Taking Back Vancouver’s Hastings Street
Ever wonder why we can’t clean up East Hastings?
Advocates now are warning that a new police crackdown in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside will increase the risk of transmission of HIV and hepatitis. The crackdown plan calls for more officers and mandates a boost to ticketing and street checks of local residents.
“This proposal appears consistent with the effect of a street sweep in advance of the 2010 Olympics, involving mass displacement of a very HIV-infected community,” reads the letter, which was signed by The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and six AIDS service organizations.
“Our results support anecdotal reports of increased public drug use and displacement of drug users, and they probably explain increases in drug-related sex-trade activity and crime in areas outside the DTES (downtown east side),” Wood and his coauthors wrote in the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2004.
“The crackdown also increased the rates of unsafe syringe disposal and significantly reduced the proportion of syringes being returned to the city’s largest needle exchange,” they also said.
Here’s a better idea – arrest the drug users. Put them in jail. Dry them out and then offer them rehab if they’d like to be released.
We’d accomplish infinitely more and AIDS rates would begin to drop.
We might even be able to claim back Hastings Street.
photo credit: jonrawlinson
February 11th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
arrest the drug users. Put them in jail. Dry them out and then offer them rehab if they’d like to be released.
The problem with this idea is that drugs are almost easier to get in jail, where there is even more unsafe use and further spread of HIV / Hepatitis. Instead of jail, the focus needs to be on long-term assisted living rehabilitation outside of the DTES.
Get the people out of the slums, into a 14-21 day detox, into a 3-6 month recovery house, and into sustainable housing where they have the fundamentals of improving their social situation. This is a much better option than sending addicts to jail where they stay addicted, spread disease through unsafe use, and perpetuate the criminal cycle at the expense of the taxpayer.
Jail is a useless expense (60-90K/year per inmate), as a conservative (small c) I would predict you would rather spend government money on something that works. Right?