Western Standard - August 31, 2023


Alberta government will do 'whatever it takes' to stop Mexican drug cartels


Episode Stats


Length

2 minutes

Words per minute

193.77461

Word count

525

Sentence count

48

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we discuss the growing problem of fentanyl use in Canada and the impact it is having on our streets and on our communities. We also talk about the impact of the war on drugs and how we need to do more to fight it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 Yeah, Mexican cartels have been having some operations in Edmonton.
00:00:04.520 That's a long haul, guys.
00:00:06.020 But the bottom line is where there's mass drug consumption, there's money. 0.79
00:00:09.620 And where that money is, the drug dealers are going to follow.
00:00:12.980 And that's why we're seeing some of the stuff.
00:00:16.720 Arthur's story was very interesting talking to people and breaking that down.
00:00:20.180 And these syndicates, these cartels, they're organized.
00:00:23.020 And that's why we see the shootings going on.
00:00:25.060 That's why you get the shootings in the malls and the shootings in the streets.
00:00:27.640 I mean, it's happening in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, because, I mean, these are nasty people.
00:00:32.820 These are drug dealers.
00:00:33.620 They're rough.
00:00:34.440 And when one steps on the other one's turf, the drug wars begin.
00:00:38.860 So, you know, that's when the innocent folks also get hit.
00:00:41.320 I mean, with the drive-by shootings, things like that, you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.
00:00:46.060 And suddenly some poor innocent person gets killed.
00:00:48.680 Now, some of the discussion on that, fair enough for the drug enablers, say,
00:00:54.060 well, if we just provide enough safe supply, then these cartels won't make any money, right?
00:00:57.640 I mean, it's the same logic that prohibition with liquor, you know, the mafia was never at its strongest
00:01:03.080 than when liquor consumption was illegal in the United States and in Canada.
00:01:07.080 And they could, of course, illicitly supply it to everybody because everybody wanted to keep drinking.
00:01:11.620 There's the truth to that.
00:01:12.940 But the issue is that, again, these addicts aren't on something.
00:01:16.900 They're not like people who like to indulge.
00:01:18.700 There's a lot of casual drinkers.
00:01:20.100 There's a lot of people who enjoyed a few drinks.
00:01:21.380 A lot of people can responsibly enjoy a few drinks.
00:01:24.580 You can't responsibly have a little fentanyl.
00:01:27.360 You can't just socially smoke meth.
00:01:29.640 It doesn't work that way.
00:01:31.340 You become an addict.
00:01:32.260 You become one of those zombies on the streets.
00:01:34.380 And it's not sustainable.
00:01:35.880 Now, again, try to find ways to make it less profitable for the cartels, absolutely.
00:01:41.320 But if we supplied it, if the government supplies it, we're seeing that in Vancouver already.
00:01:45.440 We're getting those reports.
00:01:46.440 The addicts go to the consumption center.
00:01:49.440 They get their safe supply.
00:01:51.800 They go out and they peddle that because they want to buy the harder, nastier stuff that the street dealers can provide them.
00:01:57.640 We've got to remember, you're not dealing with rational people.
00:02:00.460 We're talking about people in the throes of a terrible addiction.
00:02:04.160 And they just want it stronger and stronger.
00:02:07.860 That's why, and I think, you know, some of the well-meaning people have never been addicted to something.
00:02:12.920 And that's why we see some of the strongest advocates, like in Alberta with Marshall Smith.
00:02:18.760 He's been through addiction recovery.
00:02:21.600 He's been at rock bottom.
00:02:24.160 Myself, I've talked about my own, you know, recovery from alcohol and putting a number of things up my nose for a period of time.
00:02:29.880 That took a lot of recovery and a program as well for me.
00:02:34.940 Once you've been there, you find out, though, you realize because addictions aren't sustainable.
00:02:41.180 They aren't.
00:02:41.820 They escalate.