» News Flash: Drugs Aren’t Bad, Mmmkay?
BC’s police forces are known for taking a middle ground in drug enforcement: they rarely press possession charges but don’t support legalization or decriminalization. Still, I am shocked to hear Victoria’s new chief of police (transplanted from Vancouver) go on record that Victoria does not have a drug problem, drug abusers do not cause significant public disorder and hard drugs are relatively hard to acquire.
I’m expecting the Chief, the media and politicians to have a discussion about this over the next week or two. It could be true for all I know. For example, I only recently came to understand that crack and meth are the popular street drugs, not heroin as the media always told me growing up.
Unfortunately, alcohol addicts have a very high cost to society, so perhaps this is far from good news.
BTW, my use of that phrase in titles has an amusing pattern.
Jared
31 Mar 09 at 3:02 pm
Isn’t that how police operate everywhere (in Canada)? I actually don’t know; maybe I’m over-generalizing based on how they treat marijuana.
Don
31 Mar 09 at 7:20 pm
I kind of thought so, but I don’t know enough about other jurisdictions to make the claim. (Not that I know enough about BC, but I’m more confident faking it here…)
Jared
1 Apr 09 at 9:13 am
Drugs are massive in Victoria. Whether use is “problem” or not is, I suppose, a matter of discussion.
Drug use is invisible to most neurotypicals because people have no idea what period-point-blank street drug paraphernalia looks like. Think less in terms of syringes and stems and more in terms of disposable blood-glucose monitors. Less Trainspotting, more Minority Report.
One of the major benefits of safe injection sites is their distribution of high-tech self-disposing needles. If the Conservatives are right and addicts are infesting our playgrounds (they aren’t) then the party is still wrong to cut funding to safe injection sites — the needles they distribute are high-tech, self-retracting, and tamper-resistant, making them safer and easier to clean up and safer for kids to find (or step on).
Those who have eyes, let them see. Little blue boxes.
Drugs are not hard to acquire in Victoria — try City Hall. One of the problems in police hiring standards (and with prohibition generally) is they foster a lack of understanding of the culture.
Jack
1 Apr 09 at 1:14 pm
Jack
2 Apr 09 at 1:31 am