VANCOUVER: Free Heroin For Addicts

[therealrex]

Right now addicts are a huge drain on our tax dollars. Studies have found that a huge percentage of crimes are tied directly to heroin addicts daily need for fix money. Take that need away and all crime goes down from B&E to Murder.
There are only 2 solutions to this problem give them their dope for free and then work on getting them off it and back into society or take away all their rights and have goon squads roaming the streets hitting addicts over the head and imprisoning them in jails where the guards don't sell drugs until they are clean. Both views have their problems but the status quo is failing miserably so we need to try something.
As for the free needles its the only way to slow down aids transmission among these people.

 

[Cock Throppled]

To massagegirl and others who think this is the solution, I have friends in Amsterdam who tell a very different story. Naturally the proponents of any system will trot out the great stats and success stories. Now, I'm not sure what the real solution is, but this isn't necessarily it. Amsterdam's crime rate has spiked in recent years with increased violence. The dealers are still there - so somebody's still buying. My friends say there is still a large and growing problem with other drugs ( meth/coke and worse) so it looks like those interested in self-destruction and criminal lifestyles simply adopt other drugs. And, of course good old alcohol fuels a lot of the violence. Kind of like banning pit bulls, so the low-lifes just use Dobies. Was in Amsterdam last year and the streets looked just as mean as the 70's and 80's.

 

[Sydney]

"What if you could say to an addict, 'For the next little while, you're not going to have to get your drugs from Al Capone. You can get your drugs from Marcus Welby,' " said Dr. Martin Schechter, the project's lead researcher.

"You don't have to worry about this afternoon and this evening. And therefore, you don't have to go and break in to cars or be a prostitute. You could actually come and talk to a counsellor or . . . get some skills training."

Back to my point, some addicts have $1,000 a day habits, and the need to come up with it is what leads to the problem not the drug itself...

...As the article said, not worrying about their next high is what would allow them to focus on other things like counseling for what is causing them to do such a destructive thing, followed by a job and home so they can get off it eventually and not be a danger or a burden to society...

Not sure I agree or disagree but this seems to be the point.

Sydney

 

[greenvalley]

I really don't see the downside to giving out free heroin. It may cost too much, but thats a problem of our ineffecient government. After all they our costing us $100 million to look into the $100 million sponsorship rippoff. So that just a matter of getting someone better to handle it.

Any of you that "believe" that tougher laws will solve it. Well the US has been there and done that all ready. Last I heard they still have a problem. So there isn't any basis to "believe" being tougher will help. Or maybe we should be even tougher than the US? maybe like Thialand and shoot people? Thailand still has a problem.

The idea of criminalizing things to solve social issues is really never had much success. I especailly find it funny hearing people talk about tougher laws on website like this. After all most on here are doing something that isn't really legal either. Yet I guess this is somehow different. Tell that to the girls working MP's that get hassled by the cops and others that must give some free service so they don't get busted.

Its a health problem and should be delt with that way. Pre-criminalization, pre-WW1 you used to be able to buy heroin over the counter at drugs stores as a pain medications. It was sold by companies like Bayer.

A junkie that wakes up not having to worry about where their fix is going to come from maybe will have some time to listen to a councillar about getting off the stuff. And maybe won't be thinking of busting into your car for that fix either. To me thats saving money.

There are also some other things treatment wise that can be tried like iboga http://www.ibogatherapyhouse.org/ We need to find a real solution and quicly as possible

I always think its odd when people talk about home much money this heroin program would cost. But doesn't look at how costly the road that we are going down already costs us. The police are a failure plain and simple. They are costing us more all the time. And their solution not surprising is surprise, surprise, is more police. Meanwhile I have lost over $2000 dollars in tools to some druggie which will fence them for god knows how cheap to get drugs. So many people I know have had similar things happen. We also now have security guards all over the place and things are still nuts. To me all of this says try something new.

 

[samantha_van]

This makes me sick

I'm totally outraged by this crap!!! Giving drug addicts more drugs? Is this really going to be a way to solve the problem?.. Besides all the heroin addicts do when they are dope sick is cry and whine about their backs and shit hurting most of them can't even move when they are dope sick let alone go rob ppl and do other crime... I bet 90% of the crime down on the east side is from crackheads!! those are ruthless peices of sh*t that will stop at nothing to get their rock weither it be jumping and elderly person or selling their ass for 10$..

They also say they are doing it to get the needles off the street.. More then just heroin is shot in to ppl's arms... Meth is a popular one now days too!!

Just my 2 cents!

 

[Kev]

This program by our idiotic goverment is shear stupidity.

The goverment and the police force can't do their job by keeping these addicts of the street or cleaning them like other municipalities are trying to do, so they cop-out and give out free drugs to hard core criminals/drug addicts................BEAUTIFUL!!!

Our goverment says "lets give'm free drugs to keep them quite." "If there stoned "they can't hurt anyone. After all its only when they need a fix that they become destructive." What a sack of cow shit our goverment is. And some wonder why i have never voted in my life.

Well lets say it works whats next? Who else can benefit by our incompetent fucking goverment?

Heroin addicts need help. This is not the way members. --- Kev

 

[HankQuinlan]

I'm suspicious that most people responding are listed as "registered users" under their names.

 

[qwerty]

I hear how everyone is complaining about this program, but you have to understand, heroine and other hard drugs create a cycle of crime. First it is smuggled into the country, then it is sold on the streets, then junkies do what they have to to get a fix(have you ever had your house broken into???)

If you give it to people who are 'proven' addicts, they no longer need to steal to get their fix, the drug dealers are out of business, and the smugglers are out of business. The money saved in fighting these criminals more than makes up for the costs of the program. And with those criminals gone, all the seedy areas of the city will start to be cleaned up.

Those of you that don't see the benefits should understand this program isn't really about giving out 'free drugs', it's about getting rid of crime.

 

[Ais]

In theory it makes sense that this would reduce crime, etc. However, that is assuming that there is enough to be given away to actually make a difference, which I doubt there is. Also, it is assuming that the only people that are committing crime are heroin addicts. (I know that is not the premise for this program, but seems to be the essence of some of the posts).