Safe Injection Sites approved for edm, Cgy announcement tba

[CaptainCrunch]

And fair enough, I'm not disputing that. Like I said, when they presented, I thought it was a more supervised environment.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

And fair enough, I'm not disputing that. Like I said, when they presented, I thought it was a more supervised environment.

Same. I legitimately thought it was somewhat like Hamsterdam. Health officials, safe sex, clean needles, maybe even some community outreach to get through to the most vulnerable members of society.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Same. I legitimately thought it was somewhat like Hamsterdam. Health officials, safe sex, clean needles, maybe even some community outreach to get through to the most vulnerable members of society.

That #### costs money, yo.

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

I saw a girl giving a dude a blow job a block from the injection site in an alleyway on Monday afternoon. Based on the characters involved, I woudk guess it was a sex for drug money exchange.

But it may have also been just a sex for drugs exchange with no money involved at all!

The beltline is a great place to feel safe and raise a family...

I've been living in the inner city for the past 6 years (Beltline / Bankview) and I've certainly noticed a marked increase in the number of needles on the ground. It went from maybe seeing one every couple months to one or two per week. I used to call them in to the fire department but it's becoming too time consuming.

Wouldn't recommend wearing sandals around here anymore.

[calumniate]

As an adult with no pets, I've been pretty much unaffected by what is happening at the chumir. If I did though it'd be a different story. Pretty eye opening stuff. A lot of evenings now I'll see a squadron of cops combing the alleys and you only have to assume something pretty bad went down or that there was an OD involved

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

That #### costs money, yo.

It can't cost more than treating aids, unwanted pregnancies and jail. Oh well.

[DoubleF]

I used to live in that area and I still own a rental property there. You'd run into the occasional individual who was drunk, high, homeless etc. but they were always respectful and whatnot and I never minded them. I'd even give them clean bottles and cans on occasion.

If the reports are coming out are true, I agree that's very disappointing. I don't have an issue with the safe injection site there, but if the community immediately feels unsafe and there's a huge spike in needles littered around, then that's no good.

I agree with a previous comment. This site should also be involved in aiding the safe disposal of the needles. Trading in used needles for something of value should help clean up the littered needles very quickly (ie: needles for gift cards/new needles or something).

[GGG]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

I used to live in that area and I still own a rental property there. You'd run into the occasional individual who was drunk, high, homeless etc. but they were always respectful and whatnot and I never minded them. I'd even give them clean bottles and cans on occasion.

If the reports are coming out are true, I agree that's very disappointing. I don't have an issue with the safe injection site there, but if the community immediately feels unsafe and there's a huge spike in needles littered around, then that's no good.

I agree with a previous comment. This site should also be involved in aiding the safe disposal of the needles. Trading in used needles for something of value should help clean up the littered needles very quickly (ie: needles for gift cards/new needles or something).

I think was in freaknomics or one of the gladwell books where they talked about paying $1 for used needles or else it was you had to have a dirty needle to get a clean needle and what happened was there became this clean / dirty needle economy which able drug addicts would clean up and profit of ones who couldn’t manage needles and the streets got cleaner.

Some kind of program similar to aluminium can recycling should be very effective.

[GullFoss]

As someone quite involved in the mission and beltline community, this problem is becoming a huge safety issue for about 10 square blocks around the injection site, which basically encompasses the entire high density inner city and no one seems to care enough at City hall.

I've gone from hearing about the odd issue every few months to now having heard 15 reports in the last month alone. These include: public sex, public defecation, knife attacks, home break-in and entry (7), and car break-in and entry (3). These neighborhoods are becoming increasingly unsafe to live in. We need more vigilant policing as it seems pretty obvious that addicts are attacking people or stealing property in these neighborhoods to fund their drug habits.

My fiance and I were talking last night - that as residents of the beltline - having an addict break into our building is now a matter of when and not if. We've also gone from wanting to live in the neighborhood until our child was three to now wanting to move much much sooner.

[Bill Bumface]

It really seems like this isn't likely net new crime, but moving crime to a concentrated area. Shouldn't this make it easier to refocus existing police resources?

[calumniate]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

It really seems like this isn't likely net new crime, but moving crime to a concentrated area. Shouldn't this make it easier to refocus existing police resources?

I would like to think so. The chumir might see a rise in OD's, but at least it's right there. If they can work with needle policy & cleanup that would be great. Unfortunately these drugs still cost money. I'm wondering how it might curb overall violent crime too. Have drug sales become tolerated within boundaries now? One has to wonder because they're pitting safe use policy against pretty harsh distribution laws. Maybe I should just watch the wire again

[GullFoss]

Sounds like the city is experiencing a meth epidemic:

https://globalnews.ca/news/4779421/m...-staff-unsafe/

https://calgaryherald.com/news/crime...f-91757d0de14d

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...-prairies.html

[Muffins]

Report released today showing how bad it's gotten around the Chimur.

https://calgarysun.com/news/crime/sa...eltline-report

Stats from 2018 show a 276-per-cent increase in drug-related calls to police in the zone along with a 29-per-cent rise in the overall number of calls for service compared to the three-year average.

Violence in the area is up nearly 50 per cent while vehicle crime has increased 63 per cent. Break-and-enters are also up by more than 60 per cent and the total number of calls to police jumped 36 per cent in 2018 compared to the previous year.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Sounds like the city is experiencing a meth epidemic:

https://globalnews.ca/news/4779421/m...-staff-unsafe/

https://calgaryherald.com/news/crime...f-91757d0de14d

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...-prairies.html

It makes sense. This city is depressing right now with the unemployment situation being pretty bad. I don't doubt that its lead to a lot of self medicating.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Muffins

Report released today showing how bad it's gotten around the Chimur.

https://calgarysun.com/news/crime/sa...eltline-report

This is not acceptable at all. How the hell can the city allow this to happen? I think everyone agrees we don't want people ODing in the streets but the city needs to be accountable for this.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

This is not acceptable at all. How the hell can the city allow this to happen? I think everyone agrees we don't want people ODing in the streets but the city needs to be accountable for this.

Health Care is Provincially regulated, I'm unclear as to which part you feel the City is responsible for.

The Policing?

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by Locke

Health Care is Provincially regulated, I'm unclear as to which part you feel the City is responsible for.

The Policing?

Yes, the policing and the general safety of that area.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

Yes, the policing and the general safety of that area.

Alright, fair enough. It seems insane to me that they're dealing with ~200 drug users per day.

You funnel that many drug users through one place every 24 hours and maintaining safety is going to be a tall order short of turning that place into a demilitarized zone.

It just seems like a scenario that is designed to fail.

Theres only one safe injection site, maybe it shouldnt be downtown, but it has to be central, only having one also means that its an easy target.

[curves2000]

I think some of the issues that is happening here is the non stop revolving door of destruction for everybody involved with a very small group of people.

I struggle with it sometimes but I lean towards the injection site being overall positive for the lives in saves but at the same time the absolute disaster in the area and drug use in general is terrible.

How many business owners need to be affected? How many violent crimes are enough? How many sexual assaults should be allowed? How many homes and cars need to be broken into? How many people who have committed very violent crimes including murder and attempted murder and than are allowed back onto the street should we allow?

A recent conversation I had with one of the managers of the cardiac surgery ward at the Foothill Hospital, a hospital that is responsible for cardiac surgery card for over 2 million people, mentioned that they are being backlogged significantly by drug use. The patients who usually have a long history of drug use and have destroyed their hearts and vessels are in their for surgery at very young ages. Than they are fixed up and before you know it, they are back in the cardiac ward waiting for additional surgery or life saving measures meanwhile the backlog of patients continues to pile up for people who are in urgent need of assistance as well. The amount of resources being dedicated can sometimes be mind blowing and the truth is we have limited resources to deal with it.

I've always thought it would be prudent to round up some addicts and in essence incarcerate them in an addiction treatment facility. Get them clean, give them income support, give them some of the other resources such as mental health, counselling, work and life skills for their new life post addiction. Who would object to this? The people who aren't feeling the wrath of their crimes? The addicts family? Let's get this people actually clean and actually on a better track and improve everybody else's life at the same time.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Oh boo hoo, the Latte Sippers are having NIMBY problems.