Interesting:
In the past year, Canada has drastically shifted its approach to dealing with drug users, going from punishing them to instituting the policy of harm reduction. This program makes sure junkies are safe while they are shooting up instead of sending them to jail.
I am no big fan of the US's current approach to counter-narcotics, but am not sure this is the way to go, either. Especially since it is a half-step at best, creating a haven for use, but maintaining it in the context of drugs remaining illegal. If you are going to legalize and provide treatment, then do so.
And my opposition to current policies of the US are based on their lack of effectiveness. Ultimately we spend billions and only put a dent in the drug flow, and I do think that criminalization promotes guerrilla violence in Colombia and gang violence in the US--and does so without any solution to the problem in site.
All of that aside, what a pathetic lifestyle:
"Before I knew about this room, I used to go outside and shoot in the back alleys," Veenstra says. She ties a blue rubber tube around her left arm and pulls it tight with her teeth. She takes a clean syringe and draws up the liquefied drug, sucking it through sterile cotton, hoping the cotton will capture the impurities in the addictive stimulant, made of substances she is unsure of -- her crystal meth could be cut with drain cleaner, baby laxatives or asbestos.and
"Most users are trying to hide the hurt," she says. Her mother, she says, left when she was 6 months old. Reared by her father, she ran away at 10 and never looked back. She met a guy named Paul who asked if she was hungry, and he took her back to his house.
"He was a heroin addict. He did a hit. He was all happy. He was nodding out," Veenstra says. She wanted to be just like Paul. "I've been using since I was 10. I lied to my first heroin dealer. I told him I already used."
Heroin was her mother for 30 years, she says, adding that she has no guilt for being a junkie.
I have to admit, getting into such a lifestyle is mystifying to me.
Source: With Injection Sites, Canadian Drug Policy Seeks a Fix
Posted by Steven Taylor at August 2, 2024 08:42 AM | TrackBack