Just round 'em up and get 'em into detox!

[electricland]

It amazes me how some people can be so blind to reality. And best of all, how they can sound sanctimonious in the process.

The argument that safe injection sites will prevent disease transmission is "utterly phony," [US 'drug czar' John] Walters told UPI. It rests on the notion that certain drug users cannot be helped with treatment and recovery and is akin to suggesting some people's lives are not worth saving, he argued.

"I think it's outrageous to say that there's a certain category of people who are unworthy of the kind of care that we can offer," Walters added. "I don't' believe that Americans subscribe to it and I don't think we (at ONDCP) should."

The best way to restrict needle-sharing and to "stop sero-conversion (to HIV-positive status) is to get people into recovery," Walters said. If addicts are not shooting up, they will not be spreading disease, he added.

- U.S., Canada spar over anti-drug policies, United Press International

Yahoo News: Vancouver Opens Safe-Injection Site for Addicts
Globe and Mail: Vancouver injection clinic opens for addicts

So basically what he's saying is, the only possible strategy for helping addicts who are living on the street in the poorest district in Canada is to get them all into rehab immediately, and then everything will be hunky-dory. No wonder the US drug strategy is such a mess. Maybe this safe-injection site will work, maybe it will be a horrible disaster. Do you think if it weren't there, these people would be walking into rehab clinics? It hasn't happened yet to my knowledge. At least Vancouver's trying something that might work.

[ETA: The stupidity doesn't stop at the border... I might have known the Alliance would have something to say.

The pilot project represents the wrong approach to combating addiction, said Canadian Alliance MP Randy White.

"The priority to get people off drugs, not keep people on drugs," said White. "Every cent we spend away from that objective is money wasted."

- CTV/CP, Vancouver safe-injection site opens to cheers

It's true, letting them die off would get them off drugs.]

Comments

[alierakieron.livejournal.com]

Compassionate conservativism at its finest. After all, if they can't help themselves, let 'em rot. Cuz god knows, the only ones who know the answer are the Republican Party.
I mean, look at our stellar drug policy! The way that since the Republicans have taken over, drug and alcohol abuse, not to mention HIV transmission, is at it's lowest point!
Oh, wait, that's NOT what's happening?

frickin morons...

Wow, this got long... skip to the bottom...

[bryghtboy.livejournal.com]

They call themselves conservatives and then they add compassionate... almost as good as a common sense revolution, what the hell does that even mean. Common would mean that everyone has it right? So to have a revolution you have to have something to revolt against, would it be the thing that everyone has? Conservatives according to their very nature are just doing the same things as their Father's did (sometimes more literally than other times, like invading mid-east countries) and trying to keep things more or less the same. So if you add compassion to that you are in many ways changing what your Father would have done... not that this is what they even end up doing in any case. And those wonderful solutions from the past worked ever so well and didn't land us into new and different problems... no, not ever! :P

I diegress, but perhaps with purpose... then again maybe not. I'd say that the problems that the US faces with drugs aren't so much a problem with drugs per say. Instead its with the way they live... they want more and more of everything whether it be drugs, food or whatever so to try to apply solutions that worked other places like Sweden to their problems would be like throwing water on an oil fire. But the articles aren't about the US trying to solve anything... they are just dissing others who are actually trying to fix a problem that exists. One that was in some ways created by the policies that are being aped by Compassionate Conservatives. Only the statutes for punishing those who are trafficing in these substances aren't deterring people, so obviously increasing the number of years is the answer. Ignore the fact that it is almost invaribably the poor and disaffected who end up actually serving such sentences. Not because they cannot afford real representation, no, of course because its God's will that they be poor. You know them being morally destitute enough to sell drugs to little kids and all... or so the line of crap that spews out about drugs goes. Its like they walked right the Hell out of the 16th century New England or something. Probably want to bring back stoning as a punishment for stoners...

And that might have almost made sense... So I'll add this just to help clear everything up, the Squirrels, beware the Squirrels of Doom!