SYRINGES, SEX, SPIN DOCTORING

It's a big week for doublespeak in B.C. As North America's first "safe
injection site" opens in Vancouver, the city opens up another can of
worms with a proposal to create a new zone for home-based "sex-trade
workers."

These terms, "safe injection site" and "sex trade worker," are similar
in the way they distort public discussion.

Each takes a questionable opinion and tries to pass it off as a
fact.

Is there any truly "safe" place to inject heroin or cocaine that has
been purchased on the street? No, of course there isn't, but these
days every media outlet says there is. And once the term becomes
established, anyone who opposes this approach is portrayed as opposed
to "safety."

"Sex-trade worker" promotes the notion that prostitution is a
legitimate and acceptable way of making a living. There might be many
people who believe that, but it's still an opinion rather than a fact.

A contrary opinion was expressed in an open-line radio show on the
weekend. The caller suggested prostitution is no more a legitimate
line of work than drug dealing is.

Both of these activities go on in communities all over the country,
but the discussion takes place mostly in Vancouver, where it tends to
be more obvious. Smaller towns engage in a more subtle hypocrisy,
keeping the prostitutes and drug dealers from getting too visible so
most people can pretend it doesn't happen here.

Vancouver has reached the logical conclusion of the culture of
victimization. According to this belief system, prostitutes sell their
bodies because they are addicted to drugs, and addiction is a disease.
So "sex-trade workers" will be among those who use the "safe injection
site."

Is it possible that people choose prostitution because it appears
easier than real work? Or that drug users choose to get high rather
than suffer the discomfort of quitting? Yes, it is.

- - Tom Fletcher,

Maple Ridge News