In his 1854 poem The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote the famous line “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.”
It was a sympathetic nod to soldiers forced to carry out orders that will send them to their doom, and it’s become a phrase commonly uttered in frustration about the top-down chain of command.
The Vancouver Police Department opted to question why in a report published this week. Instead of just arresting the addicted, as the Criminal Code of Canada and Controlled Substances Act instruct them to do, the police are calling for more addictions treatment beds and greater access to “opioid replacement” – free clean prescription drugs.
Because in the Downtown Eastside, it’s not the police who are doing the dying. It’s the addicted, at a rate of about 100 per month.
On Friday, the federal government approved three new safe injection sites, including ones in Vancouver and Surrey. Of course, we welcome this. But compared to the bold action that the police and a great many other advocates and public health experts are calling for, safe injection sites now seem like only a half-measure.
Health Minister Jane Philpott has been warming to the idea of more prescriptions for illicit drugs, rescinding a ban imposed by the Tories and acknowledging that for some, it may be the only treatment that works. It would certainly eliminate the criminal element from the supply chain. But still, only one of these clinics exists in Vancouver.
It’s time we got on with it.
Those desperately addicted don’t have time for our political hand wringing.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
