I've written about Kevin before. The young heroin addict I found shooting up on the door step of the Yaletown apartment I was renting, while taking a summer course in Vancouver.
How I felt like I was looking at somebody dying before my eyes. How he made me laugh when he promised to give up heroin and start a new life in Hawaii or Australia. If I gave him ten bucks or a few cigarettes.
How I stared in horror at the scars and abcesses running the length of both arms. How glad I was to hear later about this great clinic.
And how I hoped they had managed to save his life, and heal his addiction.
So naturally I thought of Kevin today when I heard the wonderful news.
I was so proud of our Supreme Court and the kind of Canadian values I want to preserve so badly.
The kind of values Stephen Harper and his Cons are trying to destroy. By putting their foul vengeful ideology before the lives of Canadians.
Mr Clement continues to insist that the science isn't clearly in favour of Insite. At the CMA meeting, he said: "Harm reduction, in a sense, takes many forms. To me, prevention is harm reduction. Treatment is harm reduction. Enforcement is harm reduction."
And bowing down before the crazy words of Great Ugly Leader, and his insane War on Drugs.
"This descent into nihilism... leads to silliness such as moral neutrality on the use of marijuana or harder drugs mixed with its random moral crusades on tobacco. It explains the lack of moral censure on personal foibles of all kinds, extenuating even criminal behaviour with moral outrage at bourgeois society, which is then tangentially blamed for deviant behaviour."
Can you believe that fascist gibberish? Who can be surprised that now that he has a majority he's trying to turn us into a prison state? When the madness was always there.
Oh well. One victory at a time.
Today was a good day to be a Canadian eh?
Here's to the poor suffering junkies of the Downtown Eastside, and the human war on drugs like heroin. Here's to more clinics like Insite all over Canada.
And as usual...this one's for Kevin...
The downtown Eastside, these days, almost seems clean, now, with about 99% less needles littering the place.
ReplyDeleteBut even Insite isn't enough to help out the people looking for an out from the lifestyle of Skid Row. The few treatment centres around aren't enough, either. Six months treatment? No. The people with addictions that I've spoken with figure it would be better for these programs to run at least two years.
But the money just isn't there, cause the government has little care for the people living in the gutter. They all vote for Libbie Davis, anyhow.
hi trthomas...the Insite clinic is only the front line of the problem. A place to make contact and communicate, and offer help. I agree with you that more longer-term treatment programs are necessary. And then of course there is the larger problem: poverty. But first we have to treat people like humans, offer them safety and help, and try to prevent them from getting sick or dying. You know harm reduction. Anyone who doesn't believe in that, as far as I'm concerned, isn't completely human. Period...
ReplyDeleteRight on Simone. I dare to say that Canada has a 40 % populations of idiots who are not even close to being human and guess where they mostly reside. Red Neck country of Alberta would be a good guess.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness that not all are idiots. 60 %of them have a lot of common sense and the remaining 40 %, there is no hope for them. They are likely the biggest druggies walking the streets with so much oil monies in their pockets and brain drained because of the easily available drugs waiting for their money. Not a pretty site.
Cheers and keep up the great posts
Marie
Simon,
ReplyDeletemuch as I was delighted with the Insite opinion, Paul Wells has a good article that prompts a note of caution against over-jubilation:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/09/30/insite-the-harper-governments-sweeping-narrow-defeat/
Insite will continue in Vancouver but, after reading that article, I wouldn't on any others starting up during the Harper years.
hi marie...thanks. Some posts are easier than others to write. And although I might sound a bit naive, Kevin is the only heroin addict I ever met, and his plight shocked me deeply. Beyond political differences everybody should share the same desire to help people who are suffering. But the Cons don't think like that, they seek only to punish. And of course, that's just another reason I despise them so much...
ReplyDeletehi scotrock... I actually read the Wells post as I was writing this one. He makes some interesting points, but in the end they seem largely theoretical. I would expect the Supreme Court to be cautious, and afraid that their judgement could lead to a lot of not properly supervised sites springing up all over the country.
ReplyDeleteBut if a province sets up a proper site, with all the evidence that they can save lives, I'd like to see the Conservatives try to block them. Not that they might not try, but arguing against harm reduction will only make them look like mosters, because I'm still pretty confident that most Canadians are better than them...