Downtown Eastside residents have been known to call it Harmaggedon. Conservative Health Minister Tony Clement calls it, "harm addition." Downtown Eastside residents and Tony Clement are no longer parroting the term "harm reduction" used by activists such as Mark Townsend and his spouse Liz Evans, who for years have paid their mortgage pushing projects for addicts on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
At the World Health Organization's 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City this week to promote a WHO guide on fighting HIV and AIDS, Clement made UN povertarians squirm when he told reporters,
"Allowing and/or encouraging people to inject heroin into their veins is not harm reduction, it is the opposite ... We believe it is a form of harm addition."
These activists are never satisfied, Clement pointed out. "There are already people saying injection sites aren't enough, that true harm reduction is giving out heroin for free," the minister said. He could have also mentioned that activists are even calling for a safe crack cocaine smoking room inside the supervised injection site on the Downtown Eastside. "You have to draw the line somewhere....", he said.
Showing posts with label Supervised Injection Site. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supervised Injection Site. Show all posts
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Monday, November 5, 2007
CNN Duped by Insite Spokespersons
Last week, CNN did a 3 minute story on Insite, Vancouver's controversial supervised drug injection site. They were duped.
As Insite spokespersons listed key benefits the facility brought to the community, they trotted out the same old, same old. They claimed that Insite had resulted in the reduction of discarded used needles in parks and school yards.
What did they leave out? The fact that there are hundreds of needles discarded on the Downtown Eastside every day but people are paid to quietly walk around and pick them up. That's the main reason there is a reduction in needles on the street.
In fact, in a previous post, the DTES Enquirer pointed out that one needle-collector told us that he had picked up about 200 needles discarded in a pile of garbage in an alley less than a block away from Insite.
As Insite spokespersons listed key benefits the facility brought to the community, they trotted out the same old, same old. They claimed that Insite had resulted in the reduction of discarded used needles in parks and school yards.
What did they leave out? The fact that there are hundreds of needles discarded on the Downtown Eastside every day but people are paid to quietly walk around and pick them up. That's the main reason there is a reduction in needles on the street.
In fact, in a previous post, the DTES Enquirer pointed out that one needle-collector told us that he had picked up about 200 needles discarded in a pile of garbage in an alley less than a block away from Insite.
According to a Dec. 8, 2006 Vancouver Sun article, "Our Four Blocks of Hell", 8,300 intravenous syringes were found within four blocks of Insite over a three week period by an independent City work crew. The work crew, accompanied by bylaw and police officers, had been assigned the task of cataloguing litter and garbage in the four blocks surrounding the intersection of East Hasting and Columbia St. -- that's the intersection closest to Insite -- from Aug. 14 to Sept. 8, 2006. That means 8,300 people chose not to walk the short distance to Insite. They instead chose to toss their needles on the ground or in the garbage bin in the alley.
Not only are needles being picked up on the Downtown Eastside by a range of publicly-funded workers, needle-drop boxes have been installed in recent years in alleys, on park fences, and in public washrooms on the Downtown Eastside. Street workers with buckets regularly empty these boxes.
Spokespersons are lying by ommission when they cite fewer needles on the streets as a key benefit of Insite. Rule of thumb: if people lie about one thing, they are likely to lie about another.
For the real story on the massive number of discarded needles being collected daily on the streets of the Downtown Eastside, see "Vancouver's Other Olympic Sport".
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Thinking of donating to United Way? Read Fraudulent Evidence Found in United Way Police Complaint on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer
Not only are needles being picked up on the Downtown Eastside by a range of publicly-funded workers, needle-drop boxes have been installed in recent years in alleys, on park fences, and in public washrooms on the Downtown Eastside. Street workers with buckets regularly empty these boxes.
Spokespersons are lying by ommission when they cite fewer needles on the streets as a key benefit of Insite. Rule of thumb: if people lie about one thing, they are likely to lie about another.
For the real story on the massive number of discarded needles being collected daily on the streets of the Downtown Eastside, see "Vancouver's Other Olympic Sport".
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Thinking of donating to United Way? Read Fraudulent Evidence Found in United Way Police Complaint on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Questions Carnegie Would Rather Dan Not Ask
Dan Rather, formerly the news anchor at CBS, is doing a story on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He has reportedly been examining issues such as poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction, including the supervised drug injection site, Insite.
There are questions that the Carnegie administration and other Downtown Eastside povertarians would rather Dan not ask. They would rather he have a 'don't ask' policy on certain issues, just as they have a 'don't tell' policy.
1. CAPP is Hypocritical when it comes to the Homeless:
Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project [CCAP] is a media go-to person on issues of poverty and homelessness. In fact, she briefed the United Nations representative who was just in town. But Swanson was silent when her colleagues in CCAP supported the barring of homeless man, William "Bill" Simpson, from Carnegie Center.
Simpson was elected, by largely low income people, to the Board of the Carnegie Center in June 2007 and, two weeks later, was delivered a letter by Carnegie Manager Ethel Whitty barring him from the entire building indefinitely. Whitty told him that he would not be allowed inside even for Board meetings. Simpson was accused in the letter on City letterhead of operating a website which "features links" to the Downtown Eastside blog.
There are questions that the Carnegie administration and other Downtown Eastside povertarians would rather Dan not ask. They would rather he have a 'don't ask' policy on certain issues, just as they have a 'don't tell' policy.
1. CAPP is Hypocritical when it comes to the Homeless:
Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project [CCAP] is a media go-to person on issues of poverty and homelessness. In fact, she briefed the United Nations representative who was just in town. But Swanson was silent when her colleagues in CCAP supported the barring of homeless man, William "Bill" Simpson, from Carnegie Center.
Simpson was elected, by largely low income people, to the Board of the Carnegie Center in June 2007 and, two weeks later, was delivered a letter by Carnegie Manager Ethel Whitty barring him from the entire building indefinitely. Whitty told him that he would not be allowed inside even for Board meetings. Simpson was accused in the letter on City letterhead of operating a website which "features links" to the Downtown Eastside blog.
Swanson and her CCAP colleagues are conspicuously quiet month after month when this homeless man stands outside Carnegie on the sidewalk as Board meetings take place inside.
2. Povertarians in the "socialist experiment" of the Downtown Eastside have turned into "blog burners" with the support of City Hall
Months before Simpson was barred from the entire Carnegie Center, he was barred from the Carnegie Learning Center on the third floor. He was told by Co-ordinator/teacher Lucy Alderson that it was because he had blogged on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog. Alderson had been criticized on the blog for too often locking the poor out of the Center. Roughly eight months later, Whitty completely 'disappeared' the issue of Simpson blogging. She announced at a community relations meeting that he had been barred from the Carnegie Learning Center because he was "not a student". He was in fact a registered student with a man named Chad as his tutor. (Chad later resigned over the Simpson barring, calling Carnegie's treatment of the poor "oppressive".)
Earlier Whitty had personally interrogated a volunteer at Carnegie about who he might have seen blogging. Whitty damaged his relationship with his best friend by attempting to get him to turn her in for blogging. She is not a blogger. Whitty also allowed her staff, Dan Tetrault, Rika Uto, and Colleen Gorrie to separately question this volunteer about who was blogging, leading to accusations of a witch hunt. The guy ended up suicidal.
Whitty also repeatedly slandered DTES Enquirer bloggers at public meetings, claiming that they were engaged in "defamation" and "character assassination." Never once did Whitty provide an example of this -- because none exist.
Board member, Sophia Friegang, announced at a meeting that the blog was well within the boundaries of "free speech". She believed that a "mistake" had been made in barring Simpson. [Friegang later resigned from the Board over this issue.]
In two separate issues of the Carnegie Newsletter produced by CCAP, Simpson was libeled. In an issue this summer, Editor Paul Taylor accused Simpson of writing "sadistic" material, "slime", and having gotten himself elected to the Board through fraud. Taylor later printed a retraction. In a previous issue, Taylor called Simpson -- in that issue, he didn't name Simpson but people knew who he was referring to -- a "blog bozo" and other names.
Earlier Simpson, who supported the DTES Enquirer blog, had kidded Taylor, "Finally, some free media on the Downtown Eastside." Taylor is notorious for censoring any submissions to the newsletter that do not jive with his own hard left political views.
3. Where did the first Insite Report go?
During the first year Insite operated, reporters with questions about its success were constantly told by then Mayor Larry Campbell to wait for the report that would be produced based statistics collected internally. The report was indeed produced based on the first year of operation. Campbell told the media that he was disappointed that the report did not show more dramatic results. The report revealed that Insite staff claimed to have saved just one life. And Campbell, a former coroner, admitted when pressed that they could not even be certain that they had even saved that life; the individual may have survived without intervention.
Where did that report go? You never hear about it now.
4. Insite is part of a Medical-Industrial Complex eroding Civil Liberties on the Downtown Eastside
There is big government money coming into the Downtown Eastside. Every day a swarm of workers arrive from other neighborhoods to collect pay cheques in the lucrative poverty industry. But the emerging medical-industrial complex -- the interfacing lucrative poverty industry and the medical industry on the Downtown Eastside has resulted in the erosion of civil liberties.
Povertarians create case files at every opportunity. The case file economy has gotten so out of control that speaking up about a political issue can get a Downtown Eastside resident a visit from Car 87 -- a police cruiser which carries an armed constable and psychiatric nurse -- and tagged with a mental health smear that remains on their record for life. Car 87 assesses people for "apprehension" to a mental hospital and is supposed to be reserved for people at "imminent" risk of killing themselves or others. Car 87 tactics on the Downtown Eastside have been compared by the ad hoc group, Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry, to tactics of political repression employed in China.
Carnegie Center street workers and nurses who roam the Downtown Eastside handing out clean needles have been compared to the KGB. A paper trail obtained by the DTES Enquirer reveals allegations outstanding with the Health Authority since 2004 that they worked with VPD Detective Dormand to track a woman intending to publicize Car 87 abuses on the Downtown Eastside. [The abuses publicized were well supported with documenation.] Medical
2. Povertarians in the "socialist experiment" of the Downtown Eastside have turned into "blog burners" with the support of City Hall
Months before Simpson was barred from the entire Carnegie Center, he was barred from the Carnegie Learning Center on the third floor. He was told by Co-ordinator/teacher Lucy Alderson that it was because he had blogged on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog. Alderson had been criticized on the blog for too often locking the poor out of the Center. Roughly eight months later, Whitty completely 'disappeared' the issue of Simpson blogging. She announced at a community relations meeting that he had been barred from the Carnegie Learning Center because he was "not a student". He was in fact a registered student with a man named Chad as his tutor. (Chad later resigned over the Simpson barring, calling Carnegie's treatment of the poor "oppressive".)
Earlier Whitty had personally interrogated a volunteer at Carnegie about who he might have seen blogging. Whitty damaged his relationship with his best friend by attempting to get him to turn her in for blogging. She is not a blogger. Whitty also allowed her staff, Dan Tetrault, Rika Uto, and Colleen Gorrie to separately question this volunteer about who was blogging, leading to accusations of a witch hunt. The guy ended up suicidal.
Whitty also repeatedly slandered DTES Enquirer bloggers at public meetings, claiming that they were engaged in "defamation" and "character assassination." Never once did Whitty provide an example of this -- because none exist.
Board member, Sophia Friegang, announced at a meeting that the blog was well within the boundaries of "free speech". She believed that a "mistake" had been made in barring Simpson. [Friegang later resigned from the Board over this issue.]
In two separate issues of the Carnegie Newsletter produced by CCAP, Simpson was libeled. In an issue this summer, Editor Paul Taylor accused Simpson of writing "sadistic" material, "slime", and having gotten himself elected to the Board through fraud. Taylor later printed a retraction. In a previous issue, Taylor called Simpson -- in that issue, he didn't name Simpson but people knew who he was referring to -- a "blog bozo" and other names.
Earlier Simpson, who supported the DTES Enquirer blog, had kidded Taylor, "Finally, some free media on the Downtown Eastside." Taylor is notorious for censoring any submissions to the newsletter that do not jive with his own hard left political views.
3. Where did the first Insite Report go?
During the first year Insite operated, reporters with questions about its success were constantly told by then Mayor Larry Campbell to wait for the report that would be produced based statistics collected internally. The report was indeed produced based on the first year of operation. Campbell told the media that he was disappointed that the report did not show more dramatic results. The report revealed that Insite staff claimed to have saved just one life. And Campbell, a former coroner, admitted when pressed that they could not even be certain that they had even saved that life; the individual may have survived without intervention.
Where did that report go? You never hear about it now.
4. Insite is part of a Medical-Industrial Complex eroding Civil Liberties on the Downtown Eastside
There is big government money coming into the Downtown Eastside. Every day a swarm of workers arrive from other neighborhoods to collect pay cheques in the lucrative poverty industry. But the emerging medical-industrial complex -- the interfacing lucrative poverty industry and the medical industry on the Downtown Eastside has resulted in the erosion of civil liberties.
Povertarians create case files at every opportunity. The case file economy has gotten so out of control that speaking up about a political issue can get a Downtown Eastside resident a visit from Car 87 -- a police cruiser which carries an armed constable and psychiatric nurse -- and tagged with a mental health smear that remains on their record for life. Car 87 assesses people for "apprehension" to a mental hospital and is supposed to be reserved for people at "imminent" risk of killing themselves or others. Car 87 tactics on the Downtown Eastside have been compared by the ad hoc group, Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry, to tactics of political repression employed in China.
Carnegie Center street workers and nurses who roam the Downtown Eastside handing out clean needles have been compared to the KGB. A paper trail obtained by the DTES Enquirer reveals allegations outstanding with the Health Authority since 2004 that they worked with VPD Detective Dormand to track a woman intending to publicize Car 87 abuses on the Downtown Eastside. [The abuses publicized were well supported with documenation.] Medical
confidentiality was also disregarded by Dormand and the street workers.
The woman became a target of Dormand immediately after she faxed a letter to the office of Ida Goodreau, CEO of the Health Authority, indicating a determination to seek full accountability for Car 87 fraud and abuse. Half an hour after faxing the letter, the woman received the first of a barrage of voice mail at her unlisted home phone number from Detective Dormand. He revealed that he was under pressure from the Health Authority lawyer at Bull Housser & Tupper. The woman saved the voice mail from Dormand, alleging that the messages were "harassing" and clearly intended to intimidate her into silencing herself. One of the last voice mails from Dormand is alleged to be "tantamount to extortion". There has never been an investigation into the alleged role of the Health Authority in influencing Dormand's conduct, which included the offer of a deal which would see Car 87 documents destroyed -- documents which just happened to be evidence against the Health Authority that the woman wanted criminally investigated. Did I mention that Goodreau's office is the ultimate overseer of Insite.
Players in the poverty industry play dirty. It is a big money game. The stakes are high. Messages that come out of the neighborhood are controlled -- which is why blogging is such a threat -- and povertarians are ruthless with anybody who deviates from the script.
Players in the poverty industry play dirty. It is a big money game. The stakes are high. Messages that come out of the neighborhood are controlled -- which is why blogging is such a threat -- and povertarians are ruthless with anybody who deviates from the script.
For more on the medical-industrial complex on the Downtown Eastside see: http://downtowneastsideenquirer.blogspot.com/2007/10/safe-injection-site-part-of-medical.html
5. Why is Insite a family affair?
Insite, the supervised injection site on the Downtown Eastside, is run by the Portland Hotel Society. That would be Mark Townsend and his wife Liz Evans and her sister Sara Evans.
Left-wing Member of Parliament (federal) Libby Davies was a proponent of Insite and guess who turned up working there? Her only child, Leif Erickson.
And then there is Member of the Legislative Assembly (provincial) Jenny Kwan, whose husband, Dan Small, turned up as Director of the Portland Hotel Society.
5. Why is Insite a family affair?
Insite, the supervised injection site on the Downtown Eastside, is run by the Portland Hotel Society. That would be Mark Townsend and his wife Liz Evans and her sister Sara Evans.
Left-wing Member of Parliament (federal) Libby Davies was a proponent of Insite and guess who turned up working there? Her only child, Leif Erickson.
And then there is Member of the Legislative Assembly (provincial) Jenny Kwan, whose husband, Dan Small, turned up as Director of the Portland Hotel Society.
It will be interesting to see if Dan asks inconvenient questions rather than airing the dog-eared script of the povertarians.
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Thinking of donating to United Way? Read Fraudulent Evidence Found in United Way Police Complaint on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer
Monday, October 1, 2007
Insite is Part of Medical-Industrial Complex Eroding Civil Liberties on Downtown Eastside
The following post appeared on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer in April 2006. It is being re-printed because it remains relevant as we await the announcement by the Harper government this week of their new drug strategy, one that is not expected to grant Insite the 3 year extension requested.
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I live a couple of blocks from Insite, the Safe Injection Site on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. I welcome Prime Minister Harper's announcement that his government is not committed to it and will subject it to a review.
I would like Harper to review Insite in the context of the monstrous Medical-Industrial complex of which it is an integral part on the DTES. This complex consists of a myriad of medical organizations interfaced with a burgeoning poverty industry. It constitutes virtually the entire economy in this neighbourhood which is often referred to as a socialist experiment. Those profiting from this medical-industrial complex -- most of whom live outside the DTES and are referred to by residents as “poverty pimps” -- must constantly manufacture case files to attract public funding. The result is a case file economy.
Everyone is a potential case file. First they case-filed welfare recipients, a population prone to accepting dubious diagnoses that could be exchanged at the welfare office for a higher rate. Then they case-filed the junkies. And now they are case-filing you, Joe and Jane average Canadian. Freedom of expression by average people is now routinely medicalized in the DTES, viewed by poverty pimps as yet another case-file opportunity. Try speaking up or writing a letter on a political issue, criticizing a non-profit organization, or even querying a health professional about the side-effects of blood pressure medication. You may find a nurse on your doorstep announcing that you have been targeted for “assessment”, psychiatric or otherwise. Even after you are “cleared”, your new case file remains permanent.
Try complaining about this gratuitous case-filing and a nurse may arrange for a police constable to show up at your home to deter such “harassment”. And you may find that the swarm of street workers dispensing needles to injection drug users have been briefed on your file and encouraged to monitor you.
Show me a spokesperson touting the success of Insite and I will show you someone economically invested in the medical-industrial complex. A regular media spokesperson is Mark Townsend who, along with his nurse wife Liz Evans, is Co-Executive Director of the Portland Hotel Society. In addition to operating Insite, the Portland Hotel Society operates or has tentacles into so many other organizations that the DTES is virtually a company town. Public accountability is not Townsend's strong point though; he has refused to release a special audit by BC Housing on the Portland Hotel Society.
Maybe it is this uncomfortable refusal by Townsend that makes it expedient for Gillian Maxwell to now act as media spokesperson for Insite -- as indicated from her quoted comments in a recent Metro News article -- during the run-up to Harper's decision on whether to shut it down. Maxwell receives a hefty pay cheque in the medical-industrial complex. She has never displayed much interest in the majority of residents in the neighbourhood who saw ourselves in Harper's election promise to start rewarding “people who play by the rules”.
Maxwell's spiel, like Townsend's, is that research into Insite favours preserving it. But how neutral are the numbers? Hopefully, they haven't been influenced by MP Libby Davies' son, Leif Erikson, who was parachuted into the facility to work.
Watching the medical-industrial complex in action has cured myself and several other long term residents of the DTES of one thing, our socialist leanings. I’d like Harper to give civil liberties a shot in the arm and dismantle it.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Thief Steals Confidential Patient Information from Downtown Clinic
(photo) Maureen Whyte, accused of "obfuscating"
Hot pink posters in the Downtown Community Clinic warn clients that their personal information may be in the hands of a thief. Clients who have had clinic staff fill out “financial” applications are possible victims, Maureen Whyte of the Vancouver Health Authority announced in an Aug. 21 memo which was photocopied onto the hot pink sheets. We are "very troubled" by the theft, wrote Whyte who is the former director of North America's first "safe fixing site" for drug abusers a few blocks away.
A thief, Whyte wrote, had stolen a piece of “equipment” from the clinic which contained “limited personal client information”. The information was primarily related to “applications for benefits and income tax.” The clinic on Powell Street serves the Downtown Eastside poor and many drug addicts, a large number of whom get assistance filling out welfare and other government forms which require medical information.
Police believe that the theft was a “crime of opportunity” Whyte wrote, and that the thief was after the equipment but not necessarily the information on it.
I told Serg, who lives on the Downtown Eastside, about this theft of “equipment”. He laughed and exclaimed, “A computer got stolen! They’re obfuscating.”
Serg has used the Downtown Clinic and believes that the “limited” information Whyte claims was on the equipment stolen would have almost certainly included social insurance numbers, birth dates and addresses. Although he agrees that the thief may not have initially been after the data on the computer, he said,“What if an Asian gang member [PC pause: there are gang members in all races] gets hold of that computer? That information could get into the hands of a credit card fraud ring.” Identity theft is a big industry globally, he pointed out.
What were the security guards at the Clinic doing when the theft occurred? Watching television? Two security guards are in the waiting room within full view of a row or receptionists behind plexiglass. One sits behind a desk in the corner at all times and, like clients, occasionally has his eyes fixed on the small television hanging from the ceiling on which DVDs play. On the positive side, the security guards seem to have good rapport with clients, some of whom are regulars and stop at the Security desk to chat.
With just two 8" X 10" posters taped to the plexiglass at reception wickets, and a font size on the poster no larger than what you're reading now -- even for the headline, although it was in bold font -- Whyte was obviously not giving the theft of personal information any higher profile than she had to. The Vancouver Police, on the other hand, have been sounding alarms over the past year about the seriousness of identity theft in Vancouver. They have been giving interviews to various media, including the Vancouver Sun which ran a huge feature on the topic, warning people to wake up.
A thief, Whyte wrote, had stolen a piece of “equipment” from the clinic which contained “limited personal client information”. The information was primarily related to “applications for benefits and income tax.” The clinic on Powell Street serves the Downtown Eastside poor and many drug addicts, a large number of whom get assistance filling out welfare and other government forms which require medical information.
Police believe that the theft was a “crime of opportunity” Whyte wrote, and that the thief was after the equipment but not necessarily the information on it.
I told Serg, who lives on the Downtown Eastside, about this theft of “equipment”. He laughed and exclaimed, “A computer got stolen! They’re obfuscating.”
Serg has used the Downtown Clinic and believes that the “limited” information Whyte claims was on the equipment stolen would have almost certainly included social insurance numbers, birth dates and addresses. Although he agrees that the thief may not have initially been after the data on the computer, he said,“What if an Asian gang member [PC pause: there are gang members in all races] gets hold of that computer? That information could get into the hands of a credit card fraud ring.” Identity theft is a big industry globally, he pointed out.
What were the security guards at the Clinic doing when the theft occurred? Watching television? Two security guards are in the waiting room within full view of a row or receptionists behind plexiglass. One sits behind a desk in the corner at all times and, like clients, occasionally has his eyes fixed on the small television hanging from the ceiling on which DVDs play. On the positive side, the security guards seem to have good rapport with clients, some of whom are regulars and stop at the Security desk to chat.
With just two 8" X 10" posters taped to the plexiglass at reception wickets, and a font size on the poster no larger than what you're reading now -- even for the headline, although it was in bold font -- Whyte was obviously not giving the theft of personal information any higher profile than she had to. The Vancouver Police, on the other hand, have been sounding alarms over the past year about the seriousness of identity theft in Vancouver. They have been giving interviews to various media, including the Vancouver Sun which ran a huge feature on the topic, warning people to wake up.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Vancouver's other Olympic sport
On Friday afternoon I was walking up Main St. on the Downtown Eastside, headed to a coffee shop with my friend J.D. Under the Georgia viaduct, J.D. asked two workers wearing red coats with strips of green fluorescent tape across the back, “How’s business?” It was obvious what business they were in. One of them, a 20-something white guy with light brown hair, a beard and wire-rimmed glasses, was carrying the tell tale plastic yellow pail.
They’d picked up 357 intravenous needles today, this affable man with geometric tattoos on one side of his neck, told J.D.
How many needles do you pick up on an average day?, J.D. asked. “Two hundred to two hundred and fifty,” the man said. Today was busier than usual, he explained as he ducked into the alley by the run-down Cobalt Hotel. That was because they had come across a pile of garbage in an alley; he spread his arms to show how wide the pile had been: “We took over a hundred needles out of there.” Near Carnegie Centre?, J.D. asked. “On the other side of Hastings, in the alley.”
The tattooed man’s partner, a white guy in his late 20’s or early 30’s with dark brown hair, bent down to pick up a needle from the sidewalk in front of a high rise apartment building near Main and Terminal. Needles are easy to spot with their orange tips.
It is common to see workers paid by the Health Consumer Board, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, or United We Can walking the streets of the Downtown Eastside picking up needles. But these workers are too often hidden from sight when proponents of InSite, the supervised drug injection site argue that a sign of the controversial facility’s success is the reduction in the number of needles strewn on the streets. The fact that workers being paid to pick up needles account for a large percentage of this reduction – "Does Tony Clement know where junkies' needles go?" – must be factored into any assessment of the supervised injection site. Afterall, the more than 100 needles that the worker on Friday claimed to have retrieved from a pile of garbage in an alley were on the same block as InSite, at the opposite end of the 100 block Hastings Street.
As we walked ahead of the two workers, J.D. turned to me, “Did you get those numbers?” You could write a story on this, he suggested. “Call it, 'Vancouver’s other Olympic sport.’”
They’d picked up 357 intravenous needles today, this affable man with geometric tattoos on one side of his neck, told J.D.
How many needles do you pick up on an average day?, J.D. asked. “Two hundred to two hundred and fifty,” the man said. Today was busier than usual, he explained as he ducked into the alley by the run-down Cobalt Hotel. That was because they had come across a pile of garbage in an alley; he spread his arms to show how wide the pile had been: “We took over a hundred needles out of there.” Near Carnegie Centre?, J.D. asked. “On the other side of Hastings, in the alley.”
The tattooed man’s partner, a white guy in his late 20’s or early 30’s with dark brown hair, bent down to pick up a needle from the sidewalk in front of a high rise apartment building near Main and Terminal. Needles are easy to spot with their orange tips.
It is common to see workers paid by the Health Consumer Board, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, or United We Can walking the streets of the Downtown Eastside picking up needles. But these workers are too often hidden from sight when proponents of InSite, the supervised drug injection site argue that a sign of the controversial facility’s success is the reduction in the number of needles strewn on the streets. The fact that workers being paid to pick up needles account for a large percentage of this reduction – "Does Tony Clement know where junkies' needles go?" – must be factored into any assessment of the supervised injection site. Afterall, the more than 100 needles that the worker on Friday claimed to have retrieved from a pile of garbage in an alley were on the same block as InSite, at the opposite end of the 100 block Hastings Street.
As we walked ahead of the two workers, J.D. turned to me, “Did you get those numbers?” You could write a story on this, he suggested. “Call it, 'Vancouver’s other Olympic sport.’”
Friday, January 5, 2007
Does Tony Clement know where junkies' needles go?
I risk sounding like radio commentator Paul Harvey, “Hello Canadians…. And now for the rest of the story”. I've had the urge to tell the rest of the story since Health Minister Tony Clement visited the supervised injection site on Wednesday, and I read a standard argument for renewing it in the next day's Vancouver Sun:
“Supporters also say the centre has reduced …the number of discarded syringes in public places….”
There is no doubt that many people who walk into InSite to inject drugs, walk out without a syringe to toss on the street. But for the record, the reduced number of discarded needles in public spaces can also be attributed to the fact that people are paid to walk the streets day and night picking them up.
The Consumer Health Board, which is housed in the same building at Hastings & Main as the Health Contact Centre, pays $28 for people to put in a four hour shift picking up needles and doing other assigned tasks. Vancouver Area Network of Drugs Users [VANDU] pays $10 for people to spend two hours picking up syringes. This is under the table income, at least in the case of VANDU members.
A VANDU member whom I know works picking up syringes at night. I sometimes pass him walking along Main St. with his specially designed bucket with a slit across the top. He says hi.
Here I’ll toss in something for Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Despite the fact the wages for these needle collectors comes from the government, it is next to impossible for a Canadian to get one of these jobs if you aren’t at least an occasional drug user. If you’re the type of person who has resisted sticking a needle in your arm or picking up a crack pipe, you won’t make the cut.
Another reason for fewer discarded needles in public places is that in recent years, boxes for discarding needles have been placed in both indoor and outdoor spots throughout the Downtown Eastside. The Carnegie Centre, like other major organizations, has installed these boxes in every toilet stall on every floor; they couldn’t stop drug users from sitting on the toilets to shoot up so they provided them a place to at least drop their needles. Street Program workers, paid union wages, are regularly seen entering these washrooms to empty the boxes into a safe bucket.
The boxes can also be seen in a few alleys; one box is attached to a fence at Oppenheimer Park, a notorious gathering place for junkies and dealers.
Yet another contributing factor to the reduced number of discarded needles in public places is the United We Can alley-cleaning program. It's a government funded program in which low income people are paid by the local bottle recycling depot to walk around in packs cleaning the alleys and sidewalks. They pick up litter, including needles.
That’s the whole story.
“Supporters also say the centre has reduced …the number of discarded syringes in public places….”
There is no doubt that many people who walk into InSite to inject drugs, walk out without a syringe to toss on the street. But for the record, the reduced number of discarded needles in public spaces can also be attributed to the fact that people are paid to walk the streets day and night picking them up.
The Consumer Health Board, which is housed in the same building at Hastings & Main as the Health Contact Centre, pays $28 for people to put in a four hour shift picking up needles and doing other assigned tasks. Vancouver Area Network of Drugs Users [VANDU] pays $10 for people to spend two hours picking up syringes. This is under the table income, at least in the case of VANDU members.
A VANDU member whom I know works picking up syringes at night. I sometimes pass him walking along Main St. with his specially designed bucket with a slit across the top. He says hi.
Here I’ll toss in something for Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Despite the fact the wages for these needle collectors comes from the government, it is next to impossible for a Canadian to get one of these jobs if you aren’t at least an occasional drug user. If you’re the type of person who has resisted sticking a needle in your arm or picking up a crack pipe, you won’t make the cut.
Another reason for fewer discarded needles in public places is that in recent years, boxes for discarding needles have been placed in both indoor and outdoor spots throughout the Downtown Eastside. The Carnegie Centre, like other major organizations, has installed these boxes in every toilet stall on every floor; they couldn’t stop drug users from sitting on the toilets to shoot up so they provided them a place to at least drop their needles. Street Program workers, paid union wages, are regularly seen entering these washrooms to empty the boxes into a safe bucket.
The boxes can also be seen in a few alleys; one box is attached to a fence at Oppenheimer Park, a notorious gathering place for junkies and dealers.
Yet another contributing factor to the reduced number of discarded needles in public places is the United We Can alley-cleaning program. It's a government funded program in which low income people are paid by the local bottle recycling depot to walk around in packs cleaning the alleys and sidewalks. They pick up litter, including needles.
That’s the whole story.
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