Marketing Campaigns Of The Apocalypse

Kind of reminds me of the Suicide Kits that were freely available for purchase in the film Children of Men (starring Clive Owen -- good movie).

Canadian Cadets (Sea, Air, Army) get so called Cadet abuse and harassment training.

In that training they are told (at 12 years old) that 1) looking at girls boobs and butt is inappropriate 2) making sexist jokes is a taboo 3) punching, kicking and pushing around other members is a no-no.

Good intentions! But delivered in graphic form and while lumping all ages from 12 to 18 together - to me it sounded horrific. Fortunately my son has great sense of humour and we laughed at my suggestion that they received abuse and harassment instruction as a matter of fact.

Now the Cadets know how to do things they did not even have thoughts about! The best intentions pave road to hell - have we forgotten this proverb?

They forgot the "Don't forget to return your used needles for new."

Kind of puts a new meaning to the term "stimulus money" don't it.

in my magical world, all drug addicts would be free to make a choice between smartening up or dying in the streets.

...but i guess we're all more or less responsible for the welfare state.

Great idea this will save many lives!
As everyone knows needles are very dangerous, but street IV drugs aren't.

-- not so much a cultural apocalypse as one successful prong of a multi-pronged depopulationist agenda.

The Left's death cult marches on; Euthanasia, Abortion, Drugs - all the revered sacraments of secular worship.

It's okay, because the people who created this campaign live in Happy-Imaginary Land, where Good Intentions = Moral Purity, and everything is safe and nice and consequence-free if you want to believe it's that way.

In my honest, humble opinion these destructive solipsists might as well be mainlining smack themselves. Truely, if they were just really stoned they'd probably do less harm.

What's sicker: A screwed-up junkie, or a self-righteous "public servant" who makes a career out of helping junkies destroy themselves, and the society around them, and is proud of that fact?

And just try and smoke a cigarette in NYC and see how quickly the full force of the nanny state descends upon you.

Neal - yeah, but cigarettes are gross, and bad for you health. And Michael Bloomberg doesn't like them.

*
speaking of boffo marketing strategies... here's gloria galloway of the globe
on iggy's latest brainwave...

"Which, as communications strategies go, is rather courageous."

*

The Fly - I've recently heard the term "radical secularism" - and I like it - it describes a lot of the behaviour that I see and don't like, and don't recognize from 20 years ago.

And there's no such thing as "second-hand heroin". (Although there is such a thing as having a neighborhood turned into a hell-hole by addicts...)

make sure there's an air bubble in there too!

Good one, puddin! +2

Drugs are bad. Mmmmm-kay?

Drink a bottle of vodka on 10 minutes, you'll be as dead as Tiger Wood's new book about tips on keeping a wife happy.

Last year, 39 Canadians died from heroin overdose. Over the same time period, 390 Canadians died from contin-class (prescription) painkillers.

Just so's you freedom loving conservatives are aware, how much to you think your government provides in direct and indirect subsidies for pharmaceutical companies to develop painkillers?

Radical secularism? Liberal?

All excuses for the temperance brigade to toss out some fundie moralism - instead of best practice public policy. Prohibition failed, the same way as the War on Drugs has failed, and the same way the next police state narco brigade will fail.

A bunch of tittering moralists ain't gonna change that.

Why are they not helping the drunks? How's about:

Tip#2: Safe Drunk Driving

- Avoid fizzy drinks while driving, such as beer. The carbonation can make your eyes water;
- A rum and coke in a coffee cup is indistinguishable from coffee at night;
- If your vision is blurred, drive toward the left image or the right image, not the image in the centre;
- Don't forget that bottle of Scope for the RIDE interview;
- Keep a sturdy cardboard box lined with a garbage bag in the passenger seat, just in case the road is too bumpy.

Agreed Mamba

I mused of a strategy to help these folks the other day.

Since resources are at a premium, the first thing I would do is redirect all public money allocated to this cause be reinvested in my strategy. That strategy being a forced incarceration for whatever amount of time is necessary (deemed by the experts of course) to get cleaned-up with Methadone or whatever is required. Now, as I said, resources are scarce; but, like some jurisdictions in the U.S.A I suggest charging room and board to the drug addict. This can be earned by working in the public and for the public in the spare time they will have during their rehab. Furthermore, these addicts would learn job skills, work ethic and gain a sense of accomplishment and pride for doing it for themselves.

Obviously someone will cite Human rights and Charter objections, but I've been told that forced incarceration is already available for some with mental problems; therefore, existing provisions need only be tweaked to address who and for how long someone can be held for their own good.

Keep in mind I'm just musing here, and I have not considered the unintended slippery slope consequences. I'm just venting!

Oh, but don't pick up that Twinkie or Marlboro!

Those things are BAD!

/leftard logic

Life can provide momments of levity....

I had a nasty visit from a bill collector (wrong#) who would not accept he had contacted the wrong party.

I will leave it to your imagination...
clue...I do not suffer fools gladly......

The local constabulary were of the opinion my conduct was appropriate.....with much levity....

Hardboiled, you're welcome to collect the overdosed dead if you like.
This PSA for a generation expected to look after the waves of dementia patients in the next twenty years.
I feel better already.

hardboiled - prohibition failed in part because alcohol consumption, moderate and excessive, has always been a part of Western culture.

I'm no "moralist", as you'd have it. I've not been "Sister Mamba of the Perpertual Sobriety", and am not therefore inclined to be smug. On balance, I think free people are entitled to take what they want. But you are silly.

Firstly, please define "died from"; any drug abuse causes long-term damage, but we all know that 10 people didn't die from prescription painkillers for each one who dies of illegal heroin.

The Libertarian in me is open to the argument that anyone is entitled to turn himself into a hopeless junkie, provided he's willing to die alone in the gutter as a result. The Judaio-Christian sop in me finds that a little too hard to stomach.

(And South Park won't save you, Hardboiled. All your South Park are belong to us.)

Can I supply precharged medical grade heroin needles (with a cyanide chaser)?

I'll even provide a fully staffed, warm, comfortable shooting gallery. Pay no attention the morgue truck idleing at the loading dock.

I figure the upfront costs of this program will be far outweighed by the long term health and financial benefits to society.

I'm willing to be fair and expand the programme to other drugs too if this pilot program is a success.

It's soylent green time.

This is just about as ill-advised as the pamphlet given out to Toronto high school students by, I think it was, the Aids Committee of Toronto (ACT), in the '90s, counseling gay men how to have safe S & M (Sado-Masochistic) S*x, which involved a veterinary glove with the thumb and index finger cut out. 'Very explicit instructions. There was an accompanying pamphlet telling students that gay s*x was "normal and natural."

What are these people THINKING?????

And, Black Mamba, I agree with you that hardboiled is being silly -- for the same reasons.

Harboiled:

Nice little "you evil moralists" tirade - but I am a drunken, cigar smoking atheist of the highest order. I think anyone should be able to do what they want with their bodies - but I don't think my tax dollars should be used to fund it. People scream about making cigarette smokers pay more for health insurance because they are a drain on the public economy - but then we have taxpayer funded pamphlets to help you shoot heroin safely.

And to further add to the economics of the situation - I suspect there are a lot more cigarette smokers who feed into the welfare state in the form of productive jobs and taxes than there are heroin addicts who do so. Just a hunch, of course - but most of the junkies I knew in my youthful days in NYC contributed to the local economy by stealing car stereos and robbing old people to fund their habits.

So, yeah - the war on drugs has been a dismal failure. But saying that legalizing everything, along with providing free taxpayer funded self help guides, will solve the problem is just a bit simplistic.

Which one of Senator Larry Campbell's famous "Four Pillars" is this?

New Vancouver Heroin Dispensing Clinic Set to Open Before the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

http://informedvote.ca/2010/01/03/new-vancouver-heroin-dispensing-clinic-set-to-open-before-the-2010-vancouver-winter-olympics/

It's probably a no-smoking area.

"prohibition failed in part because alcohol consumption, moderate and excessive, has always been a part of Western culture."

Congratulations on saying the dumbest thing said today on the internet (now that's saying something)

"But saying that legalizing everything, along with providing free taxpayer funded self help guides, will solve the problem" Posted by: Neal at January 5, 2010 5:04 PM

Hey man - I said nothing of the sort.

Two comments: Myth #1: "you're welcome to collect the overdosed dead if you like".
I attended a drug crime clinic given by my local Police. You can die from crystal meth on the first try, many do; no Overdose. And how do you know what that reefer is spiked with? "Overdose" is overblown bull.
And Myth #2: "And there's no such thing as "second-hand heroin"." Why the h*ll not? If it's smoked it's there for everyone else to imbibe, isn't it? And if You can ingest lead through your skin, why not hard drugs?
Don't let the MSM get away with this crap.

hardboiled - oh, ouch, dude!

Care to elaborate? Please, tell me why I'm a moron. I seek always to improve myself.

"Drugs are bad. Mmmmm-kay? "

Yes, illegal use of injection drugs is certainly a death sentence without a timely intervention.

Unless you've experienced/witnessed the human tragedy and carnage created by hard drug addiction, you'd be wise to check your flippant commentary about drugs - it just reveals your stupidity/naiveté.

Frig, some suburban tosser has a few bong hits and he thinks he's part of he hard use drug culture.

There may be a case for forced detoxification of hard drugs addicts, but, at the very least, can we abandon the policy of feeding bad habits, either with "safe injection" sites or methadone programs.

As I understand it, cold turkey withdrawal from heroin is unpleasant but not fatal. It should certainly be the first part of the incarceration of addicts who commit crime.

Surely a campaign with the slogan: "Take charge. Take Care" would be telling people NOT to shoot up

Or am I missing something?

Eeyore at January 5, 2010 4:13 PM

You forgot:
- Drive with one eye shut. It avoids that double vision thingy.

hardboiled...missing the point again.
No one here is calling for prohibition. As a conservative libertarian I'm against drug abuse, but I don't want the government in my face, or my home or my body. With all do respect for the druggie, I'm thinking he/she really doesn't care for the guvament telling her/him how to 'do it'.
Their laughing all the way to the centre.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they are running to Nanny and saying "Tell me again...I really gotta get this right!"
Sure.
The real morons are making up those posters without having a clue.

Black Mamba
I tend to agree with your take.
The sad reality as a city worker for 24 years. Is that once these folks start down this road its almost impossible to get them out. That includes becoming a street sitter or indigent.
No one should steal someones free will but at the same time I don't want folks to die if it can be helped.
Whats become really depressing is the 4000 homeless we have now increases every day. They get younger by the years because we now offer so many services to keep them going.
I don't know whats more cruel. Letting them sink or swim, or enable them to live like animals barely by government fiat.
Ive come to the conclusion because of the ever younger people taking up this horrible life. Its better in the long run they never get on the streets to begin with.
JMO

It's horrible, Rev. But government enabling can't help. (I have some time for other forms of enabling, sometimes.)

> any drug abuse causes long-term damage

Just as abuse of any substance can, such as sugar.

But the point of this conversation is abuse of tax dollars by make-work bureaucrats, hardboiled.

As far as I am concerned, inject all they want - just don't whine when you try to rob me and get shot. Now, how I should be allowed to legally pack is a topic for a different discussion.

I'll be the moralist, I'm not shy, doesn't mean I haven't screwed up lots though. The bull sh*t these clinics are pulling off is plain wrong and immoral. Neal, Mamba, Bluetech, give this softboiled egghead Hell (notice I capitalized it)

This would never happen in San Francisco!

Here, we give classes by qualified instructors complete with free needles and heroine and supervised practical exercises.

New Yorkers are second-rate enablers. They need to come to the People's Republic and see how it's done.

larben - I would, if he'd show himself.

(there's troll-wrastling, and then there's debate. The line can be thin.)

So much for "re-hab!"

When various "health departments" get too much money to spend (i.e., more than $0), they tend to come up with stuff like this disgraceful poster. So then, as various posts have already noted, the government is furiously clamping down on cigarettes and seriously yapping about the scourge of obesity while essentially promoting hard drug use (whenever anyone complains about anti-smoking campaigns, some idiot says that stopping them would be encouraging smoking, etc.).

Maybe we need a spoof "How to Light Up a Butt" or "How to Eat a Twinkie" poster? My own artistic skills are zero, unfortunately.

But personally I don't think drug use should be illegal, including trafficking. If the addicts want to go for their Darwin Awards, let them.

Here is an article by Theodore Dalrymple (of whom EBD is also a fan, I think), a worldly brilliant essayist who worked for years as a doctor/psychiatrist in a Birmingham slum, and as a prison doctor.

It's a short piece and worth reading. Dr. D strongly believes that the agonies of opiate withdrawal have been greatly over-dramatized; it's also worth considering his views on the relationship between heroin addiction and a criminal lifestyle.

Also informative on how Mao Tse-Tung dealt with addicts.

Why not shooting lessons for bank robbers? and free bullet vests for bank robbers?

Or how about raping lessons for serial rapists?
And provide them with free tie-wraps and free tubes of K-Y?

That would be a good use of tax payers money according to the ever more sick left which makes me want to vomit.

Sorry but the left's behavior/ideas are really getting unbearable.

If one province or state declares itself a liberal-free zone I'm selling my home and moving there right this minute.

Madness has a new name; leftism.

If you want more drug addicts/criminals and prostitutes living on your dime VOTE LIBERAL.

Mow I will go take a gravol before I throw up.

This is why safe injection sites and needle exchange sites are far superior and assist in the prevention of communicable diseases being spread and also in curtailing health care costs over the long run.

Addiction, violence, civil liberties,crack cocaine, poverty, 2010 Olympics, drugs, prostitution, heroin, homelessness; and their impact on Vancouver's Black Eye, The Downtown Eastside.

More than 2 million syringes are handed out free every year. Clean mouthpieces for crack pipes are provided at taxpayers’ expense. Around 4,000 opiate addicts get prescription methadone. Thousands come to the injection site every year.

addiction is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence, as in drug addiction. When the drug or substance on which someone is dependent is suddenly removed, it will cause withdrawal, a characteristic set of signs and symptoms. Addiction is generally associated with increased drug tolerance common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems

Impelled by the horror show of the Downtown East Side, prodded by activists and convinced by reams of academic studies, the police and city government have agreed to provide hard drug users with their paraphernalia, a place to use it and even, for a few, the drugs themselves.


The Harsh Reality of Drug Addiction

Not for the faint-hearted, this video is graphic and shocking and shows the depths of depravity that the human soul can descend to.

After 11 months of sobriety from cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs this individuals mental state has sunk to an almost animal-like existence.

http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca/reality_of_drug_addiction.htm

2010 Homeless Champions supports The Servants of Hope Recovery House

a proven model of recovery recently acknowledged by Operation Phoenix and the Vancouver Province Newspaper

This website is dedicated to telling the stories of the unfortunate individuals living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in the hope that awareness of this problem will spur people to get involved, to let all levels of government know that something has to be done to alleviate this misery rooted in addiction, homelessness and depravity. To point the way to recovery from addiction, which we believe is the root of most of this situation. With the 2010 Olympics coming to Vancouver it is our mandate to record the transition and the extreme changes that are even now occurring and will continue to unfold in the Downtown Eastside.

http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca

Thanks to Black Mamba for the link to the "Theodore Dalrymple" article. I suspect that this or another one of his pieces was the source for my comment. Those in custody should be deprived of their drugs and the symptoms of their withdrawal managed. Then and only then should we be considering follow up programs.

Perhaps "safe injection sites" and "needle exchanges" should be a project for private charities.

Care to elaborate? Please, tell me why I'm a moron. I seek always to improve myself.
Posted by: Black Mamba at January 5, 2010 6:58 PM

Anyone genius enough to come up with that statement and logic - and not think about it - is pretty much a lost cause.