Juno News - August 19, 2021


The government prepares to enable hard drug use


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

137.02036

Word Count

588

Sentence Count

27


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Is the federal government preparing to enable hard drug use?
00:00:08.840 Well it would certainly seem so if the Liberals win the September 20th election.
00:00:14.260 An export task force on substance use created by Health Minister Patty Hadju in March has
00:00:20.720 weighed in this week suggesting there no longer be criminal penalties for the possession and
00:00:26.120 use of hard drugs.
00:00:27.860 We're talking about drugs like heroin, cocaine, LSD, meth and fentanyl.
00:00:33.340 The task force claims that Canada's laws making the possession of hard drugs a criminal act
00:00:38.440 has been part of an ongoing structural racism in this country and that Canada's Black and
00:00:45.700 Indigenous communities are unfairly and more often targeted with criminal charges for drug
00:00:51.740 offences.
00:00:53.220 They also contend that substance use in the Indigenous community is a consequence of
00:00:57.580 colonialism and the never-ending drug war has caused irreparable harm to Black communities.
00:01:05.860 The report comes up with no data to back up these claims but this is not important to progressives
00:01:11.740 in Canada these days who use hurt feelings and oppression to justify the most ridiculous
00:01:18.840 of contentions.
00:01:19.840 In a statement Ms Hadju says they must redouble efforts to save lives and meet the needs of
00:01:27.120 people who use substances.
00:01:28.840 Well it's not surprising that the task force members, all of them academics or supporters
00:01:34.480 of the trendy harm reduction philosophy that has gathered steam across Canada would come up
00:01:41.820 with further efforts to enable hardcore addicts and it's just as unsurprising that Hadju and
00:01:49.100 her task force would use COVID as an excuse to further their enabling agenda citing the increase
00:01:57.360 in opiate deaths during the worst months of the pandemic last year.
00:02:02.100 However, never mind that loneliness, isolation and the lack of mental health supports would
00:02:08.160 drive people to do things they normally don't do.
00:02:12.380 That's not mentioned at all.
00:02:14.300 And I'm not sure how making hard drugs legal will change that.
00:02:18.940 But here's the thing.
00:02:20.500 Safe injection and harm reduction sites provide clean needles and a safe space for addicts to
00:02:25.760 shoot up their drugs.
00:02:27.100 In other words, they enable drug addicts to take their poisons but safely.
00:02:32.480 Rehab is most often either not in the mix or just an afterthought.
00:02:38.580 And so the deaths from drug overdoses continue even at a faster rate despite the increase in
00:02:46.000 safe injection and harm reduction policies.
00:02:50.100 In Toronto, the number of safe injection sites has grown like weeds along with the federal money
00:02:56.240 given to host these sites.
00:02:58.100 There are now nine safe injection sites clustered around the downtown core and four urgent public
00:03:05.240 health needs sites in hotel shelters, all of them approved and funded by the Trudeau government.
00:03:12.040 The fallout on the communities around these sites has been tremendous with vandalism, break-and-enters,
00:03:19.240 loitering, nudity, and assaults, including sexual assaults, rampant.
00:03:25.340 One woman living right beside the Novotel shelter in Toronto's Asplanade neighborhood says without
00:03:30.680 effective detox and rehab programs, the addicts are just enabled and propped up.
00:03:36.200 She says decriminalizing hard drugs will increase drug trafficking and violence, which goes with
00:03:41.240 the territory.
00:03:42.240 It will also make the already increased crimes in areas way worse, she says, and lead to more
00:03:48.340 violence.
00:03:49.340 Health Minister Patty Hadju claims that substance use is a health issue, not a moral or criminal
00:03:57.340 one.
00:03:58.340 Well, go tell that to the neighborhoods infiltrated with crime from the government's enabling policies.
00:04:05.840 I have an idea.
00:04:07.240 Let's call these proposed policies what they really are.
00:04:10.760 If enacted, our politicians and the special interest groups will be killing addicts with
00:04:16.700 kindness.