BarrieToday received the following letter following an eight-part series looking into the local opioid crisis. We welcome letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
**************************
We, too, live in downtown Barrie. We know many by name, both the homed and the homeless.
We shop downtown, eat downtown, walk downtown, live downtown. We are a part of the vibrant community that is downtown Barrie.
We are also a family that has endured two years of a person’s addiction. We would have done anything to stop the addiction, but it wasn’t until that person wanted out that change was able to take place.
And yes, they could have died. It was a realization we lived with every day.
A safe injection site will save lives. No contest there. But a safe injection site or Consumption and Treatment Services as the government is now calling it is not a solution to the opioid crisis.
There's no therapy for any other addiction that begins with a safe place to indulge in the addiction.
Here’s what you are not being told about existing safe injection sites:
Toronto Star: 'Do supervised injection sites bring crime and disorder?' -- Aug. 16, 2018. “Since drug injection sites opened around Moss Park last year, residents say they’re finding more used needles strewn in laneways, dealers selling drugs in plain sight and people attacking passersby.” Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam agreed "there’s been .a significant increase in crime, needles, and garbage on streets and parks."
Calgary Herald: 'Beltline businesses near safe injection site frustrated with rise of violent crimes' -- Dec. 15, 2018. "...police say violence and drug dealing in the community are on the rise.” "…drug dealers are flocking to the community to target the vulnerable population using the site.” “The escalation of problems, I can’t even put into words," said local businesswoman. "There are times where we have an incident every day.” "Calgary Police Service interim Chief Steve Barlow said the area has become a magnet for those involved in the drug lifestyle..."
Edmontonpolice.ca: Supervised injection sites -- “Several EPS employees and members of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police have observed firsthand the overtly negative impact that the Insite facility has had upon the Vancouver community. Discarded needles, open drug use, human waste, disorder, vandalism, drug dealing and graffiti are all byproducts that the Edmonton community should not accept.”
National Post: Tristin Hopper -- 'Vancouver’s drug strategy has been a disaster. Be very wary of emulating it' May 12, 2017. Stats from Vancouver police: Assaults 2002 - 784, 2016 - 1,248; Theft (excluding vehicle offences) 2002 - 981, 2016 - 1,715. Cited 2006 British Medical Journal study that found “no substantial decrease in the rate of stopping injected drug use” before and after Insite’s opening. Cited a 2012 Simon Fraser University student thesis who interviewed Insite nurses: “...staff having to clench their teeth
when encountering fresh-faced drug-users who were still entranced with the excitement of the Downtown Eastside.” “It is perverse to look at the Downtown Eastside and claim that it is in any way a holistic success. It is palliative care on a mass scale; a system that can keep hearts from stopping, but little else."
Walter Gretzky became famous for his advice to his son: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”
Safe injection sites have been in Vancouver for years and there is no change to the magnitude of their opioid crisis. Workers at the sites are taking stress leaves as they see addicts day after day who are not seeking out the rehab offered to them. B.C. is now attempting to attack at the source of the drugs. Wouldn’t it be phenomenal to have Barrie known for putting things in place that actually changed the course of the opioid crisis, instead of a Band-Aid solution of an injection site?
Let’s not make the mistakes that have been made by other communities.
Let’s think of a better way to make our most vulnerable population less vulnerable.
Liz
Barrie
Editor's note: Surname withheld upon request due to reference to a family member's addiction.
**************************
