Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Health authorities in Canada's westernmost province want to make the country's first test facility for heroin injection permanent and are considering opening additional clinics to meet the huge demand. The Vancouver facility was set up in 2003, against US opposition, as a three-year experiment exempt from Canadian drug laws.


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Since then the clinic, North America's only such operation, has run at capacity, with some 800 heroin injections daily.

"It's all-round positive, with no downsides," said Perry Kendall, British Columbia province's chief medical officer.

Kendall said the clinic achieved its goal to cut overdose deaths and rates of hepatitis and HIV infection. Although its exemption from drug laws will not expire until September 2006, this month he applied to Health Canada to make the facility permanent.

With a federal election currently underway in Canada, a decision will likely take months.

The clinic looks like an innocuous storefront in Vancouvers squalid Downtown Eastside district, Canada's most impoverished neighbourhood with more than 5,000 heroin addicts concentrated in a 10-block area.

Addicts bring in drugs purchased illegally on the street, and self-inject them under medical supervision. There are onsite emergency services in case of overdose and staff nurses and counselors to provide health care and referrals to rehabilitation facilities.

Worldwide, about 50 similar clinics operate routinely, mostly in Europe.

As in Europe, Canadian public opinion has changed to view drug addiction as a health issue instead of a purely criminal matter.

But drug issues here are affected by the proximity to the United States with its official war on drugs.

The Vancouver clinic is a stone's throw from the border with Washington state, and since it opened the White House has criticized it as an "inhumane" medical experiment.

The United States also opposes a new experiment in Vancouver to give addicts free prescription heroin in hopes of reducing property crimes to feed their habit.

Ironically, the success of Vancouvers supervised heroin use site led to another controversy this month, as Vancouver police launched a crackdown on public drug use.

For years police have turned a blind eye in some areas to thousands of addicts shooting up on sidewalks, streets and in public buildings such as libraries, and leaving behind used syringes.

Police now say because addicts can use the supervised facility, they will be stopped from injecting in public.

"The police recognize drug addiction as a health issue... but police must step in when the addicts' activities interfere with other people's lives," police said in a statement.

"Children should be able to use (park playground) swings and not have to worry about pricking themselves with needles buried in the sand," said police Inspector Bob Rolls.

Advocates for drug users protested that the police crackdown is cruel because the clinic can only serve a minority of drug users.

"It's just a really destructive thing," said Ann Livingston of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

She notes that the supervised site can handle just 800 of 15,000 heroin injections daily, and staff are prohibited from physically injecting addicts or letting other addicts inject incapacitated users.

There's also no place for addicts who smoke cocaine, said Livingston.

Livingston called for a relaxation in clinic rules and the establishment of at least four more clinics in Vancouver.

Kendall agreed that the fact the police crackdown is causing an overflow at the injection site "may make an argument for opening up more sites."


CLIFFNOTES: Canada opens a store front with professional medical staff to help people shoot heroin correctly. They are also pushing for horoin perscriptions to combat property crime. (Fucken losers) :-\

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

its interesting that canada is so open minded toward drug users, i think that drug addiction is more of a health issue than a criminal problem, only reason i have any thing at all on my police record is for possession. and what the police don't realize is that its easier to get meth or heroine in jail than it is on the street ( usually ) . so all that really happens by putting drug addicts in jail is that you give them a free place to live for a few years so they can learn how to be better criminals from there fellow inmates and then release them back into society without ever actually recognizing the fact that they have a problem or trying to help them with it. then they wonder why there are so many repeat offenders, ---- whats the first thing you think a crackhead is going to do when he gets out of jail?

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

You can't help those who can't help themselves.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

This has been around for awhile, it’s not just a 'shop' on some street corner, they are portables around the bad ends of the city. Crime has gone down a SUGNIFICANT amount, there are less bodies being found in the alleys, and less reports of A.I.D.S being ------. It may seem like a silly thing to some but if its keeping people alive, crime away, providing jobs (to the nurses) and also getting more addicts into rehab, I am all for it.

They can’t just go in, shoot up, and leave. They go in, are given brand new syringes/tubes/wash cloth, do their thing while accompanied by a nurse who after will talk to them for awhile about their problems, it’s not like the government are providing the H...

People use to have the same opinion on medicinal pot, until they opened their eyes and saw that it was actually curing health problems.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Did you just try to say Pot and heroin are the same thing??? ???

People don't murder/commit crimes because they can't find a hit of weed. lol.

That's it, if the government doesn't give me money, I'm gonna start hackin foo's up. No really, give me money and save these lives. :P

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

heroin isnt that bad of a drug, its just an opiate. in some places of eurpoe you can get presciption heroin if you can convince a doctor you'll never quit and you'll be an addict for the rest of your life, this way you'll get it legally and easily and wont becoming a theiving leach on society

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Homemadeturbo.com, where heroin isnt that bad of a drug. Seriously scottsi, somtimes i think you sell crack... for the image :7

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

crack for the money you know how we play

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

man my view of drugs is weird
I can hang around pot smokers all day btu when it comes to snorting powder Im out

I hate cokeheads

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

I'm the same way. Most of my friends smoke, but none of them snort. I don't hang around tweekers or crackheads.
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Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

cocaine is a hell of a drug
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Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

I used to know tons of kids that smoked up alot, but when it comes to snorting or shooting... I dont wanna know ya :3

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

thats the stupidest thing ive heard in my life. that is almost as bad as someone saying, i wasnt a tweeker cause i never clucked anything. ::)

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

we'd rether have our crack heads on a list using clean needles then shootin up all over the place with dirty ones...

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Dont know, cant remember the last time i cared about what happend to a crack head :3

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Less death and disease in that circle means more junkies running around. Why is this a good thing?

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

I don smoke weed it gives me a headache btu weed is ok

coke is not

simply put

I left a drop dead gorgeous chick cause I just couldnt deal with it

she'd go in the bathroom and wait till the heat kciked on (makin noise) but I still could hear her snorting up

lol ---- all that keep that retarded ---- away from me
my $$ goes for car parts not a bloody nose

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

you have never been around someone that was addicted have you scott :3

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

The idea is to reduce health care costs as well.Treating someone with Aids etc is massivly expensive and takes up valuable hospital beds and resources.BC has taken the same approach as Holland by practicing harm reduction in which you put your resources into addiciton treatment and safe injection sites etc.I would rather they are in a clean safe enviroment where needles are safely disposed of, as well as having someone there to try and encourage a addict to get into drug treatment.Heroin is actually not that harmfull if used in resonable doses but it is the lifestyle that kills.I know this doesnt sit well with the US goverment but maybe at some point they will give up the "War on drugs" and actually start dealing with the situation.Drugs are taking a major toll on our western society and especially in western Canada where we have some of the highest property crime rates in North America due mainly to drug addiction etc.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

it is called population control let them use dirty ass needles

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

well, the problem with addiction isnt that you want it and need it, thats not the bad part, we all want things and need them, the bad part is that it costs money, and when someone starts wasting all their money on it they run out of cash, and start breaking the law inorder to get more, now if it was legal, and the price was very low, we wouldnt have this problem, but then we run into kickbacks and politics and it gets very messy.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

the damn dirty needles obviously aren't killin enough people. This shits been goin on for a long ass time, they should all be dead then right? well it aint workin, war on drugs just makes drugs more profitable by making drug dealers do more dangerous ----. Yall remember prohibition, the war on alcohol, yeah it didnt work either. That's why the law was taken back away, cuz the people found a way around it. If they want it bad enough they'll get it. This might not be the final answer but it's a good attempt towards it. People need to open up their damn minds.

Sorry bout that but we just keep repeating the same mistakes. It's stupid.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

well basically it boils down to the fact that the war on drugs does more harm than good, and it obviously is not working. alcohol is the number one cause of death in the united states, more deaths occur every year from alcohol related crashes/ etc than all other forms of death combined. but yet its perfectly legal, and heroin ,once consumed, is metabolized in the body as morphine, which is also legal. if marijuana was made legal i think it would eliminate alot of this countries drug problems, its alot harder for a 16 year old to buy a bottle of jim beam than it is fr them to get a 1/4 of weed or an 8 ball of whatever. because its not regulated, my buddy just got out of prison for manufacture of meth, and he called me last night asking if i wanted to buy some, like wtf dude? i'd rather be addicted to a different kind of boost.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Jesus, i do love my country but we do some really dumb things....as for my view on needlers......well i grew up around some realy rough ---- and know what can and will happen when the need outweighs the morality of the actions required to satiate those needs....or to be blunt these fukin pokers shoudl be handed dirty needles or tainted drugs at the clinic and when they drop on the floor their heads should be stuck on a pole on the street vlad style to serve as a warning for what drugs will do.....im tired of hearing how it's a medical condition and these peopel are sick yada yada yada , ---- off with that ----, it's like the homeless rant, give help to teh homeless, feed teh homeless, protect the homeless, jesus ---- teh homeless, get ------- jobs, pay youyr ------- taxes and contribute to society you ------- smelly dirty begging ----------ers. So many politicians use the "helping homeless" platform when campaigning that it's a ------- joke, i would vote for any politician that had the balls to stand up and say no ------- more, the homeless will remain that way until they get their ---- together. If they become a problem we will ship them off to a ------- island somewhere. No more gay marriage, no more leniancy for molesters and drug dealers, no more ------- imigrants running all teh ------- 7/11's , lock teh ------- boarders down, and get our own ---- together and get rid of teh guns, teh drugs and the criminals, jesus the more i type the more ------- pissed off i get, anyways that is the politician im gonna vote for....

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

ROTFL, that craps crazy man. Lets drug the people up so crime, hiv, overdose, and hep. will go down lol. OH man, what next.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

there are some valid viewpoints, and some really ignorant ones in this thread.

trying to keep needles clean and controlled is NOT just to keep the addicts alive, it's to keep the dirty needles away from the rest of the city. I don't know how many times I've seen a dirty needle in a playground, or on the sidewalk, or IN/ON a public seat. one stab with one of those, and someone innocent is infected with a disease.

yes, they should stop using heroin, and yes it should be the government that enforces the end of use, but you can't just arrest them all. it's cheaper, more effective, and safer to get these people off of drugs than to let them all get infected and die off.

like any war, it's more expensive to bomb the ---- out of a place than it is to talk and negotiate.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

No drug is bad. its the people that are bad.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

so many bleeding hearts

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

I say when they come in for the free heroin just give them lethal injection, problem solved.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

You fucken genious. That's the greatest idea ever. No more crime, drugs, dirty needles, crackheads. Perfect.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

This is over a year old...

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Actually he's right, opiates are some of the safest drugs you can use. They are dangerous if you overdose but used moderately they don't have any direct adverse affects on the body....of course being addicted to something is adverse in itself

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

I thought overdoses were natures way of fixing things :-\

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

The real goal is to reduce Aids/Hep C etc infections as we have free healthcare here so that costs us alot of money to treat these people.Realistically I dought many people truly care about overdoses and the welfare of addicts.As well this will help keep needles out of the streets,alleys etc and keep addicts booting up out of site.Vacouver has a huge tourism industry and the skid row most addicts live on is in very close proximity to a couple major tourist destinations so walking past some deadbeat leaning against a building with a rig in his arm does not help the image of the city.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

not quite... Ethanol is about the safest drug.. you get into the 10s-100s of grams of that and you're cool.... 10-50 mg or cc of opiates and crackhead here i come.

Valium and all of the other benzodiazapines are probably the next safest under ethanol. You can down a bottle of valium and you'll probably make it though...

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

WHAT? Are you SERIOUS? Booze is not only carcinogenic, but causes liver, kidney, stomach, and brain damage!

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

** if you compare drugs gram for gram, ounce for ounce Ethanol is the safest.

That could be about the only way to compare drugs.. as different drugs attack different parts of the body.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Ok...but normally drugs are compared by dosages. For example, a moderate dosage of hydrocodone (25-30 mg) is not damaging by any means, while a moderate dosage of alcohol (5+ drinks depending on weight) weakens the immune system a bit and stresses the liver, stomach, and kidneys.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

Good point. I live in Quebec and no matter where you go in industialized cities there's goona be drug use. I think by opening up these clinics no matter what anybody says I think it's a great move by our government. What about the legalization of prostitution in some cities? Where the girls are checked for s.t.d's and johns have a safe place to go where they're not transmitting any s.t.d's. It's kind of in the same boat as the drug policy. Keep it off the streets and try and keep it clean. Of course there is always going to be your drug addicts and prostitutes on the streets, but at least where trying something new to maybe make things a little bit better.

Re: Canada: "Where the doctors help you shoot heroin"
 

thats just about the stupidest way to compare things. alright, well since i can drink 2 grams of alcohol, i can take 2 grams of heroin, 2 grams of cocaine, 2 grams of weed, 2 grams of meth, 2 grams of ghb, 2 grams of crack. That has to be the stupidest way to compare anything that anyone has ever came up with. You compare them by dosages as gurusan said. not by weight, you fucktard.