Quote:
Originally Posted by Vin
Would be nice to think there is treatment and support: but who makes sure there are follow-ups when people are placed in such shelters? Essentially shelters are rugs and you are still sweeping the problem under the rugs and pretend they're not there. The rugs don't come cheap, so that's why we need the follow-ups.
All the problems you mentioned come as a result of a vicious circle...starting from the free drug use culture of the 60s to the present. A few more disciplinary actions and spankings by responsible parents back then would prevent many of such issues today.
That would be a good start: you break the law, you pay for it as a criminal. Disposing used needles in public places like parks is tantamount to murder if children step on them, get sick and die as a result. We are currently too tolerant as a society to let everything go out of hand.
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This isn't really the thread for this topic so this is the only post I'll make on this <sarcasm>new</sarcasm> topic within this thread, but I wanted to respond to your post because it unfortunately seems to portray a very narrow view of the world. I don't disagree with you that there needs to be follow-up, but we also have this thing called a Human Rights Code and unfortunately the sword swings both ways. Do people wanting to stop smoking quit the first time they try? What about alcoholics. Follow up sounds great in concept, but it is NOT as easy as you make it sound. Again, like I said a very narrow view of the world, and one I doubt has been touched by a major addiction of any kind.
Drug use has been around since pre-Egyption times. That's 3000+ years. To say it is all because of the 60s is just a _bit_ short-sighted. There's drug use in Asia, in Russia, in Europe, in South America. The "free drugs" 60s was a North American situation, so your reasoning is flawed at best just looking at the last 60 years. Expand it to the last 3,000 years and you can start to see how you may be just a bit off on the root cause of the problem I hope.
Honestly it is the thinking you're displaying in the above quote that is why we have such an issue today actually. Prohibition has never, in the history of humanity, lead to a long-term solution. The only solution is root-cause analysis and repair. Again don't get me wrong, I agree with parts of your post, especially when it comes to criminal action. Dumping needles on the ground also pisses me off. So does breaking into cars to feed drug addictions. Or people that run red lights (which kills far more people per year than discarded needles has in probably the last 100 years). But it can't all just be anger "THROW THEM IN JAIL" "Damned 60s!" as that will lead to no solutions at all, just a lot of wasted time, effort, and money.
A large portion of the homeless have mental disorders and should be in psychiatric hospitals. Instead they were all pretty much closed down to save money to prop up big spending promises by past governments. If you do a bit of historical digging you'll find ALL of the past governments regardless of political polarization, contributed.
Those without mental disorders, I guarantee the majority of have a root-cause that lead them to drugs. Yes it was a "choice" in the loose sense of the word just like you have a "choice" to go to work every day and earn a living (do you really tough?). But many turned to drugs as a mechanism to bury the pain or hurt at the root of their problems. No different than people that bury themselves at a casino many times a day, or those that work out twice a day 7 days a week, or those that pound down sugar even though their doctor tells them they'll have a heart attack.
Most of the time these types of actions are a result of hiding from some issue they don't want to, or are not able to deal with.
Ask any parent that has taken a stance of "tough love" how that has worked out for them with their children. You'll realize how it does far more harm than actually working on the root-cause and dropping the confirmation bias does.
Hey I make very good money and pay a lot of tax. I would be lying if I didn't admit a piece of me in my head screams "get off your damned drugs and stop taking tax dollars out of my pocket!" but facts are facts, and if you look at the latest numbers in from the opioid crisis, you'll see quite clearly that the MAJORITY of overdoses are not homeless, or people on Hastings, or in Whalley, but actually sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, in middle to upper-class homes across the region.
And to another poster earlier, yes there are immigrant Asians in that list.
I challenge everyone to look up what confirmation bias means, then look in a mirror and start doing some research with an open mind before you start throwing stones. If you don't want to, then you're part of the problem and part of why we are where we are today.
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