The first featured comment was selected due to the passionate way the author crafted their response. The other highlighted comments shared valuable information about supervised injection site.
A scene from the film 'Crazy Rich Asians.'Warner Bros.
From, Crazy Rich Asians: I laughed, I cried, I saw myself reflected on-screen, a review by Cliff Lee
I would select the last sentence of the review and raise it as a challenge for Canada to do better.
Cliff Lee writes that this was “the first cinematic experience to capture an essential part of who I am.”
Hello, Canadian artistic community, wake up.
Why ON EARTH did it take so long for Cliff Lee to get to see a “cinematic experience to capture an essential part of who I am”?
For crying out loud, in our borders, Canada has the substrate for all kinds of narratives about hyphenated-newcomers, be they from Hong Kong or India or Mainland China or Iran or Hungary or Jamaica.
I think the fact that it took so long for Cliff Lee to be offered a sort of mirror, on a movie screen, about matters familiar to him, it is a profound indictment of a failure of the Canadian arts community to produce wanted product.
Ah, but of course, we Canadians are nonetheless good at crying and whining when another country tells our story, like when the movie “Argo” was made by Americans about the Canadian embassy story with Iranian hostages.
We have seriously got to up our game... - Doctor Demento
From, Opinion: Without supervised injection sites, drug users will die
With supervised injection sites they will die also.
Many users don’t fit the mold of street junkie, and the casual suburban users -- they exist, Moms, Dads, teens -- wouldn’t ever be seen going in to those places.
Stop the madness. Legalize the damned stuff and regulate it so users get a safe, clean supply with a predictable dose. Put the money we save on busting dealers, petty crime, and hospital visits into treatment and education.
Stop treating drug abuse like a crime. It’s a health problem -- same as booze or tobacco. – WhistlinInTheDark
Which prompted this response from monkey121
Exactly, Portugal decriminalized all drugs and does not have a single safe injection site yet saw their drug death rate plummet and is lower than Switzerland which pioneered safe injection sites. Since people don’t get criminal records, many drug users have full time jobs and live normal lives. – monkey121
A nurse holds a tray of supplies to be used by a drug addict at the Insite safe injection clinic in Vancouver, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckDARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
From, Why Ford is wrong about supervised drug-use sites, a column from Marcus Gee
Missing appears to be recognition of the success since the 1990s in Europe of the four pillars approach to drug addiction; safe injection sites being only a strategy focussed on one of these 4 pillars. Vancouver’s program is based on adaptation of that European experience to the Vancouver setting.
The 4 are: Harm reduction, Prevention, Treatment, & Enforcement The safe injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side is the most visible harm reduction initiative but it was never envisioned that in isolation from adequate & innovative Prevention, Treatment, & Enforcement initiatives that safe injection site could have the desired impact.
While opinions differ whether each pillar in Vancouver is funded & managed in ways that are most effective & support the other pillars optimally, there is wide agreement that many deaths have been prevented, many individuals have beed aided to obtain treatment, control their addiction & lead more independent lives, that many cases are diverted from the criminal justice system or are better resolved through the special Provincial Court established to help address the enforcement pillar, etc.
The big picture (not just sites) should be the focus. - bob adamson
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