Drug Dealers Protection Law

If you've ever wondered how absolutely naive some politicians can be, listen to this, beginning at 7:00. You're hear Guardian Angels founder, Curtis Sliwa, playing a secret recording of two convicted drug dealers laughing about an absolutely moronic change to drug laws in New York State.

Why do I think the cousins of some of these NY politicians live in British Columbia?!

Vapid Journalists & Reporters

Parts of Saskatoon are quickly devolving in precisely the same manner as Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Why? Because they're following precisely the same misguided drug policies as Vancouver adopted long before.

Here (beginning at 7:00) is a brilliant discussion between Charles Adler and John Gormley.

When asked how the media could have been so fooled away from any semblance of common sense, Gormley responded (@ 12:50) : "You've got intellectually vapid journalists and reporters." Without realizing it, he was including two of CKNW's "finest": Bill Good and Christy Clark - both of whom have been longtime supporters of Vancouver's failed drug policy.

Tammy Robert, who works with Gormley at CKOM in Saskatoon, has numerous photos on her blog. Well worth checking out!

Out here in Vancouver, one of the few voices of sanity has been David Berner:

Important Editorial on Drug Abuse

David Berner has some important things to say about drug abuse and the failed program called Insite that was supposed to help drug addicts but instead is continuing to extend their addiction. Please read it. And if you live in Canada then write your MP and share your thoughts on the issue.

Incidentally, on many other issues Berner vehemently opposes the Conservatives. But on this one, he thinks they're absolutely correct. And he has much more practical experience in the area than the so-called academics who have near zero street smarts.

The Globe and Mail's Series on Drug Abuse: Part 4

Margaret Wente concludes her week long series on drug abuse and drug policy. She talks about Billy Weselowski, a recovered drug addict who runs successful drug treatment programs.

But the "experts" (especially politicians and academics) don't want to listen to Weselowski. What could he possibly know about addiction? They know better! They have the multiple letters after their name. They have the countless "research" studies. And most importantly of all, they have access to the seemingly endless trough of public funds which are going to run countless programs to supposedly reduce harm. Not end addiction. Never end addiction. But reduce harm.

This would be a laughable movie about con men, if it weren't so serious a subject affecting a large number of marginalized human beings. One day insight will come to the powers at be and Insite and programs like it will be shut down immediately.

The Globe and Mail's Series on Drug Abuse: Part 3

Margaret Wente's series on drug abuse and addiction continues. Click here to read what's working and not working in other countries around the world.

The Globe and Mail's Series on Drug Abuse: Part 2

Margaret Wente's second column on Vancouver's drug addiction problem appeared today. This one focuses on the heavily biased "research" that supports Insite and other government funded organizations. Here's an interesting snippet about all of the "research" that has been done:

Garth Davies teaches research methodology at Simon Fraser University's school of criminology. He recently published an evaluation of all the research literature on safe-injection facilities, including Insite. He wasn't impressed. "[They] are too often credited with generating positive effects that are not borne out by solid empirical evidence," he wrote. "As a result of methodological and analytical problems ... all claims remain open to question."

In other words, just like a corrupt casino in Vegas, the fix was in with this "research" before it ever started. Those doing the "research" know what results they want and strangely enough, they get the data that supports their own bias ... and keeps on funding their initiatives too.

So many of the people involved with Insite et al are nothing more than con men running a back alley shell game. Yet they've convinced enough suckers that keeping the lives of poor drug addicts extended in the same miserable state is the best we can do. Here's one such sucker. He cites the presence of The Four Pillars: Harm Reduction, Treatment, Prevention, and Enforcement. The writer is either willfully ignorant or outright lying. For as David Berner has frequently and accurately said, what we actually have is one pillar and 3 matchsticks.

I know we can do better. It likely means forcibly incarcerating drug addicts - not in a jail, but in a proper medical treatment facility, thousands of kilometres away from the Downtown Eastside. But watch the outcry if that were ever to happen. You'll hear cries of "human rights violations". When they occur though, ask yourself whether these people really care about the welfare and future of the drug addicts or are more concerned about the funding and full employment of the social programs in place now. Follow the money, kids, always follow the money!

The Globe and Mail's Series on Drug Abuse: Part 1

Finally, and I mean FINALLY a major newspaper is shedding some truth on what is REALLY happening with the Vancouver Downtown Eastside's failed drug policy. The public has been inundated for decades with nothing less than misinformed propaganda to keep this failed policy going and actually ramp it up even more.

I strongly encourage you to read Margaret Wente's column, the first of 4 parts on this critical subject. And then watch this talk by David Berner, which I filmed earlier this year:
The next time you hear some "expert" advocating the continuation of enabling drug addicts, ask yourself this simple question: "If I had a friend who was an alcoholic, would I offer him a drink of whiskey when he visited my home?"

A Few Thoughts on Illegal Drug Policy

I responded at length to this posting by Los Angeles based columnist, Amy Alkon. I thought it worthy to repost here.

Illegal drug use is the #1 issue in Vancouver, BC where I live. A major swath of the city has been infested with lost souls who are high on one or more of: Heroin, crack cocaine, crystal meth, and a variety of others.

The consumption of these drugs costs money. It is estimated that 80% of all property crime (cars, homes, businesses) is directly related to drug use. With a 10:1 ratio of selling stolen property, $10,000 worth of stuff is stolen for every $1,000 worth of drugs. Not only has this driven insurance rates sky high, but it has also resulted in disruptions of phone and electrical service, as the drug addicts have ripped out wires in search of copper to sell for scrap metal.

Metro Vancouver was recently named as the organized crime capital of the world, with literally tens of thousands of homes being converted over to drug growing dens or drug manufacturing labs. Just the other week, an apartment complex in the supposedly good neighbourhood where I live (Kitsilano) had to be evacuated for a few days because some nutbar decided to turn his apartment into a crystal meth manufacturing facility. He killed himself with the fumes and potentially risked the lives of everyone else in the building from exposure to the fumes or an explosion.

From time to time we have gangstas (generally Asian or South Asian) roaming around the streets, firing automatic weapons into the cars & homes of their enemies. However, their bullets don't suddenly fall to the ground before hitting innocent people.

"BC Bud" is the high potency marijuana that others have mentioned. It is primarily shipped down to the U.S. in exchange for guns, cocaine, and heroin coming up here. Those items coming to us are not blessings on our society in any way, shape, or form.

The police have pretty much given up on arresting drug addicts and often drug dealers because our over lenient judges have continuously released these people back onto the street before the arresting cop starts his next shift.

Over in Switzerland, where they've had a pretty open "live and let live" policy about drug use, even they are rethinking it because of what it is doing to their society.

I don't precisely know what the ultimate solution to this Modern Day Plague is but its presence in my community has turned me from a pure Libertarian into a Pragmatic Libertarian.

One proposed policy I'm in growing support of is to forcibly incarcerate drug addicts into treatment facilities far away from the source of their misery. Many recovered drug addicts agree with this approach, saying that until a person hits rock bottom, they'll never go willingly. But it often takes many years of misery to reach that point. By then, many are dead.

Of course, there are significant forces against such a policy. They speak of "human rights" but I strongly believe what's really at the heart of their objections is that many, many people are now gainfully employed by the Poverty Industry. These are the folks who are supposedly employed to help these lost souls. They're very adept at applying band-aids but actually curing the drug addictions doesn't seem to be of much interest to them.

Am I cynical? I prefer the term "realistic and saddened observer"!

My Mom's Letter to Tony Clement, Federal Minister of Health

The Honourable Tony Clement
Minister of Health
Minister's Office - Health Canada
Brooke Claxton Building, Tunney's Pasture
Postal Locator: 0906C
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0K9

Dear Sir,

I am a retired nurse and a senior citizen. I’m also a volunteer visitor counselor at Tourism Vancouver, giving out information to tourists visiting our city. You may be surprised to learn that a growing number of these visitors are well informed about Vancouver being the Drug Capital of Canada. When they want to visit Chinatown we have to advise them about the safest routes to walk there. We also warn them not to give money to panhandlers and to be aware of their surroundings at all times. If traveling by car, we urge them to leave nothing visible inside their vehicles. This is the sad reality of life in Vancouver in 2008.

I live in the South Granville neighbourhood. It’s supposedly one of the better ones in the city and yet I have countless panhandlers asking me for spare change daily. I now carry a pocket alarm which I will set off if I’m ever threatened. This is the sad reality of life in Vancouver in 2008.

The law-abiding citizens in our cities have to now be concerned with which restaurants they can eat at safely, which nightclubs they can go to safely, and which streets they can walk down when the sun goes dim. This is the sad reality of life in Vancouver in 2008.

The common thread running through most of these problems is severe drug abuse. I therefore plead with you to close the free needle terror that is Insite. It is not helping drug users get better but is only prolonging their misery. I fully realize that there are a lot of political forces that claim that Insite is helping to “reduce harm” but it is a huge fallacy. Those proponents like Larry Campbell and Philip Owen should be ashamed of themselves.

Please convert this facility into a Recovery Detox Centre for the endless number of drug addicts in Vancouver. And then set up more in all of our municipalities. I do know there are treatment centres in Prince George and Bowen Island. We need many more!

A Tale of Two Cities

The following was just submitted to the Vancouver Sun:

I was back home in Vancouver but one day when I was vividly (and sadly) reminded that my month long vacation in Honolulu was over. I'm not referring to the dramatic change in weather, but rather the drastic "climate" change on the streets.

First, let's look at an overview of the two cities:

Honolulu
Population: 377,000
Area: 272 sq. km

Vancouver
Population: 612,000
Area: 115 sq. km

Metro Honolulu
Population: 910,000
Area: 5,509 sq. km

Metro Vancouver
Population: 2,117,000
Area: 2,877 sq. km

One fact that's not well illustrated in these statistics is that there are over 4 Million tourists visiting Honolulu every year, most of them packed into the relatively small area of Waikiki (think English Bay to the Burrard Street Bridge, Davie to the waterfront). Such a large number of visitors can expose a community to major problems.

Both communities are plagued with homelessness and drug addiction. A friend of mine in Honolulu, a retired police captain, described just how rampant crystal meth addiction is there. So make no mistake, Honolulu has definite problems just like Vancouver does.

But there is one big difference, one critically important difference that my 76 year-old mother and I immediately noticed. There are no street people harassing tourists and locals alike! None. Zero. Nada. Returning home to Vancouver and walking along the so-called upscale South Granville area, I was brought back to the reality of having to weave my way through the gauntlet of sad looking souls asking if I could spare some change; 2 or 3 per block seems to be the norm. It did not escape my attention that most of these folks were young men in their 20's and most of their ilk has been engaged in this "profession" for several years.

Back in Hawaii, these same sort of people are there, pushing the shopping carts around, but they do not harass those around them. I suspect that if they did there would be some immediate consequences. Does that last word still exist in Canadian dictionaries?

Here in Vancouver we seem to have a constant barrage of politicians and others telling us that "this is a way of life for a growing city", that we "should feel grateful for what we have and sorry for those asking us for money", and the all purpose pass-the-buck excuse, "there's nothing we can do, you need to complain to the federal government".

The federal politicians (and that means ALL of them) must indeed accept some of the responsibility for the general lack of civility on the streets of Canadian cities. To fully realize just how lax the Canadian Justice System has become, let's look at a case recently in the news in Hawaii. A criminal named Rudy Bernardino was sentenced to 20 years in prison for operating a methamphetamine laboratory out of his apartment. Please reread the last sentence. He received TWENTY years for manufacturing crystal meth (aka poison). Does anyone think an identical crime in Vancouver would get him even 6 months?

As a mere tourist, I don't know all that the Hawaii police and the District Attorney are doing to combat crime but it clearly must be a lot more than is being done here. I would strongly recommend that the Vancouver Sun send a reporter or two over to Honolulu for a few weeks to do a series of special reports, comparing the differences between there and here. I'm sure it would be an eye-opener for all British Columbians!

David Berner on Vancouver's Misguided Drug Policy

Here's a video I shot of David Berner last Friday. Because of technical constraints, I had to break it down into 4 parts, though there's a new feature on YouTube that allows one to sequentially play connected clips. In any case, David's message is a very important one that I wish more people in Vancouver would listen to!

David Berner's Latest Article

---

Our drug addicts need real treatment, not mouthpieces for their crack pipes
David Berner
The Province
04 Jan 2008

Would you cross the street to give a drunk a clean shot glass? Of course not. But that only means you have better instincts and more common sense in your pinkie finger than all the geniuses in the Ministry of Health. Yesterday, this newspaper... read more...

Tech Tags: The Province newspaper Editorial

Movie Recommendation: American Gangster

This past evening I saw American Gangster with my good friend, John, husband of my friend & colleague, Fiona. John & I typically go to films that Fiona has no interest in seeing. She missed a good one this time! The film stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, and was directed by Ridley Scott. I've never yet been disappointed with a movie involving any of these fellows.

It focused on the life of drug lord Frank Lucas, who became extremely wealthy selling pure heroin known as "Blue Magic" throughout the Harlem area of New York City in the late 1960's and early 1970's. The film is long, which I love as long as the story is good. This story was great. It interwove several themes together, including: the illicit drug trade, a highly corrupt NYPD, the Vietnam War, and the emergence of Black power.

Thankfully, it also showed the dark side of the glamour of people like Lucas; wasted lives, miserable deaths, and pain, pain, pain. No thinking person could escape the fact that there are strong parallels with what's going on in Vancouver these days. Highly recommended!

Vancouver Can Learn From Downtown L.A.

When coincidences occur, I pay special attention to them. One happened this morning that I could just not ignore. First, I heard this segment (8:10) on Bill Good's show on CKNW. It featured a discussion of a new film, Tears For April, produced by Odd Squad Productions centering around the tragic misery of the drug infested Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Then I learned about this article via a comment on David Berner's blog. It's about the similarly tragic situation that has been downtown Los Angeles for many decades. Finally some good things are happening to help the drug addicts lead better lives. And the source? No other than the frequently maligned L.A.P.D. Yet, fighting them every step of the way are the usual suspects:

• Homeless advocates
• The A.C.L.U.
• Liberal leaning judges & lawyers
• The Hollywood glitterati

The article is long. It'll take you about 30 minutes to get through it. But it's a worthy read. The similarities between L.A. and Vancouver are incredible. Though the actors are different, the screenplays seem nearly identical. Most importantly, the path forward for Vancouver seems abundantly clear. In order to happen, those in power need to agree to and stick to a logical vision and ignore all the misery advocates who will only detract any progress.

The Vancouver Sun or The Province should definitely print this L.A. article in full!

David Berner speaks out about Vancouver's Misguided Drug Policy

"The sound quality is poor but the message is crystal clear: David Berner, a well known broadcaster, writer, and actor in Canada's West Coast city of Vancouver, speaks out about the city's misguided policy on drug use and drug users. Having started SUCCESSFUL drug treatment facilities himself, he knows of what he speaks and everyone, within and without of Vancouver should be listening."

I filmed this with my little digital camera at the October 31st meeting of the Chinatown Rotary Club. It took a while to clean up the sound quality to what is now legible. I filmed as much as I could until the memory card was full.

If you have your own blog, please strongly consider posting this video as well. We need to get the message out that the current drug policy in Vancouver is NOT working. You can obtain the HTML code here. And contact David through his blog if you would like to get him speaking at one of your events on the same subject.

David Berner on Vancouver's Misguided Drug Policy

This afternoon I attended one of those most thoughtful, profound talks I've heard in some time. The Vancouver Chinatown Rotary Club had guest speaker, David Berner, in to talk about his views on the city's badly misguided drug policy.

Besides being an exceptionally engaging and interesting speaker, Berner had some important, common sense things to say about a subject that he is very familiar with. He pulled no punches on his views of politicians, past and present, especially Mayor Sam Sullivan.

I have a long video of the first part of his speech, but need to get the audio cleaned up first. But here are some photos I took.






You should also check out the Odd Squad website. They're a video production company founded by 2 police officers, and are making films to get across a deeper understanding of what's really happening on the streets of Vancouver.

A Few More Words About Drug Addiction

This evening I've had a few private discussions on what I posted previously. Let's face it, drugs have been a devastating scourge on Vancouver. Talk with anyone who has visited here recently and you will hear two things:

1. What a beautiful city you live in!
2. Why has your drug addict and homeless situation become so horrific? :-(
   

The fight against drugs in this city and this country appears to be nearing the end of Round #2. The first round essentially ran from Canada's inception until about 20 years ago (I'm estimating). It was pretty black & white. Essentially if you were caught with possessing anything then you were convicted and served some jail time.

Some caring, arguably more enlightened people said, "That's pretty harsh. These drug addicts aren't criminals. We need to take a kinder, gentler approach."

Seemed reasonable at the time. Very "Canadian", if you will. So Round #2 started. I didn't live in Vancouver between 1987 - 1994 so I don't precisely know what happened during those years but when I did move back it was clear that things had gotten worse. Property crime was bad and getting worse every year. People made excuses. "Oh, it's a much bigger city after Expo '86. Living in a 'World Class City', one has to expect the bad with the good." And so on, and so on.

Things continued to get worse. The "bad part of town", centered at Main & Hastings, started to expand. Open drug use could be seen in that area every minute of every day. The Police became frustrated, because the people they arrested (80% of all property crime in Vancouver is directly related to drug addicts) were back on the street within hours. Things have spiraled completely out of control since then.

Let's all pause for a moment and take a big picture look at the situation . . .

Somehow we've let a well meaning, but completely harmful mindset pervade the fight against drug addiction. The result - and I believe it's a direct result - is that drug use has increased dramatically, as has crime, most especially property crime. No one is saying that we should put drug addicted lost souls in jail but it's long overdue that we stopped treating them with kid gloves and went well beyond trying to help them "only if they let us".

These people are sick with a cancer of their souls and need help even though most will refuse it right off the bat. Consider this analogy: Under today's laws, if a person is deemed to have a mental illness and poses a danger to themselves or others then they are forcibly removed from the street and placed in protective medical care until they are better. Makes sense, right? Then why isn't a similar approach used for drug addicts?

In the months ahead there will be renewed discussions on this issue. While I think that ex-mayor, Philip Owen, means well, he is completely misguided. Worse than him though are the various talking heads - so called "experts" whose financial well being often depends upon programs like Insite continuing forth. Be keenly aware of this when you hear them spurting off statistics that appear to have no correlation with common sense.

Heads Up: David Berner will be talking on this very issue on October 31st at the Chinatown Rotary Club. I will be posting further information about this and strongly encourage all who can attend to do so!

The Dark Underbelly of Vancouver

Last Friday I went downtown with a friend to meet two Quebecois girls at a pub in Gastown. This area of that pub is fine but it's right on the edge of what has often been described as "the worst neighbourhood in Canada". My friend parked his car in a monitored lot about 6 blocks away to reduce the chances of it getting plundered by some crack / heroin / crystal meth addict in search of funds to pay for his next fix. This meant we had to cross the "danger zone" twice.

Both heading there and coming back we saw scenes that were re-enactments from "Night of the Living Dead". You see dozens of lost souls on every block, down every lane, and in every doorway. The "look" in the eyes of these junkies is beyond description. Two cops walked by at one point and I immediately realized the futility of their job. For even if they were to arrest dozens of people, all of them would be back on the street the next day. Such is the state of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside today.

Yet at the same time we have countless members of what I call "DEPI" (the Downtown Eastside Poverty Industry) that rave on & on & on about what great things they're doing in the name of harm reduction. But ask them how many addicts they've successfully cured of their habits and hear nothing but silence.

There are SO MANY PARALLELS with the nonsense spun about Global Warming. It's my understanding that Montreal and Toronto are considering adopting similar programs to what we have here in Vancouver. I would vehemently urge them not to! But I am not the most well versed in the facts & figures of what's really happening out here. For that I turn to David Berner. He's done many things in his life including broadcasting, writing, and actually running a SUCCESSFUL drug rehab facility for a decade in Winnipeg.

On this subject he has written much. Here are some recent examples:

• http://thebernermonologues.blogspot.com/2007/01/wired-to-lose-comprehensive-examination.html
• http://thebernermonologues.blogspot.com/2007/02/pillars-galore.html
• http://thebernermonologues.blogspot.com/2007/06/running-on-empty-mobile-safe-sites.html
• http://thebernermonologues.blogspot.com/2007/05/at-last-at-long-bloody-last.html
  

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside: Same Old Spin, Same Old Inaction

Vancouver Sun columnist Pete McMartin wrote a brilliant, cynical piece which you can read here. Fellow blogger and the best talkshow host in Canada, David Berner, beat me to the punch with this witty commentary. But I couldn't resist send this letter into the Vancouver Sun:

Pete McMartin's insightful column about the Downtown Eastside Poverty Industry (DEPI) hit so many chords that my head felt like a church bell tower on a Sunday morning! When exactly did it become acceptable for endless amounts of public money to be spent with absolutely no meaningful, helpful results being achieved? It seems that actually helping the less fortunate has been replaced with feeling good about dialoguing and conferencing with other like-minded holier-than-thou souls. With all this hot air being generated, Stephane Dion and Al Gore should declare this area an environmental hotspot!

I'd love to be a fly on the wall at a meeting of one of these DEPI groups. I'm convinced that the sentiment around the room would be that if we feel good about doing something then that's more important than actually accomplishing anything. Don't worry about the fact that drug use and poverty is actually increasing. That's just a minor technicality.

At the end of the day, everything looks pretty rosy for everyone employed by the poverty industry. Their bills are paid and since things are only getting worse, they have guaranteed job security for life. They've guilted large corporations into making donations, which in turn makes them feel better on the PR front. Nobody loses, right? Well, except for the thousands of people on the Downtown Eastside who are struggling to overcome their addictions and squalid surroundings. As a recovered heroin addict once told me, "I was never able to get myself better until I hit rock bottom." That's a sad fact that no one in DEPI wants to admit.

On a personal note, hearing about more public money being wasted like this especially galls me. Contrast this with the completely volunteer organization I'm involved with, BC Digital Divide. We allow anyone to apply for a computer but are careful that we're not just giving them out to be sold on the street or replace one they've received from us before. Just today I gave out two computers, to two lower income ladies. Indeed, it cost them nothing but I'm fairly confident that they will treat them with great respect and take good care of them. Our efforts are modeled on "a hand up". It seems that all of DEPI programs are based on "a hand out". And anyone who knows they can continually receive a hand out will generally keep on taking it forever.

Canadian Drug Policy: Reality vs Nonsense

David Berner has posted onto his blog a series of fascinating articles about the many issues surrounding drug addicts in Canada. You can read them here and here and here.

I wish more people would listen to what he has to say about this. If we followed his sound, principled policy, all of society would be much better off!