Saskatoon has just over 200 thousand People.
This morning on John Gormley Live, it was revealed that the health region hands out about One Million needles a year to drug addicts (double the number handed out in Calgary or Edmonton). It was revealed that about 100 thousand are never returned. It was also revealed that pushers are now providing “pre-loaded” needles … ready to use … and full of juice. It was also revealed that the health region pays people to go around and pick up needles that have been discarded and that City of Saskatoon Firefighters pick up to 3500 needles a month in ground sweeps.
And finally, Regina hands out 2.5 million needles … I’ll say it slowly … 2.3 – million in a city of under 200,000.
Build it and they will come.
Cjunk has more on this quaint little corner of Saskatoon.
OMG!
You’ll have to pry my government supplied needle from my cold dead hands before you can take it away from me.
Welcome to JohnnyDingo’s Canada.
NO BLOOD FOR NEEDLES!
Hmmmm, its just not catchy enough for progressives. Also, its kinda confusing. We’re gonna need some better marketing here people.
And Regina wonders why it’s always the “Worst City in Canada”??
But I’m sure none of this has anything to do with out-of-work Native populations, does it?
RG
What a message the government is sending to the kids. Free clean needles, nothing to fear here kids. Not just that, but the moron socialist know that part of the needle culture is the sharing of needles, it is a bonding ritual. They would really like you to believe needle users not only care about their health, but the health of society in general. It is a sick joke, and a waste of government money.
The stupid idealism of these leftover morons never ceases to amaze me, they just don’t have a rational common sense bone in their body. We have these same boneheads here in Victoria creating havoc and turning our downtown into a sewer full of druggies and panhandlers.
It is the left-wing-socialist liberal attitude instilled into the Canadian population since Pierre came along. “If you make a wrong decision, it is not your fault. Rather is is the fault of those who made the right decision and they will pay dearly for your wrong decision”.
Wait until it is decided that murder should be punished by showering the perpatrator with money as it was our fault he or she commited the crime.
Ironic example of government carrying out what could be described with leftwing-style hyperbole as “genocide” while Kate is being accused leftwing-style of Hate Speech for ironically pointing this out.
All your irony are belong to us.
Getting off topic here, but I just have to comment on Kinswilsuya’s blog article stating that he doesn’t understand why PM Harper didn’t speak after his visit to Auschwitz yesterday.
Is Kinswilsuya that sick that he would twist Harper’s dignity and respect for the victims, to try and make it something questionable? Or is because Kinswilsuya wouldn’t recognize dignity or respect because of his political and social affiliations?
What did he expect him to do, what Kinswilsuya would most likely do? Wear an ipod, and listen to punk rock music during the tour.
Harper isn’t a liberal. He wasn’t going for the photo shoot, and the opportunity to pull a couple of phoney glib lines out of his back pocket that would look good in the msm back home.
When I worked as a Medic in San Diego CA. The city did the same thing in our major park. We would find these needles everywhere.
What a huge mistake.
Yup … as a guy I worked with , who escaped from Communist Hungary in the 60’s would bitterly say … “Everything the government touches turns to ashes!”
… another success story.
HoneyPot, you’re living up to your name.
WK said or implied nothing of the sort. Go back and read it again, out loud if necessary.
Cheers,
lance
Interesting. You do realize that, in Saskatchewan, only diabetics who are classed as ‘low income’ or have ‘high drug costs’ get their needles for free?
Interesting especially considering that, in Saskatchewan, only diabetics who are classed as ‘low income’ or as having ‘high drug costs’ get their needles for free:
http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=5a09ca48-ba57-4043-8cfe-9ed1ad77b9fa
Zurich Switzerland did the same thing in the early 90’s and it was so bad the place where they distributed the needles was nicknamed “Needle Park”.
But at least the Swiss were clever. In the public washrooms (pay for use) , they used a light source which was slightly bluish and it was not possible to see the veins in the arm under that light !
Proof that my beloved home province has been a socialist paradise for far too long!
No Needles, No Funeral.
I read it, and I know what Kinswilsuya is trying to imply.
THE PRIME MINISTER AT AUSCHWITZ
——————————————————————————–
Monday, April 7, 2008, 08:41 AM
Squinting at the computer screen, as I was and am, I found myself nodding at Norman’s assessment of this report in the Star, yesterday. What, exactly, was the point being made? That he should have said something, but didn’t? That he should have been silent, but was not sufficiently emotional? It was quite bizarre, as Mr. Spector noted.
***************************
Main Entry: 1bi·zarre
Pronunciation: \bə-ˈzär\
Function: adjective
Etymology: French, from Italian bizzarro
Date: circa 1648
: strikingly out of the ordinary: as a: odd, extravagant, or eccentric in style or mode b: involving sensational contrasts or incongruities
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Only Kinswilsuya would find something bizarre in our PM’s showing dignity and respect for the victims of the death camps.
I read an article that stated down east some moron is putting used needles on park benches so you get stuck if you sit down. The police had to check the park benches. There is an attempt to hide them.
What else is one to make of this other than the government pushing a get addicted program:
Free Needles. Try it you’ll like it.
The program only needs one dead body and one good lawsuit against the government to end it.
in Africa if you are addicted they chain you to a bed for 3 months here we are willing to let you and the people you steal from around you suffer from your addiction for decades until they die.
Some cultural values I’m willing to import.
Do socialists show up at AA meetings loaded with booze?
I kid you not, I see needles in the tributaries of Lk. Ontario when I fish the river mouths for steelhead and salmon., Ganaraska (Ganny), Humber, Credit.
That little orange cap stands out in the water.
I foolishly picked up the first one because I couldn’t believe it was a needle.
Good thing the water is too polluted with fecal matter from geese and dog droppings for the kids to swim in it anymore.
The whole idea of handing out free needles to druggies always struck me as the equivalent of giving free booze to alcoholics. If we ever did the latter, would it surprise anyone to see the streets littered with empty bottles? Same goes for the free needle gimmick.
Not to get embroiled in the evil of drugs argument, but why aren’t the needles on an exchange basis? One for one?
Actually, they could make that ‘bring in two…get one free’ initially, in order to get the loose ones picked up.
I’m of two minds about this issue (and no, I’m not schizophrenic…shut up, yes you are…no, no I’m not).
Yes, “if you build it, they will come”. But if you don’t “build it”, they will STILL use drugs the same amount BUT with a much greater risk of increasing the spread of disease…which, in turn, drives up the health costs that we all have to pay for anyway.
The only solution (that I see) then would be to NOT cover the health costs of such self-inflicted illnesses. I’m okay with that, but how can you truly enforce such a system and not risk letting “an innocent victim” fall through the cracks?
Excluding someone from health care coverage for injuries or illnesses directly related to illegal activities is one thing (and in today’s mixed up world, that would be tough enough)…what about other “legal” self-inflicted injuries such as smoking, alcohol abuse, etc. or as suggested earlier, by riding motorcycles without a helmet? What politician or political party is ever going to effectively martyr themselves to pass such legislation?
Regarding the distribution of needles, the question to explore would be…ARE we reducing potential health care costs MORE than the total cost of supplying the needles (and picking them up, of course)? If there is a cost-benefit to this, then supply the needles; if not, don’t.
Is there a net benefit to society? That’s the question to ask, IMHO.
I am sure Kinsella is the type who can never put his blackberry down. He has it in hand while investigating bathrooms, attending Barrymore’s, probably each Sunday when he devoutly attends church he is probably typing away. Being present, he doesn’t understand what it means to be engaged.
The PM is going to get crap from his/our “alleged” liberal moral superiors no matter if he says something or not. Best to say nothing then. Let his critics make up their own stuff.
Brian, the blue light washrooms are also in Sydney Australia. Weird but it does make the places somewhat safer.
I am a former detox nurse.
Why are we enabling drug abusers? If they want to kill themselves, go ahead, but not on my dime. This is bleeding heart Socialism at its worst. Why sink more money into this quicksand?
An even greater waste of money is building them safe injection sites. This does nothing but concentrate all the crime and low-lifes of the world into one area.
Addicts participate in this behavior because they enjoy it and want to die. They play the system well. Let them do it. Their poor choice is not my problem!!
I’ll spring for the pine box when their torture is finally over.
I wonder when these geniuses, who concoct these government programs, will come up with one that will supply my son with his needles and insulin, which is used to prevent him from simply dying?
Needles and recreational drugs for self abusers, but ‘go away and die’ letters from Revenue Canada when applying for the disability tax credit (2003). Rev Can eventually rolled over after I sent the Feds my “you can send your proposition to straight to Hell letter.”
I MIGHT get a letter of apology from Rev Can sometime when ‘hell freezes over’, because of course the administrative or permanent government is always right.
I remain doubtfully yours,
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht BGS, PDP, CFP
Commander in Chief
Frankenstein Battalion
2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)
Knecht Rupprecht Division
Hans Corps
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
We had addicts before we had free needles, and we will continue to have addicts regardless of how you want to hunt them down. People love drugs. Always have, always will.
And don’t kid yourself: drugs are used across all layers of society. Richer folk are just smarter about it and tend not to get caught (unless their names happen to be Paris or Britney). Richer folk are the reason drugs are everywhere, too. It’s not the skidrow addicts that pay the bills.
Don’t confuse the effects of the drugs with the effect of prohibition. Drugs don’t cause Hep-C, AIDS, or diabetes. Legal drugs in known purity and strength also eliminate overdose.
Drugs also don’t cause criminal behavior. That’s our little myth that makes us feel good.
Easy money and an underground economy: that’s what causes crime.
What controls drug use? Social disapproval! Where drugs are freely available, the rate of use doesn’t change because in reality most people want nothing to do with them, and whether they are available over the table or under it doesn’t change that.
This is one case where the guvment has again caused the problem. Get the government out of the prohibition business and crime and disease will decrease – and weirdly enough, so will drug use.
That reminds me, I have to ask my wife if she pays for her Insulin Needles i honestly do not know.
What the hell are you people complaining about?! This is a very successful government program here!
They are redistributing the wealth from those who do not deserve it to those who don’t have it. that’s the purpose of modern government.
And once they get enough people hooked on junk, the process will go a lot faster.
We have the same program here in Ottawa and it too is a catasthrope. The bright lights named it harm reduction program and it is quite the opposite as used syringes were regualarly scattered in our downtown parks and back allies and many times right in parks where kids would be playing. You’d often see people shooting up right on the front porches of homes and vestibules of apartment complex not ever worrying about their spend drug equipment. We even hand out crack pipes to addicts because we think encouraging drug use will actually stop it. No, ain’t going to stop it that’s for sure. These leftards simply don’t have that much wisdom as they keep making the same mistakes over and over again, hoping for a different result.
The reason you give out needles is because it is a hell of a lot cheaper then dealing with the medical costs of the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other blood diseases. Needles are also cheaper then incarceration.
It is also cheaper then offering free treatment to these addicts and it is cheaper then dealing with the underlying social problems that led to the addiction in the first place.
Sure get rid of the needles and watch our healthcare cost soar.
Whatever: There is not one bit of proof that needle programs save lives.
In Saskatoon, Hep A and HIV have continued to go up.
Kate,
Have a look at this article. It is from 2003, but likely still applies. It is on how diabetics in SK can only get free supplies such as needles, syringes, etc if they are low income.
“The drug plan is targeted to people with high drug costs, low incomes, or a combination of both. Over 15,000 people with diabetes who currently receive benefits through the Saskatchewan Drug Plan will see their benefits increase to cover diabetic supplies.”
http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=5a09ca48-ba57-4043-8cfe-9ed1ad77b9fa
Saskatchewan: Making it pay to be a heroin addict.
Whatever, if you want cheap, the way to go is to get rid of welfare. That way the “poor” are too busy working to lie around stoned all the time.
The underlying social problems in this case are bad policing and government support of drug dealer income through welfare.
Tax cut now please.
Just a question that the health regions should consider. I believe that they would be liable if some child or adult accidently pricked themselves with one of these used needles left in the public domain. By participating in an activity that is well documented and researched as being a high health risk and illegal. The health regions I believe could be found guilty in participating and complicent in illegal activities that are a high health risk to the public as a whole. Common sence is not in the Leftards vocabulary. this type of thing has to stop and this is just the tip of many other stupid initiatives that the leftards are committing against the public.
Umm, is there any way to delete a comment? Someone sent me that in an email this morning and then I read the post, commented, and then read the comments section. Curses!
In Saskatoon this program is called Harm Reduction. Isn’t that a nice bit of Socialist spin.
The only medical treatment drug users should get is palliation during the end stages of their self-inflicted diseases. This would keep health care costs low.
Interesting logic, Kate.
“Built it and they will come.”
I wonder, does this principle hold true on the topic of gun control? If we curtail supply to the public, according to your statement, wouldn’t there necessarily be less gun-related crime?
I see that you’re a fan of remix videos. Here’s one for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T17tRPxRWe0
I have to agree with the leftist thinking on this one. Saskatoon and Regina are clearly failed cities. We should withdraw from Saskatoon and Regina. We all know that people from Saskatoon and Regina are different from us; they don’t have our same traditions of hard work and showers. They have a different definition of work and cleanliness than we do. The war on drugs is a quagmire akin to the war on poverty. The drugs of mass addiction were never found. “Tommy Douglas railed, people were impaled”. We should pull out now.
Or sorry, lefties, does this line of thinking only apply to poor peasants genuinely attempting to improve their level of education and life expectancy in the face of murderous, luddite, repressive, barbarians? I am truly trying to be “progressive”.
“Look, see how I care for the drug addict over there? If I care that much about him, imagine how much I care about you, my little voter.”
At some point, there is a first time a junkie puts a needle in their arm. If at that very moment, they think, “if I do this, this is a departure that will end in my miserable demise”. What, pray tell, serves as a deterrent that would encourage anyone to put that first needle down and walk away? What, if there are to be no consequences?
Supply-side management is working well for us, isn’t it? Government does not have the resources (i.e. OURS) to effectively choke off all supply, so this is not a solution.
Comes a point, that I simply do cease to care – my priority is my family and doing everything I can to raise productive, thoughtful, honest, contributing members of society. Having politicians use faux-compassion as a vote-garnering mechanism that results in demolition of deterrents to serious self-destructive behavior does not help me the least in that task.
Shooting crap of unknown pedigree into your veins is a slow march off a cliff. It serves us collectively, and specifically for myself as a parent, for the perception of that cliff to remain a cliff, because, like it or not, and all the taxpayer money in the world will not change that.
Forain: I guess you missed the part about “law abiding” gun owners.
Forain, I see your point. Clearly if the government were to supply free Glocks and Mac 10s to the gang bangers but not, of course to law abiding citizens, as well as safe shooting sites i.e. ranges — oh, wait, those already exist; we’re half way there; then we should expect the incidence of gun violence to go down — a splendid idea. It works for needles, it should work for guns.
I don’t buy into this idea of “blaming the victim” either. I mean, holding people responsible for their own behavior, wether that be gun owners or needle owners is so . . . bourgeois.
No , no it’s not a “cliff.”
It’s just a gentle slope.
You know what, don’t take my word for it, here’s your free crazy carpet, would you like a PUSH, to get going.
Kate has just this minute has been slagged as having a hateful racist things to say about abos etc and that Wall is distancing himself from this blog. etc etc. Just thought I would mention it. It was on CKNW Vancouver radio in the 10am to 11am slot. You can hear it by going to CKNW.com and check the archives (the Vault) you may have to set up a free login account.
Hmmm…
A post of mine appears to have been deleted and I’d hate to think it disappeared because I was reluctantly defending Kinsella.
In it I had the temerity to point out that a couple of posters here are “selectively quoting by attribution” Kinsella(probably by accident rather than design).
Kinsella commented negatively on the Star article, and thus is a victim (poetic-justice wise) of his own debating tactic in this instance.
Your tax dollars used to destroy your own civilization.
Want more of this?
vote liberal !
The comments were made by Norman Spector who was one of Mulroney’s fart catchers at one time. I suspect is now a bitter old ‘progressive’ conservative semi retired on Vancouver Island. At least that’s how he comes across on his little weekly spot on the Bill (do) Good morning bleat.