Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Insight into Conservative Policy

The HarperCon$ have prevaricated repeatedly on the subject of Vancouver's safe injection site (InSite), and as is so typical of the HarperCon$, very closed-mouthed about what their official stance is.

Until Tony Clement opened his yap in the wake of a ruling from the B.C. Supreme Court.

“We disagree with the judgment,” Mr. Clement told reporters in Ottawa.

“Our government believes that the best way to deal with the health issues of drug addicts is to offer treatment and indeed to prevent people from getting on to illicit drugs in the first place.”

Mr. Clement also strongly suggested the Conservative government was opposed to the facility's continued operation.

“We don't consider it the best health outcome to keep people in a position where they continue to use the illicit drugs, to inject the illicit drugs.”


Well, that's a nice objective Tony, but how pray tell do you think that an absolute erasure of narcotics from the streets can be accomplished? Hell, your own micromanaging boss can't even get his foreign affairs minister to keep either his lips or pants zippered - what the heck makes any of us believe that the standard conservative mantra about "getting tough" on drugs - a technique that the United States has tried with astonishing failure.

Meanwhile, the studies of Insite all reflect the success of the program - something the HarperCon$ claim to be "unconvinced of". But, like Pierre Poilievre, I don't think that Tony Clement is about actually solving problems - he's about regulating people whose issues and challenges he cannot understand or cannot be bothered to try understanding.

I cannot imagine the drive of the drug addict to seek out that next fix, and how personally destructive that drive must be - I simply haven't been there. I do know one thing - the techniques the conservatives espouse simply have not worked at all.

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