If anyone has any doubts about this, perhaps comparing the TSX today to the D.J. will provide the correct answer! :lol:
Here is an article illustrating that LIE-berals are aiding and abetting drug addicts in their destructive lifestyle. One has to ask if some tough love- such as forced treatment to deal with the ugly withdrawal symptoms that addicts so often want to shun. With some comments of my own in brackets):
Addicts fed their poisons — but safely — in public park
By Sue-Ann Levy. Published: November 20, 2017. Updated: November 21, 2017 8:34 AM EST
Filed Under: Toronto SUN/ News/ Toronto & GTA
TORONTO — It’s the perfect setup for hard-core addicts. There’s a special tent for crack smokers.
There’s another tent to provide safe injections of illegal drugs like heroin, fentanyl and opiates and handouts of Naloxone (an antidote for opioid overdoses) — the tent now winterized with the generous assistance of the health ministry.
Overseeing the “military-grade equipment” that provides heating and lighting are two staff with the ministry’s emergency medical assistance team (EMAT). Cost is unknown at this point because the “deployment is ongoing,” says Laura Gallant, spokesman for Health Minister Eric Hoskins.
(In other words- they are hiding the costs and trying to decide if keeping the “emergency” operation going into spring will offend the public?)
Ministry contractors also provide 24/7 security — not for those adults and children who might want to use the public park — but to protect the “assets on site,” says Gallant.
(Oh- small kiddies and addled addicts? Sounds like a great mix!)
On Monday afternoon, CUPE Ontario — feeding into the hug-a-drug-addict mentality — also announced it was donating a winterized trailer to the trailer to keep the volunteers warm. Agh.
A discarded needle on Bond Street just blocks between The Works and Moss Park. (STAN BEHAL/TORONTO SUN PHOTOGRAPHER)
Let’s not forget in the midst of all the hyperbole about people dying on the streets, this is a public park used by families in what is becoming slowly a gentrified area of spanking, new condos.
When photographer Stan Behal and I recently arrived 15 minutes before the 4 p.m. opening time, we were given a quick tour as the makeshift tents and supplies were set up and then politely but firmly asked to leave the public park before the clients arrived. (They’re open daily from 4 p.m.-10 p.m.)
Sarah Ovens, a social worker by day and volunteer with the Moss Park Overdose Prevention site by evening, said they’re seeing between 30-40 clients in their injection tent and about 30-60 per day in their “smoking facility.” Many are homeless or come from the nearby shelters, she said.
They also distribute supplies — clean needle, crack smoking and Naloxone kits — to “hundreds” daily.
“I think we’ve been hugely successful,” she said, contending they’ve reversed 94 overdoses in 95 days.
“We’ve supervised over 2,000 injections … we’re able to keep them safe and keep them alive,” Ovens added.
We've supervised over 2,000 injections ... we're able to keep them safe and keep them alive
Sarah Ovens
(But have they done anything to stem the tide of dangerous addiction?)
She said they plan to be there as long as junkies require their attention or until they are able to move the site into the neighbouring Fred Victor Centre — which would be funded to the tune of $500,000 by the health ministry.
As noted, these are all volunteers who already have day jobs. Aside from the health ministry EMAT team assistance, they get no government money, having raised their funding online through donations.
But the problem with this whole operation is that, like it or not, trendy harm-reduction efforts essentially keep addicts alive by continuing to feed them their poisons, but safely.
I will no doubt be attacked — as I have been in the past — for suggesting that it is not only enabling illegal drug use but an entire industry is slowly but surely thriving. Those now part of the harm reduction industry, like the homeless industry, do not really want addicts to get off the street because it would mean no work for them.
(There are schools of thought that suggest that both criminals and addicts can be scared straight- but that will not happen in our happy homeless world of poverty pimps and free give aways of everything from food to drugs!)
When I asked Ovens whether they talk to the clients about rehabilitation and getting off illegal drugs, she said somewhat abruptly: “We have all kinds of conversations with people … we talk about all sorts of things with them.”
(Yeah- I bet most conversation is about best places to get drugs! Its not like hord core addicts have jobs to gossip about!)
Dramatically increased provincial investment is needed in a drug treatment program
John Tory
(I suggest that drastically increased police activity to prevent drug production and smuggling would be better! In the course of searching for drugs we can expect that cops will also find guns and stolen credit cards and other stuff!)
She said sometimes people are interested in learning about detox facilities and she, given her experience, can help them navigate those resources. But she left the impression that happens only if addicts ask.
Mayor John Tory, who has permitted the illegal site to continue since August — even three legal ones will be open this month — contended his key focus is on “saving lives” which can then be rebuilt.
“These sites alone will not solve the drug problem, in particular. Dramatically increased provincial investment is needed in a drug treatment program … which are far too few in number,” he said.
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who is vehemently against harm reduction, said Monday it is never safe to encourage people to take drugs.
“We’re on the verge of experiencing something we’ve never seen before,” he said. “The amount of government money being spent encouraging people to take drugs– instead of trying to get them off drugs — is unprecedented.”
Slevy at postmedia
(I tend to agree. All manner of people laughed when Cartman on South Park tv show mocked “crack hoes” for degrading themselves in exchange for drugs and yet our govt caters to crack addicts who desperately need a new life- and not to be aided in staying stoned in the old one! LIE-beral minded politicians never saw a vote they did not want to buy- no matter the price!)