your difference” is you establish gangs, you knife and shoot people to establish territory, if you rob, mug, and B&E, if you defecate and urinate on public property, if you live “differently” and destroy others opportunity to enjoy a park they paid for. Then the difference is to far from a societies norm. If, you live like a pig because you feel you are entitled to defecate where ever you want including your own tent. Then I believe that society has a right to put you on a different track or a different place and rule sets developed for those that have mental acquity issues. This does not apply to the homeless, only addicts and mentally challenged.
6) “Appeal to a middle class” – “regular people are just trying to lead their lives, but are being oppressed by the addicted”
Ans: There are no rules that suggest that an addicted person has to live like a pig. There are periods of sanity that could make their stay less visible to the tourist and public. The addicted choose to live like pigs because they believe there are no rules for them. An encampment would not have to make people fearful if it was clean and free of feces and needles.
7) “Obsession with a plot” – the people in these comments are afraid of Galt Gardens, they’re so convinced of the nefarious evil of the “other” that they can’t even go to a park
Ans: People fear for their safety. People like yourself observe Galt for what it is during the day. During the night it becomes a different place, it is then published, and they then have no idea if the same things happen during the day.
10) “Contempt for the weak” – addiction is treated as a personal failing deserving of contempt.
Ans: Addiction is not treated, PERIOD. Addiction is catered too, it is served. It is allowed to flourish and expand on the basis that one day, an addict will have enough and decide to rehab. When an addict is good and ready, is the moment we react. Until that time we cater, enable, provide, and allow destruction. Where does this “evidence” come from? From the bleeding hearts that fabricate the evidence! This is why when someone does rehab, he/she is paraded around as a token. It is why MSTH and LOPS both tried to stop Health Cards.
There is a simple answer and both origanizations could have proposed it. Fingerprinting at the door of any SCS, or food kitchen, or free service. The reason both organizations with “the system” do not want tracking is because it would show less than 1% of rehab peeps, succeed. That is the “evidence”, that is the “proof” that would show complete and utter failure!
13) “Selective populism” – we the people are taking back our city from the addicts – you claim you represent the will of the people while writing off anyone who disagrees.
Ans: Selective logic. It is actually those that serve the addict that do this. You eyeroll, you package your assistance as “caring” making the opposite, NON CARING. You produce evidence that is not evidence at all. SCS’s save lives? What a crock, you know it and I know it. Its not the SCS that is saving lives it is the one on one catering ($25 please) on every visit. The more you can watch an addict, the less likely to die. So you insist a swill hole like an SCS is evidence?
Conclusion
Not one person in this city will debate me publicly. They the (Scholars of higher learning and the “caring”) are afraid of logic and common sense! They just ensure every time my name is mentioned an eyeroll ensues. Or, state, he has no shingle of higher learning! 30 years living with it, is no experience at all, right?
Common sense is escaping society, it is why young people risk their lives taking a picture on the edge of a cliff, its all about the clicks, common sense? There is no common sense! The measure of success changed as soon as someone was willing to pay people for being idiots. Your one liners only last so long, and then suddenly you are exposed for the lack of common sense you display with your comments. You distort other peoples point of view so your “Caring level appears to be higher than another persons caring level” . Caring is not enough. If I were to tell you that in 10 years from today we will have X times the number of addicts in the downtownl. You may disagree but any failure of the system is immediately awarded to the Governments and “the people” who never do enough. Its never the stupid “treatment system” we have instituted. So people die, others make money, and we destroy cities catering to the system.
If they only had a home! Is the battle cry, and 80% die there, is this savin lives?
In my 50 years of observing addicts this holds true.
If the reason an addict does not rehab is because there are no beds, then as soon as there are beds, then its because he/she is not ready to rehab.
If an addict does agree to rehab. 9 times out of 10 it is because he/she is exhausted and needs a break where they can get their “sea legs” again. 2-3 weeks later they quit rehab and you say “he obviously was not ready yet”. Meanwhile “evidence” has shown that the number of addicts (not homeless) increases every year. So you have more coming in then going out. So Society never sees your end game! Why because you do not have one, period! Once Government is no longer in the way of rehab. Then rather than confront your failure, you then insist “safe supply” , “legal consumption”. These are the stages of failure, not success. This is no longer keeping an addict alive long enough to rehab, its keeping an addict alive to ensure the highest return on investment.
This is where the Con begins, you wrap up your strategy in a “Caring Blanket” and market it to the city you are about to destroy. It is why I got a chuckle from the Chief of Police. His answer at the time to our situation was “If you think we are bad, you should go to Kelowna, they have it BAD!
I chuckled to myself because Kelowna was exactly where we are today at one time. I have no doubt the Chief of Police in Kelowna said “If you think we have it bad, you should go to DTES Vancouver! Now, they are one!
Debate? If I hold my breath, I will die. No one wants to debate common sense because evidence and the “proof” is, you lose!
Nobody wants to debate you publicly because your fact free hateful ideology is currently where it belongs, in the shadows. You respond to the principles of fascism by doubling down on your hatred and othering. Relegated to long rants in a comments section to be amplified by people who hate the way you do. This is more platform than you should have, and it would certainly be irresponsible to give you more.
I find your comment short sighted and one liner-ish again. Why not address SRO issues as I stated? Why not address the fact I am the only person working with the indigenous of the Blood and have a proposal that everyone agrees on.
When a proposal like mine removes money makers from the downtown its considered “hateful ideology” when people profit from the suffering of others its considered “caring”! As I have said, NO COMMON SENSE!
When the Okanagan Fruit and Veggie truck is set afire at Nutters its just harmful fun right YQLDude, nothing to see here, right?
Name calling again? There are many facts on this page,lived experience and common sense observations. It is only your opinion that it is all hateful ideology.
You are free to write a letter to the editor, as Dennis Bremner has done and stand behind your opinion with your name on it.
“Nobody”, who is nobody? In guides to straight thinking, using “nobody” is out of a grade 7ers playbook or not considered very logical for an argument.
Where is your proof that “nobody wants to debate you”?
YQLDude,I think you are reacting quite emotionally to Mr. Bremner’s original letter. If you reread it I think you may find that because of your emotional panic reaction you are lossing some of the comprehension. In his original letter he is finding fault with the byproducts of addiction(not people) and the efforts to address addiction problems or approaches used by the 2 political parties. Finding fault with the solutions proposed and their outcomes is not hate. There is plenty of factual data on the current, on the ground outcomes. In my opinion, emotional panic whether from isolation of the realities or whatever, only adds to the lack of the outcomes we all hope for.
I don’t think name calling is the basis for an intelligent argument,at least unless you were going to offer something else? Like ideas? Like some solutions? Some direction?Some info to share? Anything, but just name calling any grade 7er can do that? Your sentence structure suggests at least grade 12 or some college? Surely you discussed current affairs in some level of schooling? Did you get an “A” for just calling names of those who you don’t agree with?
Pointing out fascism when it appears isn’t name calling. All throughout history the threat of fascism is present whenever people blame their problems on a perceived “other”. Rather than accepting complicated systemic issues that unfortunately have complicated systemic solutions, fascists blame the immigrant, or the addict, or the minority. Someone with little power to fight back so they provide an easy scape goat. Hating those people doesn’t solve the problem, but it makes you feel better temporarily.
But sure, you want to know what that complicated systemic solution is? There’s no magic bullet, nothing as emotionally satisfying as blaming and hating. Our social safety net has unraveled ever since Ronald Reagan ushered in the neoliberal order. Low taxes, corporate regulatory capture, the individual over community. The failed idea that individual people are stronger than a united society. The decline in organized religion as people say “me and mine first, what need have I for a loving community”?
The answers are hard and expensive.
1) Investing in our healthcare systems, providing recovery beds for all who needs them (it’s hilarious that we talk about involuntary treatment when existing treatment programs have waitlists just for people who want to go!).
2) Regulating the drug supply – a doctor should be able to prescribe fentanyl that’s just as safe as the insulin I get from the pharmacy. Why do I deserve safe access to the drugs I’m dependent on while addicts do not? When I’ve stopped taking medications in the past I have a doctor to help and guide me through the process and the side effects, why not our addicts?
3) Available housing – this covers everything from better shelters (a bunch of gym mats on the floor is not a homeless shelter, it’s an embarrassment), to public subsidized housing, to long term fixes to the housing crisis like ending restrictive zoning and sprawl to build more efficient, cheaper cities. More apartments, more row houses, more condos.
4) Income support – people are vulnerable to addiction when they fall through the cracks in our society, if you can’t work because of a health condition, or caring for a family member, or an inability to find a job you’re qualified for, eventually you run out of options and end up on the street. Programs like a basic income, or better unemployment support could provide a list ditch stop gap.
Ultimately this all comes back to the widening inequality in Canada. Bloomberg reported two days ago that the gap between the top 20% of households and the rest is increasing faster than it ever has. Richer Canadians take more and more of the pie while everyone else gets squeezed every tighter. And as we squeeze, some people fall through the cracks and end up on the street, vulnerable to addiction. We can’t fix anything by hating those people, only by hating the system that put them there.
So what is your answer to these “facts”.
My answer is that “ewingbt” is not very experienced with statistical analysis. Divorced from trends and other data, this means very little.
As a fun example, here are some real graphs showing the issue with simply correlating two numbers and drawing conclusions.
https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
Why does “ewingbt” not include Ontario in that chart for example? They have many consumption sites and far lower per capita deaths. What other factors are at play in BC (hint: average home price)? How many of those deaths were connected to safe consumption sites? He/she claims that people leave the SCS and then die, is there any evidence for that… or did he/she just make it up? If the people visiting the SCS aren’t the ones dying, then maybe the access to the SCS is the problem.
In short, the world is more complicated than someone lying with statistics would have you believe.
So the stats are made up. Got it. Refute this.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid03rJiXxL8MsVhrysA1CM78wqbU9C2Z53MbyuF6CzhnoQe1EPdNy5z6tFQZqRWpcjil&id=100004290919315&mibextid=qC1gEa
You clearly don’t “got it”. The stats aren’t made up, his/her analysis of them is just wrong.
And I’m not sure what you want me to refute – that’s a good initiative and I’m glad it’s happening. The UCPs ideology is leaving a lot of helpful tools on the table, but that doesn’t mean everything they do is bad – the fact that you think I need to “refute” every word out of Danielle Smith’s mouth says a lot about the way you view this issue, and it’s not a great look.
Far better than what was being done. So where do the stats come from that were interpreted wrong. As of now that is your opinion.
up to 80% die behind closed doors in an SRO. Those that live in SROs do not frequent SCSs. Why not try to solve the obvious problem first. Of course I know why, but some here may not, so please explain?