Australian SAS units have made a chilling discovery; Euro -trained mercenaries are popping up in Afghanistan… and they’re not on our side. The presence of Europeans fighting for the bad guys should force us to examine one factor in this war that has been, perhaps, disregarded:
Suddenly the significance of the emaciated drug addict in Saskatoon’s west end has changed. The poison she injects or swallows, usually in the form of heroin or morphine, now has a 92% chance of originating in Afghanistan, and the cash she pays for the drug finds its way indirectly into the bullets, mortars, and IED devices that are killing Canadian troops.
CLICK
Buying the poppy crops seems reasonable enough to me. But, I’ll repeat again that all of the countries with high maintenance heroin addicts need to chip in, not just the US taxpayer on this one.
maryjane – ignore heroin, you’re nuts. IV heroin users get AIDS and Hep C over time. Their addiction expenses pale compared to the medical expenses of that reality. Somethings in this life need to remain restricted. Methadone maintenance sounds easy, but has problems too. This is a much more complex problem than your simplistic solution.
the fact completely skimmed over in the debate is that heroin is one of the most effective pain killers invented. this has been known since around the time of the am. civil war when morphine, the precursor to ‘h’ was all the rage.
the push decades ago to legalize heroin for use by terminal cancer patients continues to be quashed by the moralistic americans who continue to link it with crime. but thats because its illegal!!! the clinical applications await common sense; what intrinsic property does heroin have that makes it ‘bad’? its an addictive chemical capable of blotting out sevre physical pain; the latter is most relevant to terminal patients; the former is irrelevant.
but still the stigma continues.
thus diverting the poppy crop to legal legitimate purposes and research is derailed. it would solve a host of problems, and I suspect the farmers would get the same price if not higher thru the effects of a regulated agricultural activity.
aaaaand watch all the vitriol and personal attack gush from the likes of mr texas canukistan.
Hey, stupid, addicts aren’t in physical pain where it has been demonstrated medically that addiction to opiates isn’t a problem. That’s the big point with addiction.
Consider that a personal attack. Your vulgarian qualities, so well documented in earlier threads, leave you open for it.
Again, “schmuck”, the “esq”, please, get back to your acne management regime, clean your bedroom for mom, get a life, we aren’t your friends, cut the dumb snark, and maybe a minumum wage job will come your way.
The question about the legitimate use of the poppy seed has merit. Why do the pharmaceuticals not take advantage of the Afghan poppys to produce morphine?
Anyone who thinks a drug addict became one because drugs are illegal is nuts. Legalization will not stop drug use nor will it stop new people from joining the long slow line to Hell.
Just how many vices do we intend on using for Government profit anyway. Alcohol, gambling etc. Certainly appears they are only successful at extracting money from those endevours.
Burn the fields at one end. Cut off any ability to finance addiction at the other. Make being a addict as ugly as possible. Those who have major addictions are lost. No one recovers from that kind of addiction it just changes to something else.
Fear is the only deterent to addiction.
t. schmuck
Please excuse my tardiness. I’ve been busy putting the crop in the bins. (It’s a dandy!)
“has dubya any time, about anything, in his entire political career, ever admitted making a mistake?????”
Only once, when he confessed that you were his secret “love child”.
Mark M -they don’t need to, because synthetic opiates exist and are improving.
Mark M,
The question about the legitimate use of the poppy seed has merit. Why do the pharmaceuticals not take advantage of the Afghan poppys to produce morphine?
You might want to read:
http://tinyurl.com/l5939
Mark M,
The question about the legitimate use of the poppy seed has merit. Why do the pharmaceuticals not take advantage of the Afghan poppys to produce morphine?
You might want to read:
http://tinyurl.com/l5939
Nuts. Legalise hard drugs. That will cut off the money flow to Afghanistan – opiates are inexpensive for those who can purchase them legally. A few addicts in Canada and the U.S. will die of overdoses – too bad. Serve as an example for the others.
It seems to be easy enough to obtain illegal opiates. The great majority of people don’t use them not because they can’t get them but because they want their lives. The essential economic problem with the “war on drugs” is that effective police action drives the drug prices up, thus making it more attractive to traffick in them.
I really don’t think that destroying Taliban and al-Quaeda is possible while prosecuting the “war on drugs.”
T. Schmuck: Opiates are derived from the opium poppy. Opium is the dried milk of the opium poppy. It contains morphine and codeine, both effective painkillers. Sure heroin is banned, but morphine and codeine are as common as hen’s teeth and perfectly legal. Morphine is incredibly addictive… some say impossible to shed once addicted and only a life of methadone will keep an addict semi-dry. So, the heroin arguement is empty because other forms of heroin are fully available for treatment and for abuse.
In Saskatoon the druggies favor morphine… illegal morphine C/O the gangs that work for the Hell’s Angels.
As for me, I am tending ever more to the full legalization of most street drugs, with massive intervention on the street level to provide the crap free and safe. When I look at the cost in robberies, aids, prostitution, murder, and now in Canadian troops, I wonder if it wouldn’t save us a whole pile of money and lives. Legalizing dope is an option in the drug war that I’m willing to consider… and yes, it’s the socialist solution and I’m usually as rightwing as they come.
Penny: Interesting point… once synthetics like methadone become effective enough, the natural varieties will become obsolete. Methadone is handed out wholesale in Saskatoon… so much for not supplying the druggies. Only thing, I’ve spoken to many street people who say it just doesn’t do the trick like Morphine.
Prohibition doesn’t work. Agreed. That said, as thoughtful people above have pointed out, ending the prohibition in and of itself won’t work either. It would be only one component of a complex multi-front solution.
In the US, especially, way way way too many no-victim crime perps are in jail for drug “crimes”, a very large fraction of whom are poor/black.
People in jail who shouldn’t be are understandably angry and resentful, and therefore excellent candidates for recruitment into islamofascism. Talk about a vicious circle.
And just in case — shudder — I sound like a liberal-nutter, I think inner city street addicts should be rounded up, housed on large rural acreage under guard and forced into withdrawal while doing chores and receiving counselling.
Tho’ as a libertarian, I’m somewhat conflicted in the foregoing paragraph.
All that said, the narrative that drug addicts are helping to kill Canadian soldiers is a bit trite isn’t it?
John Lewis. Yes!
Whether they smoke up in a Bangkok slum or shoot up in Saskatoon, the money they pay for the drugs finds it’s way into the RPGs and IED’s that are killing our guys. In the past it was national donors who paid… now it’s our own addicts who pay. And, our addicts get the funds from prostitution and other crime; how ironic.
Rest assured, “Israr Khan was appointed as an additional inspector via a highly competitive recruitment and selection process. He has undergone all the relevant security checks.”
Debris Trail – I hear ya, and am conflicted myself. My liberatian instincts say legalize the junk and let the chips fall where they may. Actually, decriminalize is a more appropriate position for me than legitimizing all illegal substances. But, with the junkies with IV use, they cost us plenty with their AIDS and Hep C, and in my perch in psych, trust me, heroin addicts have those diseases in big numbers.
I don’t think the Dutch Experiment in legitimizing heroin was a success. My understanding was that it encouraged more addiction because of ease of access. Correct me if I’m wrong. I would endorse from a public health position a clean needles program and Methadone if it was really universally applied and mandated – show up at the clinic for these services or face jail, which brings us back to law enforsement as a necessary tool.
Bottom line, the sad little wasted junkies that I see daily aren’t even getting the ramifications of the newly acquired life shortening diseases that they have and pass on to others. Addiction is the override.
There is just not an easy solution to this mess.
“the money they pay for the drugs finds it’s way into the RPGs and IED’s that are killing our guys. In the past it was national donors who paid… now it’s our own addicts who pay. And, our addicts get the funds from prostitution and other crime; how ironic.”
Indeed. And the tax money you pay for these useless and stupid wars against drugs and against terrorism (er, that is for oil) causes greater economic dislocation, which causes greater unemployment, which causes greater drug use, which causes greater government intervention to “help”, which causes government to hire more bureaucrats, soldiers and police, who cause even more problems at home and around the world, which makes people in government want to do even more to “help”, which takes more tax money, which causes more unemployment, which causes more drug use, … until having set off down the road to “save” Afghanistan and make Afghanis as rich and free as Canadians, you end up making Canadians as poor, enslaved and drug addicted as any Afghani beggar. How ironic!
I don’t know the answer either, but if you are going to try to do something about the drug problem, pushers and those profiting from the drug trade should be dealt with severely. In fact, they should be charged with attempted murder; they know that when they deal crack, coke, heroin, etc. that a certain percentage of their customers are going to die because of it.
Since a clear connection can be tied to the drug trade and terrorism, treason could be added on as well.
Go ahead and decriminalize possession, but treat those that profit from the trade with the harshness they deserve.
Ever see an alchoholic zombie? Someone with scratches on his face from falling as he stumbles on gathering empties for the next bottle?
I do not remember ever seeing a pot smoker in that death like position.
Why not sell pot from liquor stores just as booze is so controlled.
Free up armies of men and women to go after the hard drug dealers. Take the profits out of grow-ops and dealers.
Years ago I knew a fellow who liked bright coloured pills. His girlfriend was a nurse at a senior care centre.
She used to sneak the *magic* pills from work. My sense of human nature suggests that this is likely a wide spread practice.
Also, I sometimes notice the odd nerveous young guy with a cell-phone at the druggest counter picking up several prescriptions.
Somehow it seems as though the fun drugs group is far larger than I ever imagined. = TG
The last thing I want to see is Canada involved in is the absolutely assinine war on (some) drugs (WOsD) that is a peculiar perversion of the US. Decriminalization of drugs is the solution and this would bring things back to the way they were in the 1920’s when anyone could purchase heroin at their local pharmacy without a prescription and there was probably about as much abuse as there is now. The only effect I can see of the WOsD is that drug prices have steadily dropped and quality has increased to the extent that for many people in Vancouver not long ago it was cheaper to buy heroin off the street than morphine through a pharmacy on prescription.
Opium has a very long history of use in humans and is probably one of the first psychoactive drugs used. People have an inate need to alter their state of consciousness and those who fail to understand this are doomed to an endless battle with human nature. Heroin was initially marketed as a non-addicting replacement for morphine and clinical trials in the late 1800’s involved the chemists who worked in the lab testing the product out on themselves and, after these test subjects had no difficulty in discontinuing use of heroin, it was put on the market. Heroin is no more addicting than any other opiate and, contrary to popular belief, most people don’t like opiates. Studies in which people who aren’t in pain are given morphine result in most people having quite negative comments about the drug. Opiates cause mental clouding and somnolence in the majority of people and euphoria is not commonly described. Opiate addicts do get euphoria with opiates and their neurochemistry is likely quite different than most peoples. There is so much psychopathology present in people who are street heroin addicts that opiate addiction is usually the least of their problems and to use them as examples of what will happen to people if they try heroin reflects an abysmal ignorance of biochemical individuality in neurochemistry.
Recent research has shown that the mu-receptor (which is responsible for mediating the analgesic effects of opiates) has incredible heterogeneity. This, and the individual wiring of pain pathways, explains the immense variability in opiate responsiveness among people and why some people can have a traumatic amputation of a limb and not need any opiates and others who burn their finger and need large doses of opiates to treat what they percieve as intractable pain. Individuals also vary immensely in terms of the amounts of endorphins and enkephalins (endogenous opiates) that their brains produce and alcohol mediates many of its euphoric effects through endorphin release. Long term effects of opiates are physiologically considerably less destructive than the long term use of alcohol and opiates are some of the safest drugs around when used in proper doseages. The main adverse effect of opiates, aside from respiratory depression in overdosage, is chronic constipation and more rapid progression of HIV in HIV+ individuals.
Chronic pain is undertreated in N. America, and even in Canada where medical prescribing of opiates for chronic non-malignant pain is more acceptable than in the US, lots of people with chronic pain are undertreated. There is nothing more hypocritical than people who have high endorphin levels and lack of kindling in spinal cord pain sensory pathways persecuting people who have a different neurochemistry and who need exogenous opiates.
What has always puzzled me is why opiate addicts in Canada don’t grow their own poppies. They are very easy to grow and opium poppies grow wild throughout much of BC. The interior of BC has a similar climate to Afghanistan and one would expect large fields of poppies to be grown there, but cannabis appears to be the primary illicit crop. Perhaps it has something to do with the immense amount of work that it takes to make opium. Each poppy head has to be incised and after the sap has dried it needs to be scraped off with each head yielding a few milligrams of opium/poppy. The one factor not mentioned with poppy cultivation is the large yield of poppy seeds that one gets and this is likely an important food crop.
If one wanted to cut down on the amount of money going to the Taliban, I would suggest that people stop driving (unless they can be sure they are buying gasoline derived from Alberta crude) and stop shopping at WalMart and similar discount stores where everything for sale appears to be manufactured by Chicoms. The bulk of oil profits in Iran likely go directly to supporting terrorism and communist China is likely involved in supporting the Taliban an AlQueda as this support is a cheap way of weakening the US.
The last thing I want to see is Canada involved in is the absolutely assinine war on (some) drugs (WOsD) that is a peculiar perversion of the US. Decriminalization of drugs is the solution and this would bring things back to the way they were in the 1920’s when anyone could purchase heroin at their local pharmacy without a prescription and there was probably about as much abuse as there is now. The only effect I can see of the WOsD is that drug prices have steadily dropped and quality has increased to the extent that for many people in Vancouver not long ago it was cheaper to buy heroin off the street than morphine through a pharmacy on prescription.
Opium has a very long history of use in humans and is probably one of the first psychoactive drugs used. People have an inate need to alter their state of consciousness and those who fail to understand this are doomed to an endless battle with human nature. Heroin was initially marketed as a non-addicting replacement for morphine and clinical trials in the late 1800’s involved the chemists who worked in the lab testing the product out on themselves and, after these test subjects had no difficulty in discontinuing use of heroin, it was put on the market. Heroin is no more addicting than any other opiate and, contrary to popular belief, most people don’t like opiates. Studies in which people who aren’t in pain are given morphine result in most people having quite negative comments about the drug. Opiates cause mental clouding and somnolence in the majority of people and euphoria is not commonly described. Opiate addicts do get euphoria with opiates and their neurochemistry is likely quite different than most peoples. There is so much psychopathology present in people who are street heroin addicts that opiate addiction is usually the least of their problems and to use them as examples of what will happen to people if they try heroin reflects an abysmal ignorance of biochemical individuality in neurochemistry.
Recent research has shown that the mu-receptor (which is responsible for mediating the analgesic effects of opiates) has incredible heterogeneity. This, and the individual wiring of pain pathways, explains the immense variability in opiate responsiveness among people and why some people can have a traumatic amputation of a limb and not need any opiates and others who burn their finger and need large doses of opiates to treat what they percieve as intractable pain. Individuals also vary immensely in terms of the amounts of endorphins and enkephalins (endogenous opiates) that their brains produce and alcohol mediates many of its euphoric effects through endorphin release. Long term effects of opiates are physiologically considerably less destructive than the long term use of alcohol and opiates are some of the safest drugs around when used in proper doseages. The main adverse effect of opiates, aside from respiratory depression in overdosage, is chronic constipation and more rapid progression of HIV in HIV+ individuals.
Chronic pain is undertreated in N. America, and even in Canada where medical prescribing of opiates for chronic non-malignant pain is more acceptable than in the US, lots of people with chronic pain are undertreated. There is nothing more hypocritical than people who have high endorphin levels and lack of kindling in spinal cord pain sensory pathways persecuting people who have a different neurochemistry and who need exogenous opiates.
What has always puzzled me is why opiate addicts in Canada don’t grow their own poppies. They are very easy to grow and opium poppies grow wild throughout much of BC. The interior of BC has a similar climate to Afghanistan and one would expect large fields of poppies to be grown there, but cannabis appears to be the primary illicit crop. Perhaps it has something to do with the immense amount of work that it takes to make opium. Each poppy head has to be incised and after the sap has dried it needs to be scraped off with each head yielding a few milligrams of opium/poppy. The one factor not mentioned with poppy cultivation is the large yield of poppy seeds that one gets and this is likely an important food crop.
If one wanted to cut down on the amount of money going to the Taliban, I would suggest that people stop driving (unless they can be sure they are buying gasoline derived from Alberta crude) and stop shopping at WalMart and similar discount stores where everything for sale appears to be manufactured by Chicoms. The bulk of oil profits in Iran likely go directly to supporting terrorism and communist China is likely involved in supporting the Taliban an AlQueda as this support is a cheap way of weakening the US.
No drugs for anyone. None.
No drugs for cancer patients. None.
No drugsfor pain. None.
Let them die in pain and let God sort them out.
If your grandma is in pain, NO DRUGS! God will take care of that in God’s sweet time.
Down with Drugs.
No drugs for diabetics! Insulin is a drug! A foreign substance put into one’s body. God will provide! No drugs!
Painkillers from poppies are from the Devil! NO DRUGS!
Let every person die with no drugs in their systems: drugs are devil’s work.
From this day forward, all drug companies and those who take drugs shall cease.
God will provide.
If you happened to be suckered into doctoring and sickness and such, fear not! Lo, there is no drug needed but the drug of the knowledge of the Lord, and once you have knowledge of the Lord and the Lord liveth in you, drugs are as poison.
Toss away your puffers; toss away your insulin, toss away your blood pressure pills, for verily the ills of the earth are not your ills; and the medicines of the world are not your medicines; verily you are chosen to be without scar, mar, hinder or illness and need not medicine. Throw away the medicine that is not that from God, and trust in your righteousness, verily you shall be saved
Be drug free when you die, and enter the kingdom of heaven.
I don’t see an easy answer. Legalise opium and what’s to stop Taliban and AQ thugs terrorizing farmers in order to a) force the farmers to sell the drugs through them or their frontmen or b) simply robbing the farmers after they got paid?
The idea that governments or pharmacutical companies should buy up the crops and either destroy them or make medicine from them ignores the laws of supply and demand. Junkies aren’t going to stop craving heroin. As prices rise because the government/drug companies are buying the junk up, some industrious farmers will continue selling some of their poppies on the sly.
NATO soldiers destroying farmers crops won’t help win hearts and minds and will push more Afghanis toward AQ and the Taliban.
Legalisation will drive prices down and reduce court and prison costs. However, hospital/medical treatment bills will likely increase. There are moral concerns about democratic governments profiting from their citizens addictions. Although, of course, governments receive revenue from gambling, tobacco and alcohol.
In all liklihood, the status quo will continue. The alternatives, as I see them, are: (a) legalisation and (b) executing drug dealers/users. Both choices are political suicide for any democratic politician who suggests them.
well, living in the prison capitol of canada, we get to see the results of the war on drugs every day…the number of dealers and addicts out on day passes is in the 100’s…as well, we get about 20 % hanging around our fair city after release…so, what does this bring????just the scum who deal the dope…u know, bikers et al…something has got to be done about this plague…first of all, we must take marijuana away from organized crime…it is just a huge cash cow for them, as well, it exposes kids who r buying pot to the scum…secondly, no more day passes for third conviction…we have guys who r busted for dope/robberies etc while out on day pass…insane
Left Behind, Taliban Jack, and bin Laden agree:
“Be drug free when you die, and enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Get your 72 virgins. …-
NEW VIDEO SHOWS 9/11 HIJACKERS AT AFGHAN TERROR CAMP
Film of the ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers
reading his “martyrdom” while inside Afghanistan
at Usama bin Laden’s headquarters has emerged
five years after the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks. …-
national newswatch
Penny: My wife just sorted me out on the Methadone thing; she used to be a nurse in Vancouver and Edmonton. Methadone is preferred because its so hard to OD with… Heroin and Morphine are not, so authorities shy away from handing out these. She says that in Van. their users needed more and more up to levels that no hospital or clinic would ever hand out… these people are using dosages that would kill most of us. Eventually, they do kill themselves.
I gather from her that in order to keep the junkies happy, they be handing out doses that no doctor in his right mind would prescribe… just another complication.
Taliban Jack, with mousetache, with burka and veil, will lead an NDP reccy; searching for opium/heroin.
Olivia plans to stay home; hold the fort, feed the cats and dogs, etc..
Socialism: An opiate of the masses*. …-
Layton mulls trip to Afghanistan
VANCOUVER — Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton, who wants Canada to pull its troops from Afghanistan, says he wants to visit the war-torn country to get a sense of the situation there. …-
http://www.paulding.net/bin/url.cgi/13422.16
* H/T Karl Marx.
Debris Trail – Most methadone clinics make people come in daily for their dosing. Giving an addict a weeks supply isn’t smart unless there has been a record of honest compliance over time. Some sell portions of their allotment on the street.
I’m with Theodore Dalrymple at City Journal, he’s a physician writer with many years behind him working in British prisons, just detox these people. In China, it was detox or a bullet and addiction sank to miniscule levels real fast. We’ve created a whole new expensive industry managing their addiction. Rarely do people die of heroin withdrawl. Alcohol withdrawl is much more dangerous. It needs to be medically managed and is costly. Addiction is costly to society. Somewhere between Chinese Bullet Therapy and our heroin addiction managment industry, there has to be a better solution.
You can always tell about liberals they want to ban guns but allow drug addicts to have clean needles to shoot themselves up full of dope
There is a huge shortage of pain medication in third world countries. In Africa, where AIDS is ravishing the continent, it becomes quite clear that strong pain killers are necessary to help people deal with their pain.
I think this is a much better solution than, say spraying crops and hurting civilians. We can help impoverished people rebuild their nation and fight the war on drugs and terrorism at the same time. Cannabis culture has an extremely good article about this issue.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4830.html “>Link
Penny, hiv and hep c result from iv drug users sharing needles. The drug ingested has no relevance. It could be heroin, it could be methadone. Addicts mainline their drug because they get the biggest bang for their buck that way. This is necessary because of the astronomical value prohibition places on what should be a cheap product. The prohibitive drug policies of Bush and Harper are responsible for the spread of disease, the crime associated with individuals feeding their addictions, the human degradation, the enrichment of organized crime and the Taliban. The odious, vile assertion of this post, that addicts are killing Canadian troops, could not be more wrong. If you want to blame someone, look in the mirror and blame your support of right-wing hypocrisy.
Hey Taliban Jack. I don’t recommend you go to Afghanistan, so you can tell soldiers that they cannot “win” and indeed are part of the
“problem.” If you go, we might see the casualty list go up by one. (translation – they already believe you are an idiot; don’t go over there to confirm this). BTW, maybe you should have gone already to “get a sense of the situation,” before shooting your mouth off. Latest poll says 59% of Cdns don’t feel we can “win” in Afghanistan. So, we are asking people with no military or nation-building training or awareness to comment on the winnability of that conflict. Why don’t we ask them if they like going to the dentist – after all, the battle against tooth decay is “unwinnable,” because we don’t like novacaine. Unbelievable. Add to that they don’t even understand the context of what our troops are doing in Afghanistan in the first place (it’s George Bush’s war). After all, before we sent troops anywhere, Bin baby hadn’t declared war on us. NOT!! Has our cushy life affected our thinking process? Bin laden and the jihadists want us dead, kill countless Muslims, would like to unleash nuclear holocaust. But George Bush is making to world a more dangerous place. If there is an election, and the government is defeated because the Liberals promise to return the troops, I will never forgive Canadians who vote on this basis. First, it will be them who makes the world a more dangerous place, destroying any chance of Canada being a honest broker (that is our tradition, not peacekeeping). Second, they will ensure our soldiers died for nothing. Shame on those Canadians for your ignorance and stupidity!!
Moosehead says:
“We’ll do whatever we can to support our troops.” …-
Moosehead sending beer to Canadian troops.
SAINT JOHN, N.B. (CP) – Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan will soon be able to battle the heat of the southern Afghan desert with some beer from the largest Canadian-owned brewery. …….
Moosehead spokesman Joel Levesque said the beer would be shipped to Afghanistan from Canadian Forces Base Trenton in three rounds, with the first leaving in the next week. Another shipment will leave at the end of October, and a third will be sent in November.
The beer will be tapped on special occasions only – and soldiers will only be allowed to enjoy a cold one when they’re off duty.
Levesque said military officials contacted Moosehead requesting to buy the beer, though the brewery is working out an arrangement to donate it.
“We’re pretty proud of the fact that they’re specifically asking for Moosehead,” said Levesque.
“We’ll do whatever we can to support our troops. We’re going to be inquiring if we can donate the beer on a regular basis, and if that’s possible we’ll certainly do it.”
The brewery’s employees have also signed a giant poster with personal messages to the soldiers. …-
canoe news
Sharing needles is exactly what the drug addled do, you really think those folks are responsible enough to keep their needles sterilized or regularly que for clean ones?, dream on,….addiction is now a to death warrant to the most vulnerable, the newest, youngest druggie, someone has to intervene. Do you really think they are keeping appointments with their mental health counterparts? Your misplaced angst is why you are part of the problem.
If you think legalizing highly addictive substances is going to make those needles cleaner, then, you are a fool. You’ve never worked with addicts, my friend. Ever heard of the phrase “under the influence”?…. reason and good judgement don’t exist there. DUI’s don’t spell it out enough for you. Almost killing someone on the road is punishable, passing on Hep C and AIDS aren’t?
“those profiting from the drug trade should be dealt with severely.”
Those who profit from the drug trade … lemme see now, who profits the most from the prohibition on drugs? That would be the government. All those jobs for the police, prison guards, social workers, soldiers, bureaucrats, all the extra tax money that is pulled in through spy operations allegedly intended to detect money laundering, all the bribes, the cool gadgets purchased with confiscated money, the guns, the cars, the planes, the sheer excitement of exercising deadly power over “civilians” …
If you’re going to be logical about this, and not simply go off on hysterical flights of emotion about DUIs and HIV, then there is only one ultimate way in which to proceed with the problem of drug abuse in society: ALL self-prescribed drugs must be banned, including demon rum and killer tobacco. And approximately half of your country will be hired in order to spy on, arrest, imprison and re-educate the other half. I suppose that if they get bored of this, after a while they could switch places and take turns being a stoner/drunk or government goon.
Hey, Jabba, the vast majority of folks can handle wine at dinner and beer whenever, throw in a few joints on weekends, and aren’t costly hardcore addicts. Recreational IV heroin is an oxymoron.
Come on, you can do better than that.
We are talking heroin, crystal meth, and crack. If you knew the stats regarding their addictive properties and brain damage with meth, your flippancy would be derailed. Get a grip.
The Canadian War; On/Against Cancer; Narcissism Wins.
The Taliban laughs and laughs and laughs….
…-
Record crowd runs for cure
Calgary Sun – 1 hour ago
By TODD SAELHOF, CALGARY SUN. Rain didn’t dampen the spirits of a record number of Calgarians running and walking today to help find a way to beat breast cancer.
Thousands take over downtown TO for cancer run CTV.ca
Campbell joins 13,000 in breast cancer run Victoria Times Colonis
As an RN who has worked in a detox unit, substance abusers of any type are rarely, if ever, cured. They are chronic, thankless, users of everything “good” in society. I worked with repeaters who were perennially sorry for their behavior, but never could get their shit together. Almost all died fairly young…after putting their loved ones, and us, through hell.
Substance abusers are an immense, never-ending financial and emotional drain on families, community resources and health care dollars. In my opinion, a societies resources should be invested in those who wish to LIVE and be productive members of that society.
I would recommend that substances abusers be given one or two trips through the medical system for rehabilitation. Once documented as a habitual abuser, these people should be directed to a government facility where they can legally drink, inject or whatever, to their hearts content. However, first they and their families must sign a waiver in which the substance abuser will receive no further health care other than palliation. Active medical treatment will not be an option.
I realize this is a heartless approach, but in the end the abuser is satiated and society does not have to watch or experience the adverse effects of their incurable habit. Society should not have to pay the enornmous financial cost to “keep” these individuals.
In other words, most of these people want to harm themselves and eventually die, so let them. We’ll just provide a safe habitat for them to do so and hopefully eliminate some of the crime they engage in to support their habit.
Needlemeyer,
Count me as totally committed to your view and experience.
The only error I see is your opinion that this approach is *totally heartless*.
Not at all. In terms of tough love, for those who have lost the ability to save themselves, those who regain life would be ever thankful.
Tough it is though. A facility in the remote North where COMPETENT professionals are on duty, [not friends of friends], and where even the air space is closed so no helio drops can be made.
Costly? Yes, but a return of ten times on every dollar.
Canada*s *Siberian* angel. = TG
TG:
Thanks for fleshing out my solution. However, there is fallout. What to do with the legion of socialist do-gooders whose sole reason for being is perpetuation of their parasitic relationship with these societal ne’er-do-wells?
Imagine millions of Taliban Jacks screeching in unison. Plan B, anyone?
This idea of yours is enough to get Harper and the CPC easily re-eleted.
The socialist do-gooders get one way tickets to points east like Darfur and Lybia where their help is really needed.
Return ticket only after one year of service. = TG
needlemeyer57; I agree with TG, it’s not heartless. I think it’ll only be a matter of time before doctors refuse to treat addicts, much as we are starting to see with smoking and obesity.
As more people become aware of the ugliness of drugs such as meth, with it will come revulsion, disgust, and hopefully lawsuits too. Much the same as we are seeing with cigarettes. Soon, I hope, the effects of meth on our enviroment from dumping waste, the costs to our health care system, and the lasting, if not fatal effects, on our youth; will be horribly evident even to the willfully blind. This, and the evidence from safe injection sites.
There was a story last year about a girl from Biggar Saskatchewan who was suing her dealer. And why shouldn’t she? Pushers should be made to pay heavily and should also face civil lawsuits from those affected. How about suing on the behalf of fetuses?
As for the do-gooders, let them whine. Put it to a referendum. I sense law and order is on a lot of Canadians’ minds these days . Not sure if you heard the story about the Alberta teen who was convicted of killing her baby this week; the legal experts are stunned. The defense was that she had a hard time with the birth and that’s why she did it. No matter that she kept the whole thing a secret and did not seek medical attention. The general consensus I see from letters and callers is the same as the jury.
If Vancouver’s Mayor starts giving out free heroin, I wonder how long it will take before the casualties rack up? Maybe just in time for the Olympics?
As for destroying opium crops in Afghanistan, I understood many farmers were being ‘forced’ to.
Buy them up, destroy them, offer alternative crops, whatever it takes. But back it up with more troops.
Someone said something about Trusting. Just heard iggy say he has to convince Cdns to TRUST HIM.
As for the person who said they have never seen a drug addict in a death position aka an alcholic. Has that person ever ridden in an ambulance in vancouver to see all the overdosed addicts. Canada wants to introduce a 3 strikes your out, I suggest this be applied to all overdosed addicts in our major cities. Rescued by ambulance 3 times within a certain period of time and on the 4th time, you are OUT, no trip to the emergency room. These people are committing suicide, and the Svends of the world think they should be allowed to do so.