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Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Absolutely. The comment about the area around Shumir becoming a "mini East Hastings" thanks to the NDP almost made me laugh out loud at my desk.
People don't tend to care about the problem, they just don't want to see it. Some of those people would probably rather have drug addicts die or get sick from dirty needles than having drug addicts drawn to their neighbourhood for any reason, even if it's an overall improvement in safety. Even if they wouldn't publically admit it, it's out of sight, out of mind.
My feeling is that safe injection sites are a net positive no matter how you break it down. It's valid if you don't like the effects on your community, but if it wasn't yours, it'd be someone else's. The answer isn't to close them up, but to push for a better solution so the need for them isn't there. It's not like the drug addicts just come from nowhere when a safe injection site opens up.
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I agree. Safe injection sites aren't likely to encourage people to become drug addicts, but they do substantially reduce drug addiction related health care costs.
It's more or less conclusively shown that the vast majority of addicts become addicts due to underlying emotional/psychological issues. Facilitating injection is, therefore, not likely to encourage existing addicts to keep using either. The safe injection sites do offer counselling.
All this being said....If I'd spent my life savings on a home to raise a family, I'd be ticked off if an injection site opened up next door. Any sane person should, and we all have some degree of NIMBYism.