HIGH ABSURDITY

The one thing uglier than a loser is a quitter.

Earlier this week, North America's first government-sanctioned
injection site for addicts opened in Vancouver.

Politicos and junkies alike took turns toasting the controversial
project in that city's drug-addled Eastside.

"We lost a lot of people along the way, but this is a day of
celebration," Dean Wilson, president of the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users told the gathering. (Only in Vancouver could junkies have
their own union complete with a spokesman.)

At the injection site, addicts get clean needles and shoot up in small
booths under the supervision of a nurse.

After they get their fix, they go to a "chill-out room" before
returning to the streets.

About 800 junkies are expected to use the facility each and every day
of the year.

The rationale is that if junkies get high safely, there is less risk
of overdose, AIDS or hep C.

The result is government-sanctioned heroin use.

And the disturbing message it sends is that, as a society, we've given
up on helping junkies overcome their addictions and will instead
facilitate their vices until the day they draw their last breath.

The needle in the haystack was too hard to find so we've stopped
looking.

"We're never ever going to cure drug addiction," said Vancouver Mayor
Larry Campbell, sounding like a defeated man on a defeatist mission.

"But what we can do is help those who have that addiction stay
alive."

Campbell's cops have already said they won't arrest junkies on their
way into the safe site for a hit.

They've become neutered cops with no power of enforcement against a
highly illegal and dangerous practice.

Not to mention costly.

Health Canada will inject $1.5 million to pay for research and the
B.C. government will also give $2 million to help cover costs.

That's on top of the $1.2 million that province has already spent
renovating a vacant building for the project.

Both governments will also be forking out an unforetold chunk of
change when the family of the first addict who dies as a result of a
bad batch files a lawsuit.

Sticking out like a sore vein, Canadian Alliance MP Randy White says
the philosophy behind the safe-hit house is flawed and the entire
project is waste of money.

"The priority is to get people off drugs, not keep people on drugs,"
says White.

"Every cent we spend away from that objective is money
wasted."

No arguments here.

Proponents of the project point to overdose deaths (37 so far this
year in Vancouver) and the seedy Eastside itself, which has an
estimated 4,700 intravenous drug users as justification.

If you follow that logic, then it would make sense to set up a suicide
stand in a community that has a high-rate of suicides.

It's absurd.

So why are we so content to let people who have serious drug
dependency problems kill themselves slowly and with the blessing of
their elected leaders?

We're not talking about the decriminalization of marijuana
here.

This is about heroin and crack cocaine.

Hard drugs.

Drugs that kill people.

If you believe sanctioning the use of heroin is anything less than
giving up on the poor souls who seek out happiness at the end of a
syringe, then you've quit being a human being.

And there's nothing uglier than a quitter.