Pubdate: Wed, 03 May 2017
Source: Penticton Western (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Penticton Western
Contact:  http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1310
Author: Vonnie Lavers

BOUNDARY-SIMILKAMEEN CANDIDATES ON: THE DRUG CRISIS

Vonnie Lavers is the B.C. Green Party candidate for the Boundary
Similkameen riding.

We have begun to figure out that addicts have illness. Their illness
is exploited by criminals.

We know that where there is addiction there is desperation.
Impoverished addicts may commit crime to obtain money to buy their
drug. What addicts obtain on the street is unregulated and too
frequently deadly. The toll of misery extends from the individual and
the family through the medical system and the criminal justice system.

The danger to addicts from infection and overdose is relieved with
safe injection sites. When the addictive substance is provided or
tested at public outlets in concert with a care regime the criminal
element is brought down and costs in emergency care and criminal
justice processes are lowered.

Drug control is about vigilance by authorities and steps that take the
profit out of the illicit drug trade. The vigilance applied to street
drugs should apply to legally dispensed pharmaceuticals, sometimes a
combined hazard in the patients' home from misuse and even theft.

Public education, a tightening of pharmaceutical distribution and
clouts at the profits in street drugs will happen with more free safe
injection sites which are cheaper and far more helpful than hospitals,
courts and mortuaries.

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Vonnie Lavers is the B.C. Green Party candidate for the Boundary 
Similkameen riding.
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MAP posted-by: Matt