The Ontario government tabled an omnibus bill Monday that includes a ban on provincially funded supervised consumption sites and a de facto ban on sites approved by the feds.
As part of its plan to ban supervised consumption sites and close 10 of those operating in Ontario, the province has announced the creation of 19 intensive addiction recovery facilities, named HART Hubs.
A $378-million budget has been allocated to create the new spaces, which will combine addiction recovery with highly supportive housing units. The program should lead to 375 “highly supportive” housing units as part of the hub model.
That’s because they’re only one part of a whole solution. The issue was never the drugs themselves. The reasons people get addicted to drugs are largely systemic in nature. Systemic solutions for systemic problems.
I should lay out that I believe in housing as a basic human right and think that everyone is entitled to a safe and warm place to sleep. But even when arguing from a practical standpoint it’s next to impossible to find a job that will hire a person with no address and possibly no government ID (need an address to get documents!). For people to even have the chance to turn their lives around they NEED a personal living space to store their belongings. Doesn’t even need to be any more complex than a hotel room.
I understand the frustrations with safe consumption sites, but they are realistically solvable, and the only reason we haven’t solved them is because all these politicians are too myopic to realize the long-term benefits of actually helping our communities. They do provide a real service with the guarantee of medical staff on hand and 100% pure doses that won’t instantly kill you. The problem is that without all the other things in place they look very silly.
It may not for some, but some former addicts say without that they would never have broken free of the downward spiral. The drugs make you only find joy in drugs, it doesn’t seem to have a solution
That doesn’t sound bad, actually.
That is promising, though it would be a good next step to the consumption sites rather than a replacement for them.
The consumption sites would be good first points of contact so users could be provided the treatment centre information.
I’d bet that the contract to build these happens to be someone owed a favor.
Some one in BC interviewed about safe injection sites said it is not a help, it justlengtyens the slow path to suicide. Oof.
That’s because they’re only one part of a whole solution. The issue was never the drugs themselves. The reasons people get addicted to drugs are largely systemic in nature. Systemic solutions for systemic problems.
I should lay out that I believe in housing as a basic human right and think that everyone is entitled to a safe and warm place to sleep. But even when arguing from a practical standpoint it’s next to impossible to find a job that will hire a person with no address and possibly no government ID (need an address to get documents!). For people to even have the chance to turn their lives around they NEED a personal living space to store their belongings. Doesn’t even need to be any more complex than a hotel room.
I understand the frustrations with safe consumption sites, but they are realistically solvable, and the only reason we haven’t solved them is because all these politicians are too myopic to realize the long-term benefits of actually helping our communities. They do provide a real service with the guarantee of medical staff on hand and 100% pure doses that won’t instantly kill you. The problem is that without all the other things in place they look very silly.
Million dollar starter home?
I believe in previous threads on the subject, it was identified that forced rehab doesn’t work. I’m too lazy to go find the threads FYI
It may not for some, but some former addicts say without that they would never have broken free of the downward spiral. The drugs make you only find joy in drugs, it doesn’t seem to have a solution