Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Hard drugs are increasingly being used out in the open at public transit stations and parks rather than in alleys and behind bushes. This is because many municipalities changed their policies and stopped enforcing the laws around public nuisances during the pandemic. Their reasoning is it’s better from a public health perspective to have people OD in open, public spaces.
But while the public may have been tolerant of this as a temporary measure, they’re not onboard with the prospect of people using hard drugs and laying passed out in public spaces as the new normal. Many people simply do not feel comfortable or safe on public transit or parks when that sort of behaviour is common. Advocates of densification and public transit need to recognize that open drug use and public disorder in urban spaces hamstring those efforts.
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That's not my understanding based on the data I've seen. There was a cohort study among drug users in Vancouver, and police drug seizure rates in 2019-2021 were essentially identical to what they were a decade before. So I don't think there was a simple pandemic-related policy change that has led to the increasing public drug use we've seen, particularly since it's something that has been building over the last decade or so.
Drugs are used more in public now for 2 real reasons:
1) Housing crisis means fewer private spaces are available for people on the margins of society.
2) Increased toxicity of drugs has led people with addictions to use more around other people (including the public) in order to increase their safety.
And while it is absolutely a problem that needs to be addressed, some of the hysterics also need to be put within the context of a long-term reduction in crime and violence that we're seeing. Property crime in Vancouver is down 25% compared to 20 years ago and violent crime is down 50%, and both are currently at their lowest level since probably the 1950s. Yet by the way some people talk, you'd think cities are crime-ridden hellholes that aren't safe for people to walk around in.