WHAT NEXT?

The City of Vancouver has come up with a new way of attracting people
to their city - a heroin safe house.

The supervised, safe-injection site, which will cost $2 million a year
to operate, opened on Monday. The safe-injection site will operate 18
hours a day under the supervision of nurses. Up to 800 drug users are
expected to visit the site each day.

This site will typically offer drug addicts sterile needles, spoons,
water and access to detox treatment programs and free counseling. Does
this seem a little strange to you?

In Saskatchewan we are crying for doctors and nurses. However, by the
sounds of it, B.C. has no shortage whatsoever, in fact, they are
committing trained staff to help drug users do drugs in a safe way.

We could probably use these nurses over here in Saskatchewan, couldn't
we?

By the way, isn't heroin illegal?

This 'site idea' came about after a report commissioned by Health
Canada that recommended that a site be set up to counter the spread of
HIV and their diseases by people who share needles.

Thomas Kerr, a health-care researcher in Vancouver, stated. "We give
people syringes because we want them to inject more safely," Kerr
said. "But then we basically say go out and do it in an unsterile
setting, such as the street or an alley, so we're kind of going half
way with our measures right now."

This, of course, is endorsed by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
This facility should lower the number of people getting these
diseases, but it will not lower the amount of people using heroin or
other such drugs.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in soup kitchens and safe havens and
things like that. But, shouldn't we try and stop people with
addictions not try to help them continue.

This is like...

This is like setting up a place to give crooks a buffet of things, but
before they go we'll give them a pamphlet saying why it is wrong to
steal and give them a card of a counselor.

Maybe to make the 'crook centre' a little more realistic, we'll put up
cardboard cutouts of police and maybe put a small padlock on the door.
If they can't figure out the combination, or forgot to bring their
bolt cutters, they can phone a 24-hour toll free number to get the
combination.

Once they get the stuff that they want out of the store, they will
then be encouraged to open up their own pawnshop and will be given tax
incentives and a free building.

Sound ridiculous? Of course. But it's pretty much the same thing as
the new injection site.

We, in Saskatchewan are crying for nurses and doctors and in Vancouver
they are committing professional health care workers to inject needles
and provide advice.

What's wrong with this picture?