After reporting that an "advocate" wants more safe injections sites in Vancouver, the Vancouver Province ran a new article today about a guy who wants free booze for alcoholics. I'm not sure if they ran the article to show how absurd the Insite logic is or if there are actually people crazy enough to support such an absurd idea. It is the prime example of give an inch, take a mile. Some people just want more no matter how much you give them.
Some people want to turn the safe injection site into a safe inhalation site where people can smoke crack in a "safe" environment. Others ultimately want us to buy the drugs for the addicts. I kid you not. Where's that money going to come from? What schools and hospitals should we close so we can buy a drug addict poison and make the Hells Angels rich(er)?
Somewhere we have to draw a line. Funding a safe injection site is like handing out a plate with a revolver on it so people can commit suicide in a safe place then rationalizing it by saying well we didn't give them the bullets.
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The feedback in the Letters to the Editor carry the same message:
Wait just a minute! Is Downtown Eastside alcoholic Rob Morgan actually saying he wants the government — taxpayers — to fund a lounge stocked with alcohol so that he and 40 others can get drunk for free?
Oh sure, there will be counselling and detox services provided with this “club,” but let’s not kid ourselves. I hardly doubt those services will be used when you’ve got a bar full of vodka, scotch and ice cold brewskies at your disposal!
Instead of enabling the addiction, why not go to AA, get sober, get a job and get off the streets!
Sarah Watts, Cloverdale
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Another goofy idea
The proposal to open more Insite supervised injection sites is just another goofy idea that will cost the taxpayers more money to cater to the never-ending problem of dealing with those who cannot take responsibility for their own behaviour and blame their misfortune on society.
I am sure Vancouver city hall will be most interested in pursuing this course of stupidity. They have a long record of doing so. Will the madness ever end?
Ian Robertson, New Westminster
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Close Insite and tell addicts to get jobs
Now Downtown Eastside residents want another Insite and a lounge to drop in and drink free alcohol.
I have a better idea. Close the existing Insite and make these people work, instead of us taxpayers paying for their free ride!
Shawn Storey, Surrey
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Can I get free drinks too?
Where can I register for free drinks?
Peter Baillie, Coquitlam
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How about ecstasy rooms?
With the new plan to create a drinking lounge in the Downtown Eastside, isn’t this getting out of hand?
We recently have had young women die from taking ecstasy and it appears part of their reason for taking the drug was weight control. Should Insite now create a club for this problem too?
Ed Braun, Vancouver
I wont rant about free crack pipes, or the flaws with free needles (mostly because I agree with your stance). However if there is going to be free booze, and that will probably lead to free cigarettes, then I think I might just quit my job, collect my $610 a month from Social Assistance, and live the high life! After all, if booze and smokes will be free, I will have TONS of money left over!
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Where will it end.
ReplyDeleteRight, 610 will put you in the highlife. Don't worry about rent, food, toiletries, heat, or the 'luxury' of a phone.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm sure it's cheaper to build more prisons and fill them up at $20,000-$60,000 per inmate per year.
These liberal solutions aren't the cure, but crack pipes and needles, hell free booze, are a lot cheaper while we try to solve things like no homes, no jobs and no hope.