Harm Reduction - A Photo Essay

I want to see the records of how many needles they recover from the drop boxes versus how many are given out.

Hey! No fair holding liberals to account for their actions Kate! Its the good intentions that count damnit, not the results!

I agree. Make 'em accountable for all the harm they cause which they deny they will, and which they arrogantly deny is even possible.

All we need is an easy, foolproof, undeniable way to prove the harm they've caused with their "progressive" policies.

Of course, they'll call it "unconstitutional", "fascist" and accuse us of "wanting to take their rights away" and the other standard B.S...

Wouldn't be happening if the Taliban were still in power.

Just sayin'.

Isn't there some law against shooting up in public and screwing in the bushes? And against littering?

I know that's all racist of me and everything for even mentioning, but I just wondered.

I also wonder what would happen if the local joggers and mums 'n dads started hanging out in the park after hours. Maybe a couple hundred of 'em, with bats?

I bet the police would come then, eh?

Liberals don't know what you all talking about...for them "history" starts every morning!

The comments at Tammy's blog are something else.

"Maybe in order to get free needles from the needle exchange, you must be on record helping to clean up needles and condoms"

"I thought the Health Region now uses different types of needles that retract once injected. Why can't these be given out?"

"How about the people who use the needle exchange while picking up their new needles; some type of organized monitored group effort"

Crikey.

How about this? You show up to a needle exchange clinic and you go to prison for a couple of years.

They could turn the Long Gun registry into the Needle Registry!

Gee, that's pretty ironic my son has to buy his own needles and insulin; but has a needle drop box in the house.

We have never seen him discard his needles on the front lawn, in an attempt to infect the postman, or charity canvassers to our house.

Maybe he should take his box of used needles to the needle exchange unit nearest him and get them for free. At least the expenditure would be doing something useful like keeping him ALIVE.

The reason drug abusers leave their refuse needles lying about is that they are too blasted on whatever they are injecting in their veins to make it to the drop box.

Cheers

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group "True North"

Those photographs are graphic proof that good intentions are not enough. So many of the terrible things that we have to endure today started as ideas that were worth a try. Once they're tried, though, it seems to be impossible to terminate them. Government programs, from the new math (I'm old enough that I escaped most of that) to needle exchange programs, don't get terminated when they, at best, don't work, or, at worst, create problems far worse than any that they were intended to solve.

Hans

Absolutely correct! Use the system to the max....as a matter of fact every diabetic in the country should do the same.

It's about flicking time some of the unintended consequences of leftard policy were beneficial.

Hans

Absolutely correct! Use the system to the max....as a matter of fact every diabetic in the country should do the same.

It's about flicking time some of the unintended consequences of leftard policy were beneficial.

Syncro

This is just stomach-turning. Filthy needles and condoms where children play and people walk their dogs. Is there "harm reduction" for them?
If liberals think this is a good idea, let them clean up. It's that simple.

It's absurd that we're paying for this crap.

How utterly heartbreaking, especially seeing that little discarded skirt! That makes me wonder...

I say that all that trash should be picked up and placed in the biohazard bins.
How all the druggies and crackwhores are going fit in those little boxes will have to be worked out first, though!

If the principle of 'harm reduction' is so successful why not, as I have satirically suggested to others, extend it to other sorts of social pathologies, say, pedophilia: the government could fund "safe encounter' sites where children (perhaps procured from orphanages or impoverished foreign lands) could be supplied in a clean, safe, controlled setting, thus hopefully reducing random predation on children at large, with its attendant trauma and drain on police resources. Counselling would be available. Condoms, too. How could this not work as well as the safe-injection sites? Surely "harm reduction' would be the inevitable and desirable outcome.

You know, if I suggested that -all- Saskatoon welfare recipients should be required to go around and pick up all that crap to qualify for their check every month, the trolls will come on here and call me a racist/bigot/homophobe.

Come on trolls! You know you want to.

We used to have a far more effective "harm reduction program" which we formerly referred to under it's real name: Prison.

Of course, the harm which was reduced was the harm against the general public and not the crackheads and junkies...

Hans, you're missing the point (tongue in cheek).

The difference is, one is a "lifestyle choice". Not paying for a druggies needle is discrimination.

I personally believe that we can't hand out enough free needles. If anything, we should be doubling or trebling our efforts.

The only improvement I'd suggest to the program is that the needles come pre-loaded with pentobarbital sodium.

To Grok:

RE: The registration of needles.

I made the same comment on CBC.Ca a couple of years ago. Guess what? They never published it!!

A site on "unpublished comments, letters to the ed. etc." is long overdue!

Ahh of course Indiana, I forgot not taking your insulin is a 'death-style choice'. :0

So how is it that my son is not discriminated against when he has to pay for his needles?

Cheers

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group "True North"

Bar coding the needles is a great idea and quite easily accomplished, Walmart has everything barcoded. The United Nations with the insistence of many anti-gun groups are pushing for every single piece of ammunition to be marked with a unique and traceable code or number. While this hasn't happened yet, anyone who believes in this should also think coding needles is an excellent idea. Liberals though may have a dilemma here as they see drug addicts and pushers as unfortunates, and gun owners as scum.

i'd love to see hana gardner rolling through that field; wait...scratch that

"i'd love to see hana gardner rolling through that field; wait...scratch that"

Somehow I just can't imagine the cbc filth estate challenging "harm reduction", or any other, sacred liberal bovine.

BTW. Is hana herself a sacred liberal bovine?

Grok and Frost, I also made the suggestion that there be some registry of users and needles on the CBC Boards. It was published but the disagrees outnumbered the agrees--which is something I found surprising. I also pointed out that the program was called needle "exchange". You turn in all the used ones you signed out BEFORE you get any new ones. Actually, I disagree with the program. I consider it in the same category of "enabling" any destructive behavior. We blame spouses for putting up with an alcoholic and supporting his/her habit by compensating or accepting such conduct. I don't see that there's any difference with the needle program. Nor do I see why some innocent kid should be at risk because we don't have the stomach to say "the kid's right to wander around in safety in public parks is more important than a junkie being at risk of infection from a self-inflicted disease".

My god. And to think I used to live near there. Has Saskatoon really fallen that far since I left it in 97? Sad.

While it's fun to take light hearted jabs at the CBC and various governments which are sponsering these programs, never forget that those needles are ticking time-bombs.

A stick with a dirty needle can be a death sentence.

I had the misfortune to get poked with a druggies needle several years ago, and I lived in hell till I got a clean bill of health.

You have to remember that the needle exchange employee's themselves throw needles around areas where children play. They did that in our home town to get a needle exchange put in, and they do it every spring to get more funding. Pick up some of the needles and get them tested to see if they have even been used.

The socialist poverty pimps are a dirty lot of sneaks, and they will do whatever they can to ensure their jobs.

Pick up all of the needles and used condoms and spray them around the yards and gardens of city council.

I called my MLA's office. It was the first they had heard of the story. Another disturbing part of the story when Producer Tammy Roberts told her story live on the radio, that at the first park she stopped at someone(presumably a drug dealer) released a pitbull at her. Likely just protecting his gov't. subsidized business in a gov't. subsidized park. And here I thought their was a law against having dogs run loose in public parks. That only applies to Labradoodles not to drug dealer pitbulls.

Local news, local investigative journalism, we need more of that!

As usual, the left goes only halfway toward a solution.

Think of the harm done by the ingredients of questionable pedigree and inadequate quality control.

Those free needles need to be supplied, full, with the purest stuff, and plenty of it.

The harm done to society by victims of rogue capitalist drug dealers will eventually be reduced through this suggested program.

someone tell me. what good thing has any socialist done in the last 60 years. by the way if has cost me money it is nfg.

larry, a pit bull comes at me he would get pepper spray and his throat cut real quick.

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
The reason drug abusers leave their refuse needles lying about is that they are too blasted on whatever they are injecting in their veins to make it to the drop box.

The reason drug abusers leave their refuse lying about is they basically don't give a s*it about anybody or any thing.

You haven't seen the lunacy of the Left until you've been in Vancouver awhile and seen all the pro drug addiction advocates out here. Note: I could have said "pro harm reduction" advocates but I believe my description is much more accurate.

There's an acquaintance of mine named David Berner who is a well known media personality and generally liberal on most issues. But when it comes to how to resolve the drug problem, he takes a VERY different view.

I took the time to video one of his talks, which can watch here. Well worth it!

You know that a great Idea. After all don't they bar code everything else? There is that Ghost though of personnel responsibility once you inventory what happens to said instruments of abuse. Just ask ducks unlimited.

mot brings up an interesting point. Drop box? For needles used to inject illegal drugs? Who are they kidding here?

We're talking about people who screw in the bushes of a public park to get money to shoot who the hell knows what into a handy vein, EVERY SINGLE DAY. We're talking people who are completely focused on getting so wasted they don't notice if it's raining, snowing, sunny or dark.

What kind of idiot thinks these junkies are going to clean up after themselves like good little boys and girls?

Liberals. That's who. The people WE hired to run OUR government.

What kind of idiot thinks these junkies are going to clean up after themselves like good little boys and girls?
Liberals. That's who. The people WE hired to run OUR government.

I'm a little curious Phantom, what makes you think that Liberals have any sincere interest in "these junkies" or their activities, to the extent that there was ever an actual plan to fix things?

I posted something earlier but it hasn't yet been published. It provides a good response to what The Phantom said, though I wonder if s/he said it in satire.

One thing's for sure though: An entire industry has been built around pretending to help drug addicts. In Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, it's estimated that $1 Million is spent every day on such social service agencies.

And who do they help to get off of drugs? Pretty much no one.

"someone tell me. what good thing has any socialist done in the last 60 years"

Well, there was this one time when;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pprdc5Fk9Zk

Robert W and Phantom, I too was attempting irony when I suggested the Liberals didn’t actually care about the junkies. I know that Phantom and you are cognizant of the Liberal lie, the Communist lie, and just generally the leftie lie. That lie is that their Kindergarten view of the world is actually achievable, and even more dangerously, that they know how to achieve it.

Life was so good when there was only Dick, Jane, Spot, Puff, Sally (I’m on a roll here).

Saskatoon = City of Needles

(sigh)

Silicon Valley Jim: "Government programs from new math ... to needle exchange programs, don't get terminated when they, at best, don't work, or, at worst, create problems far worse than any that they were intended to solve."

As others have pointed out, it's because the lib-leftards' government programs full of good intentions (paving the road to Hell) very quickly turn into an industry which if it is terminated, means laying off a whole lot of do-gooder Pollyannas.

Most government programs make the case at the end of the fiscal year for their continuation, which usually means spending all of their previous year's budget, whether or not the full budget was needed. There seem to be absolutely no incentives to reward government departments who frugally and successfully fulfill their mandate, leaving money in their budget at the year end.

It's in the do-gooders' self-interest to continue these "clean needle" (not for long, as the photos demonstrate) programs. Unfortunately, their continuation seems to have very little to do with improving the lives of drug addicts.

AS. USUAL. THE. REST. OF. US. PAY. AND. PAY. AND. PAY.

Don't worry Saskabush, the multi-year, mult-million dollar boondoggle here is Halifax will allow all you 'Tooner tourists enjoy the needle, condoms and even real shit floating in our harbour front. The money-pit called the HRH Sewage Treatment Plant is being shut down for a year due to flooding last time it rained. The geniuses decided to put the pumps and control power in the basement where it is likely to get wet first. In the mean time tire dealers, front end shops are busy and bands of kids are floating boats in the potholes and ruts.

With the Sailing of the Tall Ships and dozens of other events by the waterfront it should be a smelly good time.

So come to Nova Scotia, especially if you are a plumber or a pot hole packer. The beer and lobster(not caught in the harbour) are worth the trip alone.

There's a simple solution.

1. Forced detox for users, with appropriate support systems in place post-detox to secure housing and gainful employment.

2. Three strikes rule -- after three failed forced detox attempts, an indeterminate stay in prison or a mental hospital is applied, since that person has demonstrated they cannot function in mainstream society.

3. Several criminal punishment for drug distributors and pushers, minimum 10-years with no chance for payroll. Skew the risk-reward calculus so severely against the pushers, it acts as a true deterrent.

But, of course, this is Canada, and we'll never see anything remotely resembling the foregoing. I'm a heartless, knuckle-dragging neo-con for even suggesting it.

Should read, "3. Severe criminal punishment..."

Lots of talk about the 'drug trade' but not enough about the 'drug industry'. They go hand in hand.

Vancouver's downtown eastside has consumed $1.8 billion in just 7 years - 2001/2008. Where has all that money gone?

Well, lots of it to 'InSite' and the people who run it, drawing their bi-weekly gov't paycheques and gov't bennies. Lots of it to the 'street nurses' who make sure the druggies stay alive, without of course, making any value judgement about their 'life choices'. Lot's to the needle exchange program workers, not to mention those tasked to pick up the hundreds of thousands of needles that never get 'exchanged'. Lots to the 'facilitators' who work tirelessly to find 'suitable public housing' for their 'clients' - who more often than not, trash and abuse the 'suitable housing' given to them.

Lots of it goes to 'subsidized housing' that costs taxpayers up to $360/sq. ft. Compare that with the $175 sq/ft it would cost to replace my rather nice home for which I have worked and paid my entire adult life.

There's way to many people who recognize they've got a good thing going and thus, will fight tooth and nail to maintain. Therefore, it becomes a political issue rather than a health or public safety issue. Government - of any stripe - is absolutely terrified of being branded as 'uncaring' or 'callous', so it's much easier to spend ever increasing amounts of money and let others argue over the efficacy of the program.

Until we have a majority Conservative gov't nothing will change. And even then I'm doubtful, because they too are thinking four years into the future and re-election.

The 'drug industry' doesn't really care about addicts, they care only for their own well-being and incidentally, how it can further their ideology.

One of the root causes of growing government has been the breakdown of the family.

When families were strong, when kids were actually cared for at home -- not dumped into daycares where peer-orientation takes over or put in the care of parental substitutes -- mothers/fathers inculcated discipline, good manners, responsibility, and accountability into their kids. Hey, if you're going to be with little Janie and Johnny 24/7 (as I was), you have a very strong incentive to have well-behaved kids.

Once parents, en masse, abdicated their responsibilities for bringing up their own kids, the government stepped in and went into overdrive: Big Brother/Sister/Mother/Father.

I'm not sure how you get the evil genie back into the bottle. At least the Harper government has given some incentive to parents of young children to stay home with them, with the $100/month/children under six credit. As long as our society condones Big Brother Government taking on responsibilities that individuals and families should be undertaking, we're going to see more and more vastly overpriced, ineffective social programs which seem to benefit only the government bureaucrats and drones.

And, tragically, for all concerned, when prophetic voices of people like Ted Byfield and Gwen Landolt were sounding the alarm over 25 years ago, they were labelled red-neck yahoos and anti-women. Canadians can't say "Well, nobody told us." It's on the public record that the voices who told us about the public wreckage ahead were ridiculed and, virtually, silenced -- by the lib-left, feminist Librano$ and MSM.

'Reminds me a little bit of the public humiliation suffered by one Jesus of Nazareth over 2000 years ago. Fortunately, that wasn't the end of the story ...

batb/me: "It's on the public record that the voices who told us about the public wreckage ahead were ridiculed and, virtually, silenced -- by the lib-left, feminist Librano$ and MSM."

And by the silence of a whole lot of others.