B.C. Coroners Service has warned that a bad batch of heroin on the streets of Vancouver is twice as potent as normal and has resulted in more than 20 heroin overdoses in the first four months of 2011, double that of a year earlier.
The question I have is where is this heroin coming from? If most of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan, does that mean this extra potent heroin is coming from the opium fields the US soldiers are helping to cultivate and harvest? I think that is a very relevant question.
We are told that Afghanistan regains its Title as World's biggest Heroin Dealer. Afghanistan is still the source of almost all of the heroin sold in London. Well isn't that ironic?
After the war, Britain assumed responsibility for coordinating the international effort to crush Afghanistan's opium trade. lol isn't that a joke. The US soldiers are openly cultivating and harvesting opium and England has assumed responsibility for crushing the opium trade in Afghanistan.
The BBC reports that Afghanistan retook its place as the world's leading producer of heroin in 2002, after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban which had banned cultivation of opium poppies. The Americans tell us they have to cultivate the opium or the Taliban will, yet the Taliban banned opium when they were in power.
The head of Russia's Federal Service for Narcotics Control claims Heroin production in Afghanistan has grown by 40 times. Russia is asking NATO to stop cultivating opium in Afghanistan. Can you believe that?
Meanwhile back on the ranch, the conservatives are going to the Supreme Court to try and get Insite shut down. So which is it? Get paid to have the military profit from the production of opium in Afghanistan or get heroin off the streets? It's all so conflicted.
I have mixed feelings about Insite. Cleaning up the allies is a good thing. Preventing death is a good thing too. Yet giving alcoholics alcohol is not in their best interest.
The problem with needle exchanges and with insite is that as soon as you hand out free needles or have a safe injection site, drug dealers sell drugs outside. The police can't really arrest them for selling drugs when we are handing out free needles or providing safe injection sites. This is how a social program changes the democratic laws in society.
I still say we should target the drug dealers not the drug addicts. If a prolific offender repeatedly commits crime to pay for their addiction then lock them up for three months. If a drug dealer is selling crack on the street, look him up for a year. It's that simple. Enforcement is one of the Four Pillars. Harm reduction without prevention, treatment and enforcement is simply a one legged horse that goes nowhere.
Even if Insite continues, the police can still arrest drug dealers for selling drugs. Enforcement is one of the Four Pillars.
btw,
ReplyDeleteThe black door guys are stylin' as "ESDS"...East Side Death Squad.
And here I thought they used to call themselves the Regulators : )
ReplyDeletethe addicts need more than three months to star to clean up. Let them sit in jail for a year and lock up the dealers for 5 then deport them.
ReplyDeleteSounds good but where do we deport all these Caucasian Hells Angels who were born in Canada and ultimately control the drugs in East Van and Prince George where we see the most drug related violence?
ReplyDeleteLet them weed themselves out I say. Too harsh? not when these skinners got their "sick" on and end up kicking in doors and robbing/stabbing the general public to finance their next 10rock.
ReplyDeleteI agree the problem starts way higher up the totem pole than the addicts, and I would agree that the hells angels are in part, the head of the snake so to speak.
But call it sour taste, but the avenues for hitting the organized crime guys and getting the convictions are extremely difficult. At the same time, hitting the skinners (just for the drug related shit) is hard too, so they get caught by VPD with a 10rock on them? generally, they lose their drugs and get told to fuck off. OR they go to court for getting caught with the drugs and? they get 3 hots & a cot. Its not like they can be held to any fine amount because they are homeless addicts who leach off everyone else through crime or undeserved welfare.
i like some of the points of heroin talk that you have stated up top, but oviously we cant just take alcohol from the alcoholics because they will die from DTs or they will just try to shake your hand. Similarly, if we take the heroin off the streets and a violent mob will create itself so quickly mobbing around downtown rioting. lets keep the methadone programs, safe injection sites, create more healthcare jobs, and also very gradually lessen the concentration of heroin or sell it mixed with narcan ;) really fuck them up
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for people who do not understand. I feel more sorry for those that do. I am a family man. I have 4 children. I am an excellent father. I am a devoted husband. I work hard. And I have been a slave to opiate addiction for many years. If you've never experienced it, you cannot know how awful it is, and how hard it is to overcome. I have never failed at anything I have attempted in life except this. The despair I've felt, thinking, "will I EVER be free of this...?" is... well it's made me contemplate suicide more than a few times. It is blackness. It is hell, it is a world without hope. If you really want to judge, go get hooked on heroin for 6 months. Then just stop. And tell me how easy it should be for these "junkies" to "just say no."
ReplyDelete