Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Jam
Bah, you guys broke my lurkerhood.
I would like to chime in here and say that I think our government is seriously fucked up. They are spending money (I am assuming money coming from my taxes) to buy street people in vancouver, not only clean needles, but now also free heroin. I hate my government. What is wrong with them
|
To quote someone far smarter than I, Dr. Michael Rachlis:
Where do homeless people go in the winter time? Yellowknife or the Lower Mainland? That's right. They gravitate towards a warm climate.
Are there infection problems with intraveneous drug use? Yes. HIV/AIDS and Hep C for starters.
Approximately 2/3 of the homeless in Vancouver are from other parts of Canada.
An unknown but significant proportion of those people use intraveneous drugs.
When those people become sick, they naturally migrate back to their traditional home locations, taking their infections with them.
They proceed to use IV drugs in that location, spreading the disease to the local drug-using populace.
Many, many people get sick.
Now. Lets have a test on philosophy. Would you provide those people with clean needles, safe injection sites and even sofaras clean drugs? Whatever answer you provide is your philosophy, and you are entitled to it and to express it.
My philosophy is this: Social Marginal Benefit = Social Marginal Cost
If you are worried that they are giving 1 penny of your taxes to pay for this, may I ask what it is worth to you to prevent some disease-ridden-IV-junkie moving back home to your town and infecting a friend or family member of yours?
Okay, that was a loaded question. If it makes you feel better, please rest easy knowing that smarter people than you and I are running the country.
And if you are still mad, I can suppose that every cent of your taxes went to a federal/provincial infrastructure initiative and you paid for 25m of asphalt between Calgary and Edmonton.