“Harm reduction” – it’s the gift that keeps on taking;
For the last five years, the master plan for Saskatoon’s River Landing has included three riverfront beach volleyball courts on the far western edge of the $82-million development.
But the city, concerned with upkeep costs and safety issues with needles hidden in the sand, is exploring a different approach –an outdoor fitness playground where people can work out on the riverbank.
In f*cking parkas, I take it.
h/t BB
I’m sure people are going to exercise in -30c weather. Mt Washington here on Vcr Island has 7meters of snow base, having received 95 cm in the last 48 hours. The nice thing is that it is warm down here at sea level, the best of both worlds.
mike
Brought to you by the same people who believe in global warming — at least they’re consistent.
Why are they so concerned about needles? Oh, yeah they are the ones that gave them out in the first place.
May 25, 2009: Over 1.1 million needles were handed out in Saskatoon last year. Ten percent of those were never turned back in.
Just last month, over 330 needles were collected in an annual spring needle clean-up http://www.newstalk650.com/story/20090525/16838
The headline on this thread says it all, in spades!
In all fairness to the hapless mandarins, it could work. Lots of crazy people exercise in -25 and lower. I used to date this broad who would run all winter long in Winnipeg, sans parka. There is a community of these maniacs. Mind you, that was running and not a fitness playground.
This project stands a good chance of ending up as a frozen nerf playground that remains locked while unsupervised outside of standard government union hours, 9-5 Monday Friday.
I’ve never understood the practice of giving out drugs and needles to addicts. Rather than funding “safe injection centres”, might we not consider “safe withdrawal centres”, allowing the general population to remain safe while addicts are allowed to experience withdrawal in a managed environment?
$82 million, for a sandy beach in S’toon’s west end.
I guess they’ve included the policing costs in there… . Hey, why not put up some windmills to power those lights for evening beach volleyball ?
I want to drag a big old riverboat up onto that sand, fill it full of burgers and Great Western beer, and turn up the thermostat. Then folks can get buzzed in comfort while watching the ice floes drift by…
Betcha I’d make a killing!
Combining Kate and EBD’s last headlines:
“The World Is Being ‘Run’ By Crazy People”.
Now those weasel quotes actually work in this case, as we careen out of control to self-immolation.
Roseberry: Rather than funding “safe injection centres”, might we not consider “safe withdrawal centres”, allowing the general population to remain safe while addicts are allowed to experience withdrawal in a managed environment?
I absolutely agree, but that would be humane. Harm reduction contends that addicts have a right to do with their bodies what they want to.
Simply put the fact is that it is much cheaper to supply needles to addicts knowing they will likely die quicker by shooting drugs than by snorting or smoking them; hence, saving tons of money in health care costs, assistance payments and lessening the demand for low cost housing whilst boasting that they are reducing neighborhood crime and providing the addict “community” with vital health services.
Sound familiar? Harm Reduction is for all intensive purposes, indistinguishable from Planned Parenthood. Same game, different Orwellian name.
Roseberry: “safe withdrawal centres” Have never heard that term before and think it’s great. Talking that one up could be a winner.
Just sent that one off to my MP. “safe withdrawal centers”
“annual spring needle clean-up”
dailyrasp at March 16, 2011 12:21 AM
Everything you ever needed to know about the left in four words.
Can’t you guys just police the playgrounds?
Maybe the Soviet’s Gulag system has some merit.
In less enlightened times Hawaii had it’s Leper colonies..
Canada has lotsa Taiga….
Juat sayin’……
So call chin-up bars are “machines”. I wonder how many Saskatoonies it takes to grease one bar; probably fewer than a combine.
BTW, it only takes three to grease a combine – it you put them through slowly.
I wouldn’t say that the world is run by crazy people.
I would say, “retarded, frightened children”.
That’s why the projected facility is called a “playground.”
Dogs and cats sniffing,
digging and scratching
in the heroin needled sand?
Talk about animals Dancing and Sleeping together?
–
Hey!
Lets go play volleyball barefooted and get high.
–
Sorry-
I’m sitting here using a 2 inch hypodermic needle, daydreaming,
filling sweet smelling ink cartridges.
Life is Good.
Well you already get a workout avoiding the gangs and guys with machettes, running to have a cigarette on the other side of the park and running from guys because you can’t take your dog.
Why it will look so purdy we won’t allow people in it. Nothing is too good for my tax dollars.
Cranberry Flats..too far for the druggies and the Authority cops. All the freaking sand you want.
In the snippet quoted, I’m thinking that the phrase “three riverfront beach volleyball courts” also needs the WTF-bold-text treatment.
MFM has scare quotes.
SDA has WTF bold.
But what would happen to all the junkies that break into 5 cars a day and shit in our parks if they couldn’t dispose of their used heroin needles in children’s playgrounds?
While folks in Saskatoon have an annual needle roundup like it’s just another community activity, the crazy folk here in Halifax silly hall are pushing, get this, clear garbage bags so the recycling police can check out what you throw away as garbage. Yes indeed, the world is truly run by crazy people.
Are Highly Detectable Needles being used / distributed? Using only HDN is mandatory in the livestock industry.
http://salfarm.com/HDN_features-and-benifits.pdf
“safe withdrawal centres”, never heard of them ???
They’re called rehab treatment centres. If our government started treating addiction as a mental health concern rather than a criminal/moral concern, we might fund treatment for those with addictions. Instead they are criminalized, wrung through the “justice” system where they are temporarily warehoused and come out better criminals than they went in.
You pay either way.
I had this in my Scene yesterday – can’t believe the City of Saskatoon was/is considering either of these as viable. What’s wrong with park benches and beautiful views? It’d be a frosty day in Hades before I’d be caught strolling by the river with my point of view blocked by a grown man grunting on an adult jungle-gym.
“$82-million development”
This from a city with a rapidly deteriorating infrastructure where streets have to be dug up 2 or 3 times in the space of a couple of days to repair a water main break. This is no reflection on the workers. A break is repaired and when the line is pressured up, another break occurs within a few feet of the first one.
Removing snow has been replaced by “moving” snow. The result being impassable side streets as the spring thaw occurs. Now the potholes are starting to appear and they are greater in size and number than in the past. What other jurisdictions would describe as “craters” or “excavations”, Saskatoon would label “potholes”. Half-assed patch jobs in the past now give Saskatoon streets the appearance of those of Berlin or Dresdan in 1945.
“Are Highly Detectable Needles being used / distributed?”
Surely you can’t be serious, treating these junkies… err, I mean poor unfortunate souls like cattle. /sarc and I didn’t call you Shirley.
In Central Park here (Burnaby BC) we have a fitness trail where you can jog along and do various life-threatening things if you wish, but I always figure it would be more realistic if the stops were such as these:
** DODGE THE CRAZY HOMELESS DUDES RUNNING OUT OF THE WOODS
** SPRINT AWAY FROM THE HIDING RAPIST
** DODGE THE NEEDLES
** AVOID THE RABID COYOTES
** TRY NOT TO LISTEN TO THE GREENIES CHATTING
Indeed world run by crazy people I agree with it!
Sine political party are involve with too many criminal conspiracy
some one need to review
that climate change was not done man made
who knows may be
China or Russia or Korea
did purposly mess up with
Japan
for past hisotry already Japan has radioactive emision from old US bomb
and Japan has Yen Currency it used to be very high
and other car japenese industry
or all need to investigate
may be pull the triger against Japan nuclear industry before or after earthquake
nobody knows but nobody can search it too easy I guess
I am not sure
unless all consipracy and illegal country competition and put all kingdom out of table may be part of thier plan
again I am not sure
or may be ONLY MOTHER NATURE
need to blame
====
again 50% of world problmes can be resovle by
let Jewish and christian amend to thier law of relgion prophet Mohamad and Jewish agreed Jesus was prophet of god
and all Japan and china and Indian aboriginal Canadaian agree that GOd is exist
50% of other probelms is power link with money and stock and fair trade and competition for survival and help one billion destroy other country wealth can get stopped
it means stop to illegal conpiracy and corruption will lead to world to happy place to live
Distributing needles and providing “safe injection” sites isn’t harm reduction, it’s merely enabling behavior. Doesn’t reduce harm; on the contrary, it increases it. Keeps the damn junkies alive longer, so they can pull many more stickups, B&Es, car prowlings, and shopliftings.
You want real harm reduction? Then start a 3-strikes program for users of illegal drugs. First two strikes get you a trip to a detox centre, and a spell in custody, where you are trained to work for a living, and to avoid the junkie lifestyle. Third strike gets you a lifetime supply of free heroin, catch is, you get it all at once.
You cannot stop illegal drugs, or illegal anything, by solely attempting to control the supply side. You simply have to get the buyers out of the market.
Dear SDA Commenters, Thanks for the belly laughs today.
gordinkneehill: “You want real harm reduction? Then start a 3-strikes program for users of illegal drugs.”
It’s been tried, and where it has, it’s been a costly and ineffective failure. See, e.g., the US, where 4 decades and $1 trillion later, drugs remain a problem and the country now boasts the world’s most populous prisoner population.
– visualeconomics.com/losing-effort-the-united-states-war-on-drugs/#
– nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html
So naturally, the Conservatives want to lead Canada right down that dead-end road, despite mounting evidence indicating the folly of such a venture:
– winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/study-casts-doubts-over-tory-strategy-on-illicit-drug-use-118102384.html
Davenport, the USA is losing the war on drugs because they are fighting it the wrong way, concentrating on the supply side. Even a mandatory death sentence on first offence for traffickers will not be a sufficient deterrent, as long as there are huge profits to be made from selling the junk.
But if you take the buyers out of the marketplace, either by curing their addiction, or as a last resort, by killing them, then there is no longer a lucrative market for the pushers to sell into, and the price will collapse to the point that no pusher will risk the penalties involved for the puny rewards to be had. It would make drug pushing too much like real work, don’t you know?
And, FWIW, I would legalize marijuana (and tax it appropriately), because I see it as vastly less harmful than drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and crystal meth.
The “War on Drugs” should be reconfigured as the “War on Destructive Drugs.”
gordinkneehill: “But if you take the buyers out of the marketplace, either by curing their addiction…”
That’s the point of harm reduction — to create a safe space for addicts to turn to so that their habit is at least carried out in a relatively controlled environment. From there, counsellors are able to work with them towards breaking their addiction. You can’t forcibly “cure” a hard drug addict by arresting them and locking them in detox, any more than I could turn you into a bleed heart liberal by arresting you and locking you into a student-run vegan cafe on the Berkeley U campus. Harm reduction is the FIRST step in a long process of (1) gaining access to the addict population, (2) building trust, (3) helping them break their addiction. It isn’t meant to solve the problem alone, in one go.
“…or as a last resort, by killing them…”
And how, pray tell do you propose society go about implementing that strategy? Death penalty following an addict’s third strike? Roving vigilante squads patrolling the country’s back alleys and unlit parks?
My comments from the newspaper link; Anon @ 12:57; I think we’re all adult enough to handle you not censoring the word ‘suck’. Really, we are. If it is needles we are worried about, just post a sign explaining to diabetics that they are welcome to inject insulin while playing volleyball, but to consult Saskatoon Health for the location of a needle drop box. If it is the illicit drug users that are ruining the chance of me feeling sand between my toes, then take steps to limit their enjoyment, not mine.
…the point of harm reduction — to create a safe space for addicts to turn to so that their habit is at least carried out in a relatively controlled environment. — Davenport
If you knew any ex-addicts, you would never make that statement. Enabling an addiction is wantonly cruel to the addict.
How many people have lost any chance for a happy life, because their addiction was in some way enabled by society, family or friends?
Always remember, the addict is – by far – not the only individual torn apart by their addiction – spouses, children, family have their hearts torn out every day by the addicted relative.
Ending the addiction, not enabling it, is the ONLY public policy a society can pursue, if it wants to remain a decent and just society.
Gordinkneehill writes: “You cannot stop illegal drugs, or illegal anything, by solely attempting to control the supply side. You simply have to get the buyers out of the market.”
In general, it seems that the left advocates the punishment of purchasers when it comes to prostitution, but is concerned primarily with the punishment of suppliers when we are discussing the drug trade.
Davenport: “And how, pray tell do you propose society go about implementing that strategy? Death penalty following an addict’s third strike? Roving vigilante squads patrolling the country’s back alleys and unlit parks?”
You evidently didn’t read my first post on the topic very thoroughly. It’s the former, after due process, of course. Addicts are the walking dead, anyway. And if the former isn’t implemented, then eventually the latter will arise, as too many people become too disgusted with all the harm being being caused by the advocates of “harm reduction.”
If you are so concerned with the welfare of the addicts, why not take a couple of them into your own home? Surely that would reduce the harm more effectively than a sleazy clinic in a run-down neigbourhood.
small c conservative: “Ending the addiction, not enabling it, is the ONLY public policy a society can pursue, if it wants to remain a decent and just society.”
Harm reduction (HR) would indeed be “enabling” if it stood alone as the sole anti-drug strategy. But HR has never stood alone in any jurisdiction, nor has it ever been meant to. When viewed as part of a broader drug addiction strategy (along with prevention, treatment, enforcement), as it is always intended to be, the benefits of HR for ending addictions become clear. Why? Because you frequently can’t get to the “treatment” pillar without first reducing the harms associated with the addiction (criminality, stigma, mistrust of authority, etc.) that prevent professionals from gaining access to the addicts in the first place.
HR doesn’t promise that you can break every addiction cycle, but it at least offers the possibility, however faint (esp. for the most hardcore addicts). Take HR out of the equation, however, and you are basically guaranteeing that you will never end addictions among a large segment of committed users, and by extension, guaranteeing the perpetuation of the problem of illicit drugs in society.
“Take HR out of the equation, however, and you are basically guaranteeing that you will never end addictions among a large segment of committed users, and by extension, guaranteeing the perpetuation of the problem of illicit drugs in society.”
I call bulls##t.
HR has been around for what – 10 , 15 years?
The streets have never had so many scumbag meth crack head heroin junkies, ever.
“Perpetuation of the problem’, HA, my guess is fold-out recliner is getting paid to “perpetuate the problem”.
I’ll believe my own lying eyes.
We just get stupider and stupider (is that a word?) Resorts all over the world seem to be able to keep their beaches clean either by maintenance or by policing. How ef’n ridiculous are we going to get, now S’tooners can’t enjoy the beach because of the rights of the druggies and the dogs. Folks, someday we need to put a stop to the ridiculousness.