LAID-BACK ATTITUDE KILLING PEOPLE

To the editor:

How excellent that CNN is covering the opening of the safe injection
site on Hastings ("'Insite' opening an international media event,"
Sept. 17).

At last, the world will be exposed to the humanitarian catastrophe
that is the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. For so long Canadians have
smugly assumed that their country and their cities were far more
socially responsible than their American counterparts. The fact that
people from Detroit are appalled at the conditions here is quite
poignant. North American and international viewers will discover what
most Vancouverites already know: this city has the largest
unsupervised and deadly drug market in the developed world, and Third
World disease infection rates.

The city is so laid back it kills. Really. There have been 37
overdoses this year to date, and these numbers should be added to the
murder count. The "crackdown" on Hastings would pass for substandard
policing in most cities. How can the safe injection site possibly
improve the situation when there is a dearth of rehabilitation
facilities? To whom are the counsellors in the site supposed to refer
people who want to detox? Of course, right outside any detox centres
there are dealers waiting for those who falter.

This is a policing issue. The fact that we have let the situation
degrade to this level is appalling, but stop wasting everyone's time
and (lives) and act. It was the most important issue during the last
civic election, and it needs immediate action. No one in this country
should live in the conditions that exist in the Downtown Eastside, and
it is our responsibility to fix it. There should be no street dealing
and no shooting up in the alleys. Clean up Hastings Street, portions
of Granville, the mini-dealing areas such as Fraser and Broadway and
Broadway SkyTrain.

Being tolerant of deadly behaviour is not very respectful of human
life. Pseudo-liberals who think that police action is violating rights
are very naive. The very poor are the biggest victims of our drug
"tolerance."

Sean Byrne

Vancouver