Shooting Up Legally

Man.Those Klien one way welfare tickets worked.

After discussing the inane project known as insite with a number of physicians, my primary conclusion is that physicians are too cowardly to actually prescribe drugs to the addicts. Well, we don't have heroin available in Canada, but it's a simple process using morphine and some acetic anhydride to create diacetylmorphine. If amateur 3rd world chemists in jungle labs are capable of this then it should be a no brainer for the products of a 1st world public education system.

Another thing I've noticed is that I get blank stares from physicians when I point out that the money for the addict to get their drugs must come from somewhere and, except in the vanishingly few cases where a heroin addict inherits a small fortune, that money comes from property crime. The response I get back is that at least the heroin addict won't overdose in a back alley and if it saves just one life . . . When I bring up the concept that the net worth of some people is quite negative and that it it would be economically advantageous to Vancouver if junkies died of overdoses, a few physicians bring up the cost of care of a 23 year old heroin addict who didn't die of an opiate overdose with hypoxic brain damage who, over the course of his institutionalized lifetime, will be the sole means of support of various care givers and social workers.

What was particularly interesting in David Berner's blog was the factum that $1.4 billion has been spent on the downtown east side of Vancouver over the last couple of decades or so. Given the magnitude of the funds expended on what are, for all practical purposes, human garbage it's quite clear that maintaining a large population of drug addicted impoverished residents in that Vancouver slum is essential for the well being of the "caregivers" who are involved in these peoples "care". Dead junkies are nowhere near as lucrative as live junkies who will never get better. My hunch is that if one totally stopped funding any programs for the residents of the downtown eastside, then within 5 years or so the place would be cleaned up.

The iv drug users who frequent Vancouver's legal shooting galleries are injecting a drug of unknown purity with unknown contaminents and manufactured using a non-sterile process. I've seen enough bacterial endocarditis during my internship and, if one wanted to prevent this, one could prescribe the addict pharmaceutical grade opiates in sterile uncontaminated solutions. From what I've read, the users of the insite program aren't even given a millipore filter to sterilize the unknown mixture that they're about to inject into their veins.

David Berner's abstinence based program is probably the best thing for an individual addict but it will never fly given the huge number of "caregiver" parasites that depend on the addict remaining forever enslaved to their drug of choice for their survival. As far as methadone maintenance goes, it does work but methadone is quite difficult to withdraw from in many patients. Heroin withdrawal is over in a few days whereas the last patient of mine who went off methadone did so over the course of a very unpleasant 6 months.

Today is 23 months since I quit dope, booze, and cigarettes, all at once on the same day. "If you drink - you die" is the hardest advice I ever took. I never looked back, and never will.
Insite is bullsh**. You quit by quitting, no matter what your drug choice is. Or you die.

Cold Turkey: Good on ya, mate. 21 years of the same here, one day at a time. I don't think I could have cleaned up with all of the 'help' available now.

Robert -- // This comment from regular commenter 'Loki' is absolutely brilliant and should be a must-read for all politicians and voters. //

Some of Loki's brilliance --
// the net worth of some people is quite negative and that it it would be economically advantageous to Vancouver if junkies died of overdoses ... funds expended on what are, for all practical purposes, human garbage //

A couple of other doctors --
Vancouver’s supervised injection facility challenges Canada’s drug laws
Kathleen Dooling, MD MPH, Michael Rachlis, MD LLD

Its an industry all right, these fake do-gooders live very well as they enrich themselves from the misery of the addicted.
Natural allies of the UN which also never actually solves any problems, they prolong them until the aid money runs out.
The caregivers are the number one obstacle for the addicts.
There is a word for these eaters of the dead, Ghouls.

Isn't it strange how a common sense look at the drug industry in Vancouver and describing is for what it is ... sounds brilliant nowadays. Not to take anything away from Loki's piece, but what he/she said should be reasonably obvious to anyone who has been watching that growing vortex of disgust on Vancouver's East Side. Yet, it is not.

Furthe, anyone stating it in clear terms as Loki did, is to ask for social ostricization from the majority bleeding hearts who live a safe distance from that part of town. Drug addicts have achieved the same victim status as Canada's Indians. Ironically, many of those addicts are Canada's native Indians.

Loki is brave to put that comment up, even with a seudo name.

Thanks for doing it. It needs to be said over and over until it becomes the common sentiment. Only then will anything be done about it. This sort of depravity should not longer be tolerated. it woked well against smokers.

...the money for the addict to get their drugs must come from somewhere and, except in the vanishingly few cases where a heroin addict inherits a small fortune, that money comes from property crime.

Better they're concentrated in a dirty city where the climate and welfare appeals to them than spread out and afflicting all of us.

I'm tired of hearing the phrase "if it saves lives". It doesn't. If you keep someone addicted to drugs, they will die in an alley somewhere. Period. You can prolong the process through programs like Insite, but the end result is the same. All you gain is extra crime and victimization of others along the way, thanks to a potentially longer life of the addict before they finally die as a result of their lifestyle.

And let us not forget that these same people are harassing the owners and customers of a new restaurant on the downtown east side. Berating them for coming into their part of town and daring to spend money on a meal. Amazingly, these deadbeats are heralded by David Eby, an NDP candidate who may take down Premier Christy Clarke in just two days time, as he is a lawyer running in the toney Kerrisdale riding of Vancouver. I do believe he's on the executive of the B.C. Civil Liberties Assn. and as such is a staunch defender of such tactics as shining flashlights in the faces of diners, or holding up derogatory signs to the windows as they eat.

These people don't want the area to change. Whether the denizens or their defenders, they're all getting something out of keeping the area a horrible squalor.

"Heroin doesn't hook people; rather, people hook heroin." Also, "There is... no question that Mao (Tse-Tung) was the greatest drug-addiction thera pist in history."

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_wsj-poppycock.htm

"Heroin doesn't hook people; rather, people hook heroin." Also, "There is... no question that Mao (Tse-Tung) was the greatest dr*g-add iction thera pist in history."

http://preview.tinyurl.com/o3t5h

... the net worth of some people is quite negative and that it it would be economically advantageous to Vancouver if junkies died of overdoses ... funds expended on what are, for all practical purposes, human garbage ...

What?! I find that repulsive. How can Loki's comment is held up as "brilliant"? What a depraved human being.

I always thought that the guy that poisoned the heroin supply in BC years ago killing I think 34 of the doggie-doos should have been given the order of Canada.

"Some of Loki's brilliance --
// the net worth of some people is quite negative and that it it would be economically advantageous to Vancouver if junkies died of overdoses ... funds expended on what are, for all practical purposes, human garbage //"

With all due respect to Loki et al, these statements accentuate the gulf between the new breed of atheist libertarians and classical Judeo-Christian conservatives. There was a time in this country when referring to another human being as "garbage" was scandalous. To even think about a human life in terms of "net worth" reminds me of the sinister calculus employed by the far left, and is anathema to the once flourishing but now almost extinct creed of our forefathers.

That said, I certainly agree with Loki that Insite is profoundly evil. As several commenters here note, addiction can be overcome, and IS overcome every day in this country. I for one would not want to tell these commenters that 2 years ago they were "garbage" that would be better off dead.

Last year I was diagnosed initially with a torn rotator cuff and given increasingly strong pain medication to deal with the pain. Eventually, after a six month wait, I was able to see an Orthopedic surgeon and went for an MRI. Long story short, no big tear, no surgery, light exercise etc. I immediately decided to get off my pain meds and just stopped taking them. for about a week, I wasn't able to sleep much, had wicked withdrawl, but succeeded in getting off. I was able to get back to work in less than 2 weeks and haven't looked back. Next time I saw my family doctor, I told him what I had done and he sat back in his chair and looked at me as though I was crazy. "Why didn't you tell me? I could have weaned you off." Says I, "Gotta just do it. Same way I quit smoking". As hard as it is, ya just gotta do it, if you want off drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or anything else.

If it saves one life? How about saving the lives of robbery victims? Not all of their drug money comes from 'just' stealing everything that is not guarded or nailed down. How about the elderly lady who fall and break a hip after some junky grabs her purse? Or someone who doesn't cough up their wallet fast enough and gets knifed or clobbered? Guess their lives don't count in that "if it saves one life" narrative.

Let's find out if you are a hypocrite. Innocent unborn babies are executed every day called abortion. Do you agree or disagree with this procedure?

@Loki -- thoughtful comment as usual on the drug topic. I've got a couple questions that I'm hoping you can answer.

Are you advocating prescribing narcotics, even heroin, to patients instead of a program like InSite? I'm not opposed to this, btw, just wondering if you are, indeed, proposing it as a treatment option.

You did talk about a methadone patient who was weaned off methadone. My questions is -- should a heroin addict ever go off methadone if there is a high risk of restarting a heroin habit? In many cases, it seems safer for this person to just stay on methadone for the rest of their life.

Ironies abound here.
Of course involuntary detox, is against the human rights of these addicts, yet the rights of the victims of their crimes count for nothing.
The care industry is a cancer of our society, enabling the destroyers immunity and prolonging the agony of the afflicted.