Insight on InSite

Isn't that a lovely title? Why didn't somebody else think of it?

Insite is the safe injection site in Vancouver, on East Hastings street where injection drug users can use drugs in a clean, safe environment under the supervision of clinical staff. The idea is to reduce the dangers associated with injection drug use, such as being exposed to dirty needles.

As to be expected, our minority conservative government is not pleased about this. They want to shut down Insite, and they would, if they truly believed that they would survive the political fallout. They are going to wait for a majority government, so they can impose their misguided ideology that drug addiction should be treated as a criminal justice issue rather than a health problem.

OH so what if we are saving lives, reducing the spread of disease, and preventing school children from being exposed to needles on playgrounds. Allowing safe-injection to exist and be subsidized by our tax dollars is sending the wrong message! The right message is that drug addicts should be hidden away in dark alleys or better yet, locked up in jail. If we don't see them, they don't exist. That, gentle reader, is the right message. So what if we have been doing this for years with no reduction in the number of drug users? We have to send the right message!

The right message is that disease and poverty are the appropriate consequences of drug addiction. Does it matter that the addict may at some point overcome their addiction and make their way back into mainstream society? No, apparently not.

This is just one of many reasons that we better hope and pray* that we do not get a majority conservative government. The last thing that Canada needs is four more years of those clowns.

*For the record, praying makes about as much sense as writing a letter to Santa Claus.