addiction

By: University of Victoria

 

A new report by the University of Victoria’s Centre for Addictions Research (CARBC) reveals that Victoria’s drug users continue to share dirty needles after the closure of the city’s only needle-exchange facility.

 

About 400 people a month used the facility, which opened more than 20 years ago. In May 2008, the needle-exchange was evicted from its downtown location after months of complaints from businesses and residents about noise, crime, garbage and human waste on the two-block street on which it was located.

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By Roszan Holmen - Victoria News

 

While Victoria council recently approved portable washrooms for a growing street population camping along Pandora Avenue, the new amenities may soon prove unnecessary.

 

On Thursday, council decides whether to ban tents on the boulevard or road median.

 

It’s not a new idea.

 

Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe first proposed it in July 2009 after a number of vehicle collisions with pedestrians in the area.

 

The bylaw proposal is being met with both praise and scorn.

 

Victoria police Sgt. Grant Hamilton said camping on the boulevard is a “recipe for disaster.”

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By: Andre Picard, Globe and Mail

 

What a cruel juxtaposition of events.

 

Last Thursday, a committee of the Ontario Legislature released a hard-hitting report on the need to fundamentally transform the province’s mental-health and addictions system.

 

Then, on Sunday, as if to underscore the urgency of implementing their recommendations, Toronto Police shot to death 25-year-old Reyal Jensen Jardine-Douglas. The shooting is still under investigation, but his “crime” seems to have been to suffer from mental illness.

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CBC News

 

Victoria city council plans to crack down on homeless people who camp out on a grassy median after three people were struck and killed on the busy downtown boulevard.

 

On Thursday, council is expected to debate a bylaw amendment would make it illegal for anyone to camp or loiter on the city's boulevards and medians.

 

The 900 block of Pandora Avenue is home to Victoria's largest drop-in centre for homeless people. The block also includes the offices of addiction doctors and the Ministry of Housing and Social Development.

 

As a result, about 30 to 40 people camp out each night on the grassy median running down Pandora Avenue.

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Editorial: Globe and Mail

 

Toronto this week became the first city in the world to formally endorse the Vienna Declaration that states that war-on-drugs-style prohibitions are a costly failure, denounces the “severe negative consequences” of such policies both in terms of public health and crime rates, and urges a shift in emphasis to regulation and harm reduction.

 

It would be easy to dismiss the city council’s decision as a meaningless gesture by local politicians working well out of their depth, except that the push to decriminalize, not only marijuana, but hard drugs like cocaine and heroin as well, is a rising international phenomenon, being driven by serious and credible sources, not by local politicians or stoner websites.

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By: Brennan Clarke, Globe and Mail

 

Two years ago, a landmark court ruling gave homeless people the right to pitch their tents in Victoria city parks. Now the province’s chief medical health officer says a bustling “tent city” made possible by that decision is on the verge of becoming a public health hazard.

 

“Any time you have a number of people camped together without hygienic facilities for a period of time there’s a potential for a health risk to those individuals,” Dr. Perry Kendall said.

 

“And if you have a group of people in an area who are using or injecting drugs, there is a risk of blood-borne infections … and that’s a potential public health issue.”

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By. Diane Taylor, Guardian

 

Drug addicts have a lot in common with other marginalised groups, such as sex workers, people with disabilities and asylum seekers in that many people have never met them and know very little about the realities of their lives. Where there is a void of factual information, stigma and prejudice often rush in to fill the space. This week's report from the UK drugs policy commission, Sinning and Sinned Against: the Stigmatisation of Problem Drug Users, confirms this. The report finds that many people don't like drug users and that this dislike hinders the prospects of social integration and future employment for this group.

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CBC News

 

A new report says a "radical transformation" of mental health and addiction care is needed in Ontario if people are to receive the help they need.

 

The all-party legislative committee that wrote the report, released Thursday, is urging the government to create an umbrella organization to co-ordinate mental health and addictions systems.

 

Having a single body called Mental Health and Addictions Ontario, responsible for designing and co-ordinating the system, will ensure that services are delivered consistently and comprehensively across the province, the report said.

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By: Adam Radwanski, Globe and Mail

 

Deb Matthews has seen the stats that show her province has the worst rate of prescription-drug addiction in the country. And she’s heard the stories: northern cities fighting a losing battle, native communities torn apart, small towns contending with thefts and break-and-enters so residents can feed their habits.

 

But Ontario’s Health Minister doesn’t need to go far afield to find motivation for the policy response she’s set to begin rolling out in the coming weeks. She just has to wander a few blocks from her constituency office.

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