First safe supply "drug store" has opened in Vancouver

[giallo]

Illegal drug store selling heroin, meth, cocaine in downtown Vancouver for safe supply

By Darrian Matassa-Fung Global News


https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/drug-store-sign.jpg


A Vancouver man has opened a mobile drug store to provide a safe supply of illicit substances to users in the downtown core.

Drug user advocates have been calling for an accessible safe supply for years to combat the toxic and drug overdose crisis and, now, Jerry Martin has taken matters into his own hands.


"We are trying to help curb overdoses and other dangers that happen from drug buying," he told Global News.


"We are providing testing and supplies so people can do drugs safer."



Full article here:

https://globalnews.ca/news/9673682/illegal-drug-store-vancouver-illicit-substances-safe-supply

[whatnext]

Jesus Christ, what a dumpster fire this country has become.

[MonkeyRonin]

Jesus Christ, what a dumpster fire this country has become.


Yeah, the thousands of people dying every year from drugs cut with toxic substances was much better than this.

To be clear, I'm not necessarily celebrating this (though stuff like MDMA should absolutely be legal anyway), but it was obvious that something had to be done. This is a pretty radical solution, but I'm open to seeing how it works out - or not.

[LightingGuy]

I would support a highly regulated and highly taxed version of these stores.

Regulate it to make sure it's safe/consistent.

Tax the living shit out of it and use all the tax revenue to provide addiction and mental health counseling.

[SignalHillHiker]

This is great. Fighting most "vices" is always going to be a losing battle. There will always be sex workers, cannabis, tobacco/alcohol, harder drugs, etc. Society can only be better off when all involved can partake safely, especially to the extent decriminalization can enable legitimate providers to replace organized crime and traffickers (in people and drugs).

[giallo]

I would support a highly regulated and highly taxed version of these stores.

Regulate it to make sure it's safe/consistent.

Tax the living shit out of it and use all the tax revenue to provide addiction and mental health counseling.

Yup. Leaving drugs unregulated, and in the hands of organized crime has gone about as well as it always has.

Time for a change.

[casper]

Jesus Christ, what a dumpster fire this country has become.

Needs to be regulated with very tight controls. Similar if not more restrictions than are in place on advertising Tabaco.

Much better option that allowing criminals to sell this stuff on the street with no QA and deal with the associated deaths and hospital emergency room visits.

[TorontoDrew]

I would support a highly regulated and highly taxed version of these stores.

Regulate it to make sure it's safe/consistent.

Tax the living shit out of it and use all the tax revenue to provide addiction and mental health counseling.


The vast majority of people who will use this will be people who are living on the fringes of society, it needs to remain cheap for them. I'm all for taxing it but it needs to be as cheap as what they are buying on the street or they won't use it defeating the purpose.

You should need a note from a Dr or a healthcare/social worker to use this service though.

[Acajack]

I would support a highly regulated and highly taxed version of these stores.

Regulate it to make sure it's safe/consistent.

Tax the living shit out of it and use all the tax revenue to provide addiction and mental health counseling.

For starters this part seems a bit unrealistic.

Hard drug users aren't generally boutique stoners with high incomes. Sniffing coke out of rolled up 100 dollar bills at Studio 54. Most of them scrounge or steal for drug money.

If the legit sales points charge too much they'll go to the street drug market to get their fix anyway.

Even legalized pot (relatively cheap, and a slightly more "boutique" clientele, and of course way less dependent) hasn't eliminated the illegal pot market completely.

[esquire]

Man, I wonder if there's an opportunity to establish these here? Making money by exploiting the misery of people sounds great, I can buy a cottage with a nice fishing boat!

[LightingGuy]

Legalizing weed made weed cheaper, even with all the tax thrown on top if it.

Back in 2006 weed used to cost $10/gram off the street. Even now after 17 years of inflation, legal weed still costs less than $10/gram.

I can only imagine that actual companies with economies of scale could make and distribute these drugs much more efficiently than the black market.

Use 100% of the tax revenue to help people get clean.

But let me rephrase it:
Tax it, but not so much that the legal drugs cost more than the drugs off the black market.

[WarrenC12]

Legalizing weed made weed cheaper, even with all the tax thrown on top if it.

Back in 2006 weed used to cost $10/gram off the street. Even now after 17 years of inflation, legal weed still costs less than $10/gram.

I can only imagine that actual companies with economies of scale could make and distribute these drugs much more efficiently than the black market.

Use 100% of the tax revenue to help people get clean.

But let me rephrase it:
Tax it, but not so much that the legal drugs cost more than the drugs off the black market.

We know what the tax revenue is from weed, and it's not a ton.

Weed companies came in with huge promise but some have gone bankrupt and others have seen their stock valuation drop 90%.

I don't see why it would be much different for hard drugs.

[LightingGuy]

We know what the tax revenue is from weed, and it's not a ton.

Weed companies came in with huge promise but some have gone bankrupt and others have seen their stock valuation drop 90%.

I don't see why it would be much different for hard drugs.

Even so, it's better than buying it off the street, where it was sourced from violent cartel. You're not going to stop people from using it, so at least make it safe.

[TorontoDrew]

Man, I wonder if there's an opportunity to establish these here? Making money by exploiting the misery of people sounds great, I can buy a cottage with a nice fishing boat!

Seeing cocaine on the menu has me a little worried though. If that opened here I unfortunately know a few too many people that use coke too much. I would be worried about their addictions getting worse if it was legal to buy.

[ssiguy]

I would support a highly regulated and highly taxed version of these stores.

Regulate it to make sure it's safe/consistent.

Tax the living shit out of it and use all the tax revenue to provide addiction and mental health counseling.

The problem with taxing the crap out of it is that it would become more expensive than if they bought it on the street and in Vancouver you can buy drugs on every corner.
I can see the reason behind it because the drugs today are sold with different substances so the dealers make more money like rat poison but still don't like this at all because it normalizes drug use.

This is an obvious example of how the city and province have basically thrown up their hands because they refuse to properly fund addiction and mental health programs. As long as the people who are dying stay in the DTES, they couldn't give a damn about them. Remember this is the same city that had 70 murdered women {mostly prostitutes} and instead of doing anything about it they simply labelled them as "missing". After these women were "missing" the city reluctantly put up a reward for information but only because they were shamed into it as they had brought in a reward for a spat of expensive cars being stolen on the tony Westside.

[whatnext]

Yeah, the thousands of people dying every year from drugs cut with toxic substances was much better than this.

Darwin's Law.

To be clear, I'm not necessarily celebrating this (though stuff like MDMA should absolutely be legal anyway), but it was obvious that something had to be done. This is a pretty radical solution, but I'm open to seeing how it works out - or not.

Yeah it is so great to have people stoned out on drugs while working etc. Oh but of course, they'll all just do it on their off time. :rolleyes:

This worked out so well for China during the days of the opium trade, didn't it?

[esquire]

Seeing cocaine on the menu has me a little worried though. If that opened here I unfortunately know a few too many people that use coke too much. I would be worried about their addictions getting worse if it was legal to buy.

Don't lose sight of what really matters here. You could get a beautiful home! A nice car! Take awesome vacations! Maybe you missed out on weed shops, but if you're quick you can get in on the ground floor with this.

[thewave46]

I have extremely mixed feelings about this.

Unlike marijuana, these are pretty hardcore drugs and I don't know how someone 'proves' they're addicted to cocaine so they can score some clean coke legally.

It opens a "legal" avenue to obtaining drugs whereas the nominal block to access might have dissuaded people prior. I know the nominal block is pretty weak for the dedicated, but the idea of an idiot 18 year old from the suburbs getting cocaine for a party sits ill with me.

I am also not unsympathetic to those who are suffering because of tainted drugs and this would reduce the harm for them, but the large-scale acceptance of marijuana prior to its legalization made that process more a fait accompli than anything.

[MonkeyRonin]

Darwin's Law.

Yeah it is so great to have people stoned out on drugs while working etc. Oh but of course, they'll all just do it on their off time. :rolleyes:

This worked out so well for China during the days of the opium trade, didn't it?


You're moralizing the issue where it needn't be. They're drugs, and drugs are bad, therefore drug users deserve to have bad things happen to them seems to be the gist of it?

I'm not sure why drugs being legal or decriminalised would mean people do them at work either - I mean, does everyone just get stoned all day now that weed is legal? MDMA and cocaine in particular are primarily party drugs, mostly used by regular people - not really any worse than alcohol (and MDMA at least has some potential medicinal or therapeutic uses, but that's another story). If hazard a guess that the majority of Canadians aged 20-40 have tried these - which makes the toxic supply all the more concerning, as it doesn't just affect homeless junkies.

Now, stuff like crack, heroin, and meth are obviously a lot more addictive, dangerous, and harmful to both the user and society at large; so I'm not sure that full-fledged legalisation of these are a good idea. Not sure what the answer is, but perhaps treating their addictions as a medical issue than a criminal issue or moral failing is a start.

[LightingGuy]

The problem with taxing the crap out of it is that it would become more expensive than if they bought it on the street and in Vancouver you can buy drugs on every corner.


See post 13

[thebasketballgeek]

I’m all for it. Not that I partake in these activities myself, but if one day I wanna snort a line I’d rather get the goods at a self checkout instead of a sketchy alleway :shrug:

Besides it could be a nice boost to the economy and reduce the stigmatization of these drugs which really in some cases aren’t even that much worse then alcohol but the American propaganda machine would have you believing otherwise.

[niwell]

Seeing cocaine on the menu has me a little worried though. If that opened here I unfortunately know a few too many people that use coke too much. I would be worried about their addictions getting worse if it was legal to buy.


Most people I know who do too much coke can seemingly call a guy at 2am with ease so not sure this would really change that much! I’m too old to partake at this point (don’t need the next 5 days feel like I’m dead) but the main concern now seems to be the source / purity.


In any event this seems like a radical and needed response to a very real problem. A mix of decriminalization and legalization that’s drug-dependent would be my preferred long term solution. Not sure it would be any big benefit from a taxation perspective so don’t think that should be a hard goal - just a bonus. Of the people I know who smoke a lot of weed / do edibles I’d say about half use the legal framework. Particularly with edibles others have stuck with grey market sources, mostly due to strength/quality and not price.

[logan5]

Jesus Christ, what a dumpster fire this country has become.

Yeah but you must be tempted by that 100% uncut cocaine. That just doesn’t happen anymore.

[madog222]

And surprise surprise, the proprietor has been arrested. Fun while that lasted.

Police in Vancouver have arrested a man in connection with an “illicit drug dispensary” that had been operating in the city’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.

According to the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), the suspect started selling cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, and heroin out of a mobile trailer parked near Main Street and Cordova Street on Wednesday.

Police say a 51-year-old man was arrested for drug trafficking and has since been released, with the condition that he is not allowed to return to the Downtown Eastside.

In a statement, Const. Tania Visintin says the department supports measures “aimed at improving public safety for people who use drugs, including harm reduction services and decriminalization.”

“However, we remain committed in our position that drug trafficking will continue to be the subject of enforcement.,” she said.

Police also seized two vehicles, body armour, and cash during the investigation.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/05/04/vancouver-illegal-drug-store-arrest/

[whatnext]

And surprise surprise, the proprietor has been arrested. Fun while that lasted.


https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/05/04/vancouver-illegal-drug-store-arrest/

Good. Though once David Eby and his former buds at Pivot Legal get involved we'll see how long it lasts. The Feds will of course be useless.

[WarrenC12]

He wanted to be arrested to start a Charter challenge. But first, I'm sure there's a GoFundMe.

[SpongeG]

this was on the radio this morning.

People commenting on it, there were 3 commentors, 1 loved it he was from Quebec and said if people don't want to do drugs they aren't going to buy them, and those of us who do use drugs are happy to buy them from this place, 1 was against it and not happy with the direction this is going and 1 was also against it and said he has operated a business in the area for 30 years and is not too happy with how things are and this is not any help or any better.

[kwoldtimer]

He wanted to be arrested to start a Charter challenge. But first, I'm sure there's a GoFundMe.

That was my assumption. I wonder who fronted the money to open shop?

[SpongeG]

on the radio he was expecting to use the money he got from selling the drugs for the court fight.

[Acajack]

Do people get the society they deserve like they get the government they deserve?

[someone123]

Do people think that all legal pharmaceuticals should be available without a prescription or pharmacist involvement?

Another question is whether the cannabis regulations should be thrown out. The stores have to be approved, they're not allowed to advertise products openly, they can only sell a small dose (10 mg of THC max while that 1 g of heroin listed is apparently approximately 5x the lethal dose), etc.

[lio45]

... they can only sell a small dose (10 mg of THC max while that 1 g of heroin listed is apparently approximately 5x the lethal dose), etc.The majority of the amounts of coke listed are enough to kill you (if you use it via shoot).

I'm puzzled at the absence of opioids among the products for sale -- why not? Why would that guy leave opioid addicts SOL?

[lio45]

Do people get the society they deserve like they get the government they deserve?My personal answer to this question is "no doubt at all!"

[whatnext]

Yeah. meth is so safe. Nice to see it on their menu:

Dog owner regrets not getting pet insurance after her pet eats human poop laced with meth

A Vancouver dog owner saddled with thousands of dollars in vet bills was thinking twice about her lack of pet medical coverage, after her French bulldog experienced seizures while on an Olympic Village walk last year.

This all comes after her dog consumed human feces that was contaminated with drugs.

Chloe Lerner says the incident took place back in November while she and her dog Rizzo were out for their routine nightly walk.

“She was having seizures. She couldn’t stand upright, she just flopped over to her side and was shaking. Rizzo is a healthy, strong dog, but this is a dog that had no control over her body.”...

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/05/04/vancouver-dog-insurance-meth/

[WarrenC12]

Do people think that all legal pharmaceuticals should be available without a prescription or pharmacist involvement?

Another question is whether the cannabis regulations should be thrown out. The stores have to be approved, they're not allowed to advertise products openly, they can only sell a small dose (10 mg of THC max while that 1 g of heroin listed is apparently approximately 5x the lethal dose), etc.

Yeah anything dangerous to the level of opioids needs to involve a medical professional.

OTOH I can buy a big bottle of tequila, down it, and die, without anybody else's involvement.

[someone123]

Yeah anything dangerous to the level of opioids needs to involve a medical professional.

OTOH I can buy a big bottle of tequila, down it, and die, without anybody else's involvement.

If you were 18 you wouldn't be allowed to buy the tequila in BCL but that guy would sell you cocaine. ;)

I don't think the relationship with alcohol is that close as we have a lot of related social norms, the addictive potential is much lower, and the fatal dose is much higher. You can always trivially kill yourself (e.g. stab yourself with a fork or something); the question isn't whether it's functionally possible, it's what the outcomes are in practice, and selling hard drugs like this is new territory.

The harm reduction folks don't say we must make drugs as available as possible, they say we should look empirically at what makes people's lives better. I wonder if this guy running this store is equipped at all to evaluate what he is doing.

It is true that there's a lot of inconsistent safetyism that is partly historical in nature.

[WarrenC12]

It is true that there's a lot of inconsistent safetyism that is partly historical in nature.

Right and alcohol is normalized, people have a decent idea of what is too much and when to stop (mostly). Hard drugs are a bigger roll of the dice.

Cannabis is a false analogy as it was never very dangerous and everyone who called it a "gateway drug" or something similar was just lying. By the same token we can't use the boring legalization of cannabis and extend it to other things.

[Acajack]

Right and alcohol is normalized, people have a decent idea of what is too much and when to stop (mostly). Hard drugs are a bigger roll of the dice.

Cannabis is a false analogy as it was never very dangerous and everyone who called it a "gateway drug" or something similar was just lying. By the same token we can't use the boring legalization of cannabis and extend it to other things.

Were they? I think the jury is still out on that one.

I was just thinking about that recently in fact.

[WarrenC12]

Were they? I think the jury is still out on that one.

I was just thinking about that recently in fact.

Cannabis? :shrug:

[giallo]

Alcohol has and always will be the gateway drug. The narrative that weed, a drug that makes you less inclined to do.....much at all, is the gateway to things like cocaine, meth and heroin is so unbelievably stupid that it could only be believed by someone who has never done any drugs at all. It's pure propaganda born out of the anti-cannabis movement of the 20th century.

Every drug I've done that I wouldn't have partaken in sober was because of alcohol. And that goes for all of my friends spanning from Canada to China. Alcohol's entire appeal is to make you more uninhibited. Marijuana is the exact opposite.

[whatnext]

Alcohol has and always will be the gateway drug. The narrative that weed, a drug that makes you less inclined to do.....much at all, is the gateway to things like cocaine, meth and heroin is so unbelievably stupid that it could only be believed by someone who has never done any drugs at all. It's pure propaganda born out of the anti-cannabis movement of the 20th century.

Every drug I've done that I wouldn't have partaken in sober was because of alcohol. And that goes for all of my friends spanning from Canada to China. Alcohol's entire appeal is to make you more uninhibited. Marijuana is the exact opposite.

There's merit in the argument that if people think it is Ok to self-medicate (ie not consulting a medical professional) with cannabis then what's to stop them from proceeding further and dabbling in other drugs.

[niwell]

I tend to think of weed as a "gateway drug" to be more of a correlation does not necessarily equal causation thing. From my experiences at least, (many of) the people who ended up doing a lot of hard drugs just liked getting high. And as a teen, weed (and booze) was simply the easiest and cheapest thing you could get ahold of. When other stuff was available they wouldn't turn it down.




Every drug I've done that I wouldn't have partaken in sober was because of alcohol. And that goes for all of my friends spanning from Canada to China. Alcohol's entire appeal is to make you more uninhibited. Marijuana is the exact opposite.

This also mirrors the experience of myself and people in my social circle. Also starts a fun and horrible feedback loop - drink a bunch, think doing drugs is a good idea, then somehow can drink a whole bunch more! Always seemed like a good idea at the time.

[giallo]

There's merit in the argument that if people think it is Ok to self-medicate (ie not consulting a medical professional) with cannabis then what's to stop them from proceeding further and dabbling in other drugs.

People have always self-medicated though.

Obviously, it's in one's best interest to consult a professional before putting anything potentially harmful into your body, but the problem right now is that people are putting already dangerous drugs into their system without knowing what else is in it. For all of the problems associated with alcohol, at least it's regulated, and we know what's inside it.

I'm not an advocate for legalizing drugs for the sake of it. For me, it's more about legalization to stop all of the harmful practices that are associated with prohibition (unregulated black market, organized crime, exploitation of mental health).

It's a messy, messy situation, and I'm not entirely sure that legalization would work, but the current status quo is a disaster.

[ssiguy]

Let's call a spade a spade here, this is nothing more than a complete abdication of responsibility by the city and province. These two levels of government are effectively putting up their hands and saying "we have other priorities so just sell them the drugs and let the chips fall where they may".

The idea that the drugs will not have toxic chemicals in them is nothing more than an excuse to not provide the health and social supports these people need. This is akin to someone having cancer and instead of providing medical support, they just give them some pain killers. Good luck and goodbye.

[1overcosc]

Do people think that all legal pharmaceuticals should be available without a prescription or pharmacist involvement?.

This is a good point. There's a lot of overlap between the folks that cheer on "safe supply" of heroin for addicts while also having cheered on extremely harsh crackdowns on the idiots who decided to take ivermectin for covid. If we're gonna throw the door wide open to illegal drugs, where does that leave restrictions on pharmaceuticals?

[1overcosc]

There's a pretty big difference as well between:

a) Introducing safe supply as part of a suite of policies including improved mental health care, investments in rehabilitation, urban renewal, housing crisis fixes, improvements to policing, etc.

b) Introducing safe supply without any other changes to the status quo.

Safe supply as part of scenario A is good. Safe supply in scenario B will probably just make things worse. And Scenario B is massively more likely.

[WarrenC12]

Every drug I've done that I wouldn't have partaken in sober was because of alcohol. And that goes for all of my friends spanning from Canada to China. Alcohol's entire appeal is to make you more uninhibited. Marijuana is the exact opposite.

Excellent point.

[whatnext]

Hey, remember when that guy tried to open a store openly selling meth and heroin? Maybe aiding drug use is not such a great idea after all...

The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose
Jerry Martin, 51, opened the store in Vancouver because he wanted to give people access to clean drugs and challenge Canadian drug laws.
By Manisha Krishnan
July 1, 2023

The man who opened the first store in Canada openly selling tested heroin, cocaine, meth, and MDMA has died of an overdose.

Jerry Martin died in Vancouver on Friday, a few days after he was hospitalized due to a suspected fentanyl overdose, according to his partner Krista Thomas. He was 51 years old.....

https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7b7p3/jerry-martin-man-opened-cocaine-heroin-dead

[MonkeyRonin]

The irony here is that he died due to tainted drug supply, which is exactly the kind of thing that this store was set up to prevent (rather than to "aid drug use").

[someone123]

The irony here is that he died due to tainted drug supply, which is exactly the kind of thing that this store was set up to prevent (rather than to "aid drug use").

He sold safe drugs in his store but then used unsafe drugs himself and died?

[whatnext]

He sold safe drugs in his store but then used unsafe drugs himself and died?

Exactly. How was he going to get "safe" drugs for sale if he didn't know where to get them himself? :shrug:

[lio45]

I did point out earlier in the thread that he had left out the most important category of unsafe-street-drugs for some weird reason, and it turned out he confirmed my point by Darwinizing himself within a couple months:
The majority of the amounts of coke listed are enough to kill you (if you use it via shoot).

I'm puzzled at the absence of opioids among the products for sale -- why not? Why would that guy leave opioid addicts SOL?

edit -- unless his fentanyl overdose was from what was supposed to be a coke shoot, which isn't clear from the article -- in which case, he would have been totally vindicated with his store (as MonkeyRonin said).

[shreddog]

Hey, remember when that guy tried to open a store openly selling meth and heroin? Maybe aiding drug use is not such a great idea after all...

The Man Who Opened a Store Selling Heroin and Cocaine Has Died From an Overdose

some more details from the local BC CTV (https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-man-who-opened-store-selling-tested-hard-drugs-died-of-an-overdose-family-says-1.6465265)story on him According to Thomas, Martin suffered an overdose and fentanyl was found in his system.

“What I can confidently say about Jerry is that he knew his supply. He knew his products. He would not have had anything on him that he didn't know had fentanyl in it,” she said.

“I do think that he would probably want to clarify that he would not be in the hands of something that hadn't been tested and could have been cross contaminated. And unfortunately, that does lead us to question why he left us that day, but I can only hope that he found peace and that he's proud of what he set into motion.”

EDIT:

CBC has more info (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jerry-martin-overdose-death-1.6896186)on their site now ...
Thomas said he was meticulous about testing his drugs. She wonders if Martin made an impulsive decision to take drugs that weren't tested the day he overdosed, and is haunted by the fact she'll never definitively know what happened.

"We'll never know if it was to self-medicate and if it went too far," Thomas said.

[LightingGuy]

Was it suicide?

[Acajack]

The 2020s. The decade where everyday life became like a surreal TV show.

[kwoldtimer]

The 2020s. The decade where everyday life became like a surreal TV show.

Slowly evolving toward a horror film, it sometimes seems.

[MonkeyRonin]

He sold safe drugs in his store but then used unsafe drugs himself and died?


This of course does raise some flags as to the actual purity of the product he was selling (not that we'd ever know, being an illegal & unregulated business after all), but it doesn't take away from the importance of its intent - it only strengthens the argument for a regulated marketplace.

As noted above, there are also many plausible scenarios in which he may have taken drugs that weren't from a safe, tested supply; or that he may have even overdosed intentionally.

[casper]

Slowly evolving toward a horror film, it sometimes seems.

The Downtown East Side (DTES) has been a horror film for decades.

Many people have tried to fix it. Yet it is still there.

The simple solutions have all been tried. Being tough on drugs does not work. Having a free for all does not work. He tried something different.

[whatnext]

The Downtown East Side (DTES) has been a horror film for decades.

Many people have tried to fix it. Yet it is still there.

The simple solutions have all been tried. Being tough on drugs does not work. Having a free for all does not work. He tried something different.

And "safe" injection sites don't work either. The situation has become worse since the leniency on drug use began, not better. Maybe we need to look at how China licked its opium problem a century ago: a brutal crackdown on dealers including the death penalty.

[casper]

And "safe" injection sites don't work either. The situation has become worse since the leniency on drug use began, not better. Maybe we need to look at how China licked its opium problem a century ago: a brutal crackdown on dealers including the death penalty.

Hears an idea. A number of indigenous counites recognize that a number of those in the DTES are indigenous. They would like to bring them home but they don't have the facilities on reserve. Perhaps building supportive housing would help.

That then leaves the non-indigenous population on the DTES. How you handle that is a good question.

[rousseau]

The 2020s. The decade where everyday life became like a surreal TV show.
Seriously. It's just one bizarre thing after another, each one ratcheted up a notch on the crazy pole. I think Trump opened the door for this in 2016. Like it dawned on people that if he were possible, then anything could be possible.

Throw in a pandemic and all hell breaks loose. It's almost impossible to come up with something unimagineably loony anymore.

What a time to be alive. Though I suppose it beats the alternative.

[WarrenC12]

And "safe" injection sites don't work either. The situation has become worse since the leniency on drug use began, not better. Maybe we need to look at how China licked its opium problem a century ago: a brutal crackdown on dealers including the death penalty.

Safe injection sites work in the sense that people don't die when injecting drugs inside these facilities.

Everything else surrounding them has been a complete failure.