On Tuesday, the Canadian city will decriminalise HEROIN and CRACK https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... rticle-top

Despite being criminalized, yet 'tolerated' in 'The East', why can't 'The West' handle it?..or can they? Or is it more about 'The South'?

At least the posted article tells it like it is, and criticizes the insane government policy, instead of sugar coating it, and acting like anyone who disagrees just lacks empathy.

My hometown near Vancouver has been steadily turning into a shithole for the past few years. We have homeless people setting up camp all over town, including in the once beautiful park area in the downtown core.
Mine and my roommate’s cars have been broken into so many times in the past year, that we now just empty them out every night, and leave them unlocked, to save having our windows smashed out, or the door seals torn apart by someone with a coat hanger. If we’re lucky, we won’t find any burned up pieces of tinfoil, or other paraphernalia, lying on the floor or the dashboard the next morning.

A few years ago, the provincial government banned all flavored cigarettes and cigars, including menthols. Now they’re decriminalizing heroin and crack? All of this crime and filth might not bother me so much if I, a tax paying, contributing citizen, could still have the freedom to enjoy a cheap cigarillo that tastes like something other than cardboard, once in a while.

It feels unreasonable to blame this stuff on Justin Trudeau. He’s the prime minister, not a provincial leader, and he obviously doesn’t control things down to the city level, but it just feels like the general direction of the country has been heading straight down since he came to power, with his progressive, utopian ideas.

In the 1990 Zurich was a hellhole having 30´000 hardcore junkies living in one only park calles the "needlepark. This was the result of a period of "laissez-faire" by the relevant authorities that attracted junkies from all over Europe.

The final solution of the problem was that junkies were given free, pure stuff (swiss government bought it direct from pharma) to be shot in clean rooms as to avoid many of the medical consequences of shooting cut stuff in a dirty environment. Junkies were assisted and treated more like people with a curable illness instead of beeing seen as dirty hopeless junkies. The heroin market collapsed.

Portugal.

Drug-related deaths

In the first five years after the reforms, drug deaths dropped dramatically.

Drug use

Levels of drug use in Portugal have been consistently below the European average over the past twenty years. This is particularly the case among younger people: Portugal has some of the lowest usage rates in Europe among those between the ages of 15-34.17



https://transformdrugs.org/blog/drug-de ... d-straight

I'm all for legalized, subsided dugs ( all kinds)
Treat addiction as a disease, not a crime
Zurich has it right

FYI; smoking weed does NOT lead to harder drug addition.,

I don't think heroin and crack have been "decriminalised" in Holland. You cannot go into a coffee shop and chase the dragon/shoot up or use a crack pipe, they would throw you out.

truffledog wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 5:30 pm In the 1990 Zurich was a hellhole having 30´000 hardcore junkies living in one only park calles the "needlepark. This was the result of a period of "laissez-faire" by the relevant authorities that attracted junkies from all over Europe.

The final solution of the problem was that junkies were given free, pure stuff (swiss government bought it direct from pharma) to be shot in clean rooms as to avoid many of the medical consequences of shooting cut stuff in a dirty environment. Junkies were assisted and treated more like people with a curable illness instead of beeing seen as dirty hopeless junkies. The heroin market collapsed.

If the only solution is to just give junkies their drugs for free, provided by the taxpayers, can the government at least give me a bottle of vodka every Friday or something?

I get it, locking them up costs more money, and you can’t fine someone who has no money of their own, but the people who have to go to work every day are starting to wonder if it might just be easier to become junkies ourselves.

wtf??

but the people who have to go to work every day are starting to wonder if it might just be easier to become junkies ourselves.

you think anyone choses to become a junkie?

Firstly..If no one Chooses..to become a junkie, then who's in control?

Secondly, wandering around Lisbon in '19, I came across a couple of areas that felt like The Dealers were in Control...I felt like getting beaten and robbed was a real option (and I was pretty fit at the time--despite the jealousy that challenges it) and that I'd have to be 'popular' if I expected otherwise or felt like The Police would help me. I didn't feel overwhelmingly unsafe though.

Thirdly, yes, I too would like a free bottle of good votka and a safe place to drink it.

Fourthly, the gateway drug in Cambodia is METH!--not cigarettes, not vape, not palm wine, not weed, not beer--METH!
ICE! Ice is the fkng gateway drug. A gateway to what exactly??

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:58 pm wtf??

but the people who have to go to work every day are starting to wonder if it might just be easier to become junkies ourselves.

you think anyone choses to become a junkie?

Did someone else make the decision for them?