As we set sail for another round of political buffoonery revolving around the drug problem here in Vancouver, there is a lone cry from the crow’s nest. Sadly, there were 14 more drug OD deaths in Vancouver during the first year of operation of the ‘Supervised (formerly ‘Safe’) Injection Site’ (50 in 2003; 64 in 2004 as per the attached documents). I have seen more tragedy down here in the skids (and elsewhere across Canada) than I care to, or possibly can, remember. I do sense that the tide will be changing here soon (I hope) as we are currently drifting in dangerous and uncharted waters.

Tonight I am taking out a Global TV reporter and her camera crew at the request of our good Inspector John McKAY, a worthy seaman who is bolding taking a stand against all of this pro-drug legalization nonsense that is deeply muddying up the waters. I have been policing these barren waters since the mid 80’s and the surface is as choppy as it ever was. It is time to high time say that the “Emperor has no clothes on” and set a new, healthy and prosperous course. The efforts behind the ‘Four Pillars Model’ (prevention, treatment, enforcement, and harm reduction) have been in vain, if you pardon the pun, because there has been too much emphasis on the so-called harm ‘reduction’ components.

Let’s look at it this way. Ask yourself this simple but defining question: Which of the four pillars are anti-drug and which are pro-drug? The answer to this belies why we are veering off course and into shark-infested waters. The drug legalizers are pirates who have hijacked the harm reduction pillar, which they have neatly and quietly whittled down into a harm reduction rudder in order to ‘safely’ steer the ship while the passengers and the crew sleep.

I find it a bit ironic that the warning of ‘ice’ being sighted from the crow’s-nest is being taken seriously, given the death and damage that other drugs have wreaked in our society. One of crystal meth’s nicknames is ‘ice’. Society is waking up to the fact that there needs to be a ‘war on ice’. But what will sink S.S. Society is the 90% of raw destructive power that is below the waterline: the foundation on which this drug is allowed to sit (injection sites, heroin trials, ‘medicinal’ marijuana, legalization attempts, weak drug laws and sentencing, etc.). I can show you a picture of a drug addict that is now largely a waste of human potential. Was this due to ravages of heroin, coke, or meth? What drug was used first: nicotine, alcohol, or pot? Does it really matter? The end result is the same.

The passenger infirmary list is getting longer by the day. If those of us who are deck hands are not to be believed, and if the attached stats are somehow skewed, then let’s just go ashore and ask the store owners and non-drug using citizens about the highly touted success (by Mayors Campbell and ex-Mayor Owen) of the ‘Four Pillars’ (“One pillar and three toothpicks” as one astute politician commented on the overabundance of the HR efforts). No one seems to ask for the opinions of the stalwart deck hands of this ‘success’, none of whom are throwing up their hats in the air in celebration of these joyous announcements. Those in the thriving ‘junkie industry’ are tossing lifesavers made out of blood-soaked meat to the hapless victims who have gone overboard with their drug ‘experimentation’ in shark infested waters. All this is done under the banner of compassion mind you, as we must not take away the freedom of choice. I would argue that to a large degree, the addict is unable to soberly choose what is right for them anymore. Their loss of dignity speaks to that.

Meanwhile the sharks circle below hungrily awaiting for the Captain to declare the water safe for swimming.

What is not a laughing matter is the strong movement afoot to legalize all drugs (‘market regulation’ is the buzz phrase). The sham of “legalization though harm reduction” is at last being exposed here in Vancouver. I hope that the police are not willing to be used as pawns in the legalization game by speaking into their hats. The Vancouver Agreement has been contorted beyond its initial shape and scope. I feel that it is time to speak up or forever live with the shame and further social destruction that drug legalization will bring.

Ed Broadbent (leader of the New Democratic Party from 1975 to 1989 and human rights champion) stated recently that “Human rights are based on the inherent dignity of the human being” (June 16, 2005, ‘CBC One’ radio). Drugs have been robbing that dignity from tens of thousands of people. If some blackguards were killing and torturing people in the high seas as drugs do, then it would be an obvious human rights issue and the purveyors of powdered death and destruction would be forced to walk the plank, be keel-hauled, or thrown into the brig.

Drugs sap the potential of our youth. We owe them a better legacy than drug dependency, for it is very well-established that as the perception of the harms done by drugs decreases, drug use increases, and that is simply unacceptable and completely unconscionable.

The havoc that we have witnessed with drugs in our society to date is but the tip of the iceberg if the drug legalization movement is left unchecked.

Of course these comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the VPD, but watch and see if they in fact are…Al

Al Arsenault, President
Odd Squad Productions Society
Box 1107, 516 Abbott St.,
Vancouver, B.C. CANADA,V6B 6N7
 www.oddsquad.com
cell: 604-788-7051
bus: 604-408-9945