The Harper-Cons lack harm-reduction InSite.

There is something wonderful in the East End Vancouver that has saved hundreds of lives. This miracle of the street in the safe injection site where which has intervened in 6## overdoses, these are people who would have died were they not this sanctuary. For those not familiar with InSite let me give a quick outline. InSite is a location where IV drug users can go to inject their fix. The site ensures users are giving clean needles, safe places free of rape and robbery, the onsite nurses are there to assist in case of overdose and there are councillors to help those wanting to be cured of their affliction. The principle of the site is harm reduction, it holds that the reality of situation is that people do drugs, and in the act of doing them people are harmed or die. They hold the moral stand point that you must help the suffering, and that drug addiction is a disease. As such you must help. To do this, the safe injection site was created with financial assistance from the three levels of government and an operating exception from federal drug laws.
Let’s look at the value, it costs approximately $63/per user compared that to the cost of an emergency call, around $460 (Vancouver Sun 06/07/20). Beyond financial savings there are the lives that would have been lost. The deaths from overdoses have dropped significantly since the opening of InSite. The real benefit to both users and society, though, is the number of people who find treatment for their addiction and are cured of their disease. This program has received immense notoriety in the world medical journals, the vast majority (perhaps all) stating the program is a success and has a positive impact on all the stake holders. Articles from such magazines as New England Journal of Medicine, Canadian Medical Association Journal, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, The Lancet, The International Journal of Drug Policy, and British Medical Journal have come out onside of InSite.
Now in the face of this we have our own Stephen Harper and his Harper-Cons. The operating exception, which is due for renewal, will probably laps as Harper seems intent of letting those in society beneath him, suffer. It is the belief of the Harper-cons that those who do drugs should die, it is the deterrent factor. To them it is like capital punishment, something else the support. Death, via overdose or worse, is the punishment for being weak and immoral and starting drugs in the first place. It is another plank in the reactionary socially hyper-conservative agenda that is intent on turning us into a US style theocratic plutocracy. There is no legal or moral issue with extending the operating exception for a period of time, at least until the government(s) have completely studied the results of the experiment. Harper would much rather use the excuse of studying the findings of the site to shut it down. For someone who claims to be pro-life (or maybe just at election time) I must say shame Mr. Harper, shame. How many people must die so you can maintain your ivory tower of self-righteous hypocrisy? Pro-Life my ass!
To help please check this out HomelessNation.org.