Tories “Dissappointed” Courts Won’t Let Them Kill Vancouver Drug Addicts

I’m paraphrasing. From The Globe And Mail:

The Health Minister told the House of Commons on Friday that her government would be taking a look at the decision. “Although we are disappointed with the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision today, we will comply,” Leona Aglukkaq said during Question Period. The government, she said, believes that the system should be focussed on preventing people from becoming drug addicts and has made significant investments to strengthen existing treatment efforts through its treatment action plan. “We will be reviewing the court decision,” the minister said.

Mmm-hmm. Also from that story:

Libby Davies, the New Democrat MP whose riding includes the Downtown Eastside where Insite is located, was delighted with the court ruling. “Since it opened in 2003 in my riding, fatal overdoses have dropped by a third. More people get treatment as Insite is there to connect people with the services they need. Today the people who use this service have had their voices heard,” Ms. Davies told the House.

That’s a little more reasonable. Read the full thing here.

British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, and SCIENCE all agree that Insite saves lives, and they want to keep it running. The Conservative feds, who’ve tried to kill Insite for years, need leave their cottages in make-believe land and learn about reality — then back off.

But whatever, they won’t. They’re the party of la la la, everything’s okay if you do it our way. Besides, the Cons — a.k.a. the Crazy Grampa Party — can  still swing their Nancy Reagan-approved war-on-drugs dicks at pot smokers through their stupid crime omnibus bill.

Meanwhile, drug prohibition policies have a body count in, to make up a plausible number, the tens of millions. In Canada and worldwide, drug prohibition is a bigger failure than booze prohibition — it breeds gangsters and killers like mice in abandoned barns.

Unless we want to keep reading headlines abou narco beheadings and disembowlments, we need to re-think everything we’re doing about drugs. Insite is a good start.