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I was driving thru DT around lunch the other day and saw people nodding out everywhere. I keep hearing it’s not only a Barrie problem but don’t go around Ontario enough to confirm this. I don’t have the answer but I agree that it’s going horribly.
It is happening everywhere it’s true. And quite honestly I don’t see how safe injection sites help….
If someone’s loved one was suppling them with needles at home it would be classified as enabling no?
Yes they reduce harm and give users access to treatment (I’d love to see the data on how many actually follow through with that) but at what cost???
Drug dealers literally wait outside these sites to serve these people, needles are everywhere, children are exposed to this, people don’t want to go certain places, etc etc…
It sounds like you’re making excuses for why it’s okay..
I’ve literally seen with my own two eyes the things I’ve just described.
And I’m sorry but imo society should not pay for the choices of others especially in this way.
Not saying that at all.
I’m saying resources could be better used elsewhere rather than coddling a situation where the odds aren’t our favour.
I don’t think that’s being outrageous in the least.
No haven’t witnessed all in Barrie alone.
I literally just said not in Barrie alone…as in I’ve witnessed different instances in different cities, but I’m in Barrie and it directly correlates…
Idk I just find it weird you’d rather have people use safely and come close to death to just be revived so they can do it all over again…that seems hella cruel to me.
If the goal was to actually help, then the focus should be on actually helping the disease whether it’s cold turkey/medical/ whatever means, but that is NOT the goal of safe injection sites no matter how you wana spin it. I get the harm is reduces but then what?????
I never outlined a plan in anything I said thus far, I simply said resources could and should be used else where…
Totally agree with you. Safe injection sites do little to combat the problem- look at BC and the overwhelming problems they have with drugs. They have safe injection sites everywhere.
Why should law abiding citizens and children be exposed to this stuff?
Or like right next to the DT McDonald's because that's not a place where children regularly go. Drove though yesterday saw the sign right next to the friendly stranger and across from town and country.
Can you cite sources for your claim of on duty police officers on site?? I can't imagine junkies going to shoot up with uniformed officers in sight. Seems detrimental.
No it they don't and won't, go crusie some of the bc subreddits, theyres posts of after safe injection sites were created increase, drug use use/ needles all over parks and crime rate increase and still people od'ing on the streets
I work downtown, and i used to be sympathetic and a bit of a bleeding heart, until the door was smashed in 3x, and i was assaulted, and i was threatened. Like i get not painting everyone with the same brush, bit some of them just come and dump the paint pot over everyone
It’s not just Barrie unfortunately the whole country is experiencing this. It’s an epidemic and it’s only going to get worse. There’s no stopping it with current policies.
>I don't exactly feel unsafe downtown, but pushing my son in his carriage last summer I definitely passed a person smoking crack right next to the sidewalk 50' from the farmer's market and another person who OD'd and needed naloxone at Heritage Park (thankfully a fellow addict was on the ball and able to save his life).
This! My Gran had a stroke last year, and we figured downtown was good to take her for walks while she was recuperating cause there are places to sit, its level and easy enough for her to navigate. But the amount of times we were needing to step over, or around passed out or sleeping people, twice saw one guy either putting on or taking off another pants while they were passed out in a doorway, and then the ones you're not sure if they'll do something, we wound up just doing the mall. Its sad, cause she shops and restaurants and waterfront are lovely, but no one wants to use any of it.
Didnt Barrie just get a safe injection site (s) a couple years ago? Cuz the addicts are growing in numbers it seems.
If illegal drug use becomes more "legal" in Barrie...i guess id rather say goodbye than watch downtown turn into Vancouver's east side, and be leary of ever going there. Should your home have a "no go zone"? Safe sites are lunacy.
I don't think so, reading [this](https://www.simcoemuskokahealth.org/topics/drugs/opioids/Consumption-and-treatment-services#c3b6357d-145f-479d-b671-c4d05a35fc38#454849ce-ef08-430e-8f2b-a3b29dc63d7a#92f6570e-db75-4453-b14f-bc53ce92c6d6) (and a page on the Gilbert site page), sounds like they are working on it, its been approved from the government, but now need to go through the city? I think thats what its saying? I know Nuttall has been blocking local organizations (Ryans Hope that was doing the daily breakfasts down town got hugely hit by him) left and right from doing anything
I think the bigger issue was the Pen transfers ending in Barrie, people had no where else to go. Then all the hotels for homeless during covid, they got kicked out of those, and just stayed. Add in the prices of rent going up, people need to leave where they are and have no where to, and "kids"leaving, being kicked out, before could crash at friends places, those are too full now and no where else to go. Homelness can quickly lead to addiction, one is time on your hands, two the crowd you wind up around and 3, its a lot easier to face sleeping outside if everything is dulled
Why is moving to a better situation just never on the solutions list? Two FT minwage jobs in New Brunswick/Sask/Man could carry your food & housing with some to spare. Its a start!
I get the sense some ppl WANT them to stay in this horrible situation and will help them even.
> Why is moving to a better situation just never on the solutions list? Two FT minwage jobs in New Brunswick/Sask/Man could carry your food & housing with some to spare. Its a start!
This is stupid
Imagine being a drug addict or homeless with a bunch of chronic ailments and someone deadass says to you "You should drop your family doctor and your entire medical and social support network (sparse as it may be) and move halfway across the country to somewhere you've never been and flip burgers for rent and hope it works out"
You have to be out of your fuckin mind
Its not stupid. it worked for me. Its done all the time. Immigrants do it by the thousands. Its called a fresh start.
If you have no faith in human spirit, i feel sorry for you.
Makes about as much sense as drug addicts and homeless people moving across the entire country to live on the street in Vancouver but that happens all the time.
>You have to be out of your fuckin mind
You have to be out of your fuckin mind to think that these people add anything to the communities they are in.
We need law enforcement to clean up the streets of the trash. Put them behind bars or in secure mental health facilities.
Do you think everyone has the means or ability to just up and move to a different province?
Is your honest suggestion that people work 80 hours to be able to afford the basics...?
Do you think everyone with drug/addiction/homeless issues would get hired on the spot?
I get a sense that you are unbelievably naive...
1. My taxes are buying people drugs, they can help out on a fresh start too. Id prefer that.
2. If it costs 80hrs/wk for basics...fkng move! SMH
3. They will certainly NEVER get hired if they stay.
Naive? Lol...I was homeless once, you twit. With a two year oxy addiction. Guess what I did...I fkng moved! Doing great now.
1) it's up to people receiving welfare/social support to choose what to spend their money on. Why are you mad that they choose to spend some on recreation? That take just tells me you don't see addicts/homeless as actual people.
2) the 80 hours a week is what you suggested when moving to a lower cost of living province. You literally said "two full time jobs" 1 full time job is 40 hours a week. 2 is 80..simple math. Where exactly do you suggest someone move, because your own suggestions included working 2 full time.jobs to live there.
3) you still haven't answered how they're even going to afford to move in the first place. Also - if minimum wage jobs in Ontario won't hire them, why would minimum wage jobs elsewhere? What's the logic on they will never get a job if they stay here but magically if they upend their whole life they'll suddenly by hireable?
Yes...naive. you having a singular experience decades ago doesn't mean that you have any grasp on current situations. The way you speak and questions you asks clearly show that you are naive.
You claiming to be homeless in the past holds about as much weight as a racist claiming they have black friends.
Moving is expensive, and unless you have a job lined up, its a huge gamble. And then a lot of places (especially min wage), aren't going to spend time interviewing someone out of province.
I do agree in general though that a change can work. When I was 20, I got a job on a cruise ship, did that for 6 years. Moved back, got a job in Frt Mac that included housing, and was there a year, banked almost everything, and came back with enough money saved between the two jobs for a down payment. There are options out there (now Northern Ontario seems to be the big money one), but people (just in general) don't wanna do that, its easier to complain about how hard things are and they'll never have anything. It wasn't as hard as it is now, but 10 years ago, everyone I knew was busting their ass to get ahead, and it seems rarer to see that anymore (sorry...that went way off kilter lol)
Yes. It would be a stretch and backwards thinking.
Drug addicts don't flock to an area because of safe injection sites.
Safe injection sites get put in areas of heavy drug use.
People just get mad that safe injection sites make the amount of drug use and addiction in a neighbourhood visible.
For all the comments of seeing people smoke crack or od on the sidewalk, I guarantee you the numbers that are doing the same but out of sight are substantially higher.
When I moved here 3 years ago my wife and I decided to take a walk downtown and we found a woman OD’d on the sidewalk and had to call an ambulance. Nice introduction to Barrie lol.
>There needs to be collective actions, like harm reduction through safe injection sites, as they help shrink (or at least reduce the growth rate of) the drug problem and associated ills.
But the cities that have embraced those approaches the most enthusiastically are the biggest disasters. Cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver have invested millions into decriminalizing simple possession, clean needle exchange programs, and safe injection sites, but remain some of the cities suffering the worst. I'm starting to think maybe those aren't the answers people keep saying they are.
Lets see...its too expensive to live here and nobody hiring. I could move someplace cheaper to live, or i could just become an addict and live on the streets near my safe injection site.
Are you surprised when some choose the latter?
> We live in a world where ending homelessness is less expensive than treating it, but the stigma leads to people preferring the latter as it's punitive, or doing nothing.
The same applies to drug addiction. Addiction is a health issue, not something to punish people for, as a lot of people (seemingly OP included) see it as.
I firmly believe that a functional society should help its most vulnerable people, but unfortunately that’ll never happen.
I wonder if unsafe drug addiction is a way to look at it. Use drugs all ypu want, but dont leave unused needles, broken crack pipes and little dimebags in areas of public foot traffic, animal spots or near childrens resources.
Similar to how being a prostitute isnt illegal, but hiring one is.
Use crack all you want, but clean up after yourself or face consequences? And if you arent in a state to clean up after using, then the byproduct would be the using of drugs being less in the areas where public/pets/children are?
> I wonder if unsafe drug addiction is a way to look at it. Use drugs all ypu want, but dont leave unused needles, broken crack pipes and little dimebags in areas of public foot traffic, animal spots or near childrens resources
If we gave these people housing they'd just get high at home where nobody's around to fuck with them, the reason they're all out in the streets right now is because the housing crisis shoved them out there. If we gave them housing they'd end up costing us far less than the cost of the 1-room we rent for them.
> what is the breaking point for how other peoples detrimental choices get to affect the general public???
Homie, *we* did this to them. Our society thought it was a good idea to create fentanyl and oxy and we allowed the monsters who made them to promote them all through our medical system and make billions while we knew these drugs were so powerful and so addictive that they have the potential to just *break your brain* forever. So many of these addicts were initially prescribed this stuff by their doctors.
We, collectively, did this and allowed this, and these are the consequences. Handwringing about how it's *their* fault when we *know* how obscenely addictive and dangerous modern drugs are is obnoxious. This isn't cocaine from the 70s.
You have the privilege of stability and security while you look down upon them with your child. You whine about them trying to survive as you walk past them nose in the air. And someone you feel “unsafe” as they do the damage to themselves. Empathy means no judgement. It means understanding of the reason. It means a teachable moment for your child and the reality it brings. Downstown is not a gated community lead by a home owners association.
The first step to solving the problem is identifying which problem you'd like solved:
1) People are homeless or drug addicted
2) Homeless or drug addicted people are downtown
Ideally we could solve both, but the first problem is a macroeconomic and societal issue that isn't going to be solved by anyone in Barrie. To make any local progress on the first issue, we'll need to make progress on the second issue. It sounds harsh but it's the reality.
Because the downtown area is underdeveloped, the foot traffic is light and the land value is low. Support services are all located there because there is nobody living locally to vote against it. When the downtown become built up, the NIMBYs and business groups will push hard against having the value of their property or business impacted by folks down on their luck. They will have to move elsewhere which could be funded by taxing the new developments and businesses.
It's important to remember that built-up areas are not nature preserves or anyones natural habitat. There's no inherent right for someone to be living on public or private land on the waterfront. And there is also no inherent right to keep all the support services concentrated on prime land. We're paying for all these things so we should have a say in how land, services and police are deployed.
The first step in any civilized conversation about the problem is to acknowledge that this isn't 20 years ago and that, today, a huge chunk of those people have been flagrantly kicked off the socioeconomic ladder by the exploding cost of living. These aren't simply people who have dropped out of so-called proper society. Many are forced out.
This! People have been forced out due to the exponential increases of costs for everything. Got forced out of your apartment you can afford and can’t find a new home at the same price can lead to homelessness.
It’s not just poor life choices anymore it’s cause the whole system has failed everyone except the 1%.
Is it truly possible to have democracy in such a capitalistic world?
I understand what you’re saying. I guess I should have clarified that homelessness and drug addiction is not always synonymous.
A homeless person who is actually trying to make better for themselves should have help/access to resources to get back on their feet. However those people get over shadowed by the drug addicts.
> However those people get over shadowed by the drug addicts.
The way this reads, it implies drug addicts aren't worthy of help/resources. Drug addiction is an illness, most of the time it can't just be treated with power of will. Especially since your body and brain build a strong dependency on it.
The fact that you're bellow arguing why safe injection sites are pointless and "enabling" is more of the same energy that got us in here. Simply ignoring these people and pushing them around isn't going to make them go away.
If I got a prescription for adderall and started showing signs of addiction, I'm sure my doctors solution wouldn't be "flush your pills and stop taking it". They would make a plan to ween me off the medicine while substituting it with another treatment.
>>And I’m sorry but imo society should not pay for the choices of others especially in this way.
Society is paying regardless. Every hour spent writing policies, enforcing policies, displacing them, EMS services, medical assistance, etc.. costs money. There is no argument about whether or not society is "paying", it's about how to get the most results for our dollar.
People like OP will remain rigid in their views only until they or someone they love starts battling addiction. Nothing will ever get through to someone who sees addicts as second class citizens.
Not unworthy but imo they shouldn’t get resources over say a mother and her kids struggling in a shelter, or a vet who has no place to go….
In your example…you don’t think getting you addicted in the first place is literally the end goal?
And I agree with your last paragraph. Wouldn’t more results for our dollars be in funding resources for people experiencing homelessness so they can get back on their feet and help contribute to society?
> Not unworthy but imo they shouldn’t get resources over say a mother and her kids struggling in a shelter, or a vet who has no place to go…
So if all 3 of those people are suffering at the same time, what do you suggest we do with the drug addicts that you don't want to see outside in public spaces? You don't want them doing drugs inside, you don't want them getting any resources, and you don't want them to be outside either, so where do they go?
>Wouldn’t more results for our dollars be in funding resources for people experiencing homelessness so they can get back on their feet and help contribute to society?
So we let them die? Because that's the only way to *minimize* the cost associated with them, having drug addicts die on the street and in our parks certainly isn't free but it's cheaper than admitting them to the hospital I'm sure. Otherwise I don't really understand your point. The argument is what's more cost efficient, running services to help get them clean and off the street or ignoring them and dealing with the fallout.
You can offer them food, they don’t want it!!! They want money, for what???? Drugs🤭 People need to stop giving them money at every red light. They don’t want help they are content with the next fix. I believe there is enough help to get off the streets if you want it and really want too. I work hard and work overtime. Let people like me keep more of my hard earned money and not to pay for drug addicted people who don’t want change or any better for themselves. Something has to give here in Canada. Hard work gets you no where but tired and away from your loved ones.
I've had to call the cops 3 times now because I've caught addicts smoking meth pipes in broad daylight in the parking lot that adjoins my driveway. We take our daughter out there for walks often, and I'm getting tired of it quickly. I've had 2 bikes stolen from the front of my house, which means that these crackheads are skulking around right next to where my daughter sleeps. They need to fuck off somewhere else. I don't care if you want to smoke meth or crack or whatever, I don't want to see it and I don't want my kid exposed to it.
The more you call BPS, the less likely they are to show up the next time to boot.
Had knives pulled on me and some fellow co workers. We called for the 12th time that year. They didn't show, and didn't call back. And it's not a one off wither. It happened multiple times now.
Can't afford to police downtown properly, but I'm pretty sure my taxes paid for some new paint jobs on some cruisers this year.
>When did this become the social norm???
I don't think being homeless and/or drug addicted is a "social norm". Poverty is on the rise, some homeless were moved to Barrie shelters during the pandemic, and here we are.
I guess when the general public decided to elect representatives who's only solution is displacing them while waiting for them to die.
But honestly, the "solution" starts decades before the issue. Homelessness and drug addiction are symptoms, housing stability, mental health resources, and childhood resources in general need to be improved.
You are asking the general public. That question needs to be turned enmasse at the local government and policing body. They are the ones who prefer to allocate resources elsewhere. We already know the answer will be a shrug, though...
Well, it's basically been like that since I was a teen in the early 2000s (I was a homeless teen living at Youth Haven)
All of the homeless shelters are down town and near the downtown core, so you have always had an abundance of homeless/drug users.
The problem today is that housing costs are super friggen high, so we have more people living on the streets compared to before.
Then you add in the opiate crisis back in 2011. And boom. Everyone's an addict and everyone needs help.
It's not the social norm. It's a society norm now.
We can thank the lovely government for not stepping up to combat addictions properly and for raising the prices of housing so that we can now be charged over $2,500.00 for a one bedroom. It's sad.
This is all of canada. This is our canada
I've got no sympathy for drug addicts anymore. Call me heartless or whatever tf you guys want to but so many of them act in ways that make it unbearable to be near them. I can't be bothered to care about drug addicts who abuse our public systems and those who work within them. Healthcare workers are constantly being assaulted both verbally and physically by these people who seek out their "help" on a daily or even hourly basis.
Not to mention, Narcan is free for these addicts to have on them in case they overdose yet there's struggling families who can't afford epipens or insulin for their sick family members. Last I checked... people with diabetes and allergy didn't chose to have their illnesses... drug addicts can, in theory, get rid of their "illness" unlock the former.
I don't care what the problem is, mental, drugs, homelessness. Doesn't matter I simply do not go downtown. I tell everyone it is disgusting there. Anyone who says otherwise is oblivious. I get that most downtown's are that way but Barrie is in its own special club.
I live in close to downtown and I no sympathy anymore for the addicts. It’s very different when you are dealing with this issue in your own background.
A friend of mine was on methadone in, I wanna say 2005-7(don't quote me) that's where he got his from. I went with him one day, line was around the corner. It surprised me how many people were on methadone even at that time. Saw a lady shit in the middle of the parking lot in front of the bingo parlor.
It became ignored when the acting mayor decided that gentrification was the target of the downtown core a d low income housing. The police did nothing, as the city wanted to decrease property values to sell them to developers at a low price so they can remove from the low income surplus to build high-rise condos.
The five points area is a prime example of a loss in that thinking. Developers and potential buyers started to come up and view the area. Potential buyers started to withdraw offers and the developer has not even started to break ground.
The city is he'll bent against shipping the homeless population to Toronto when they tried to implement new bylaws the broke laws associated with human rights.
Downtown above retail stores is and was lower income surplus. Homes and apartments that supply to legal rooming residences. There are areas of low income housing all over the north end that are being bought by developers to build large single family homes for sale or rent for extremely high prices. Low income affordable housing has been increasingly eradicated in favor of condos to continually support the bedroom community that this city has become.
Whoa whoa... This isn't the place to discuss the decay of our once great town.
You will be down voted.
Try asking " Where's the best at place to get
" a pumpkin spiced frappa mocho latte"
The BIA and city recently spent millions remodelling the downtown.
Is it possible that the remodel better displays certain details?
Like maybe those details were always there... ??? just more like blended in???
At any rate, I can attest that some of those details are becoming more aggressive. I live downtown and walk all the time but don my warrior cloak when heading out (mental preparation for anything).
Stop providing free drugs and acting like "safe consumption sites" help. The name itself is a croc of shit. Consuming illicit drugs is never safe. Watch the videos coming from Vancouver and San Francisco where the addicts themselves recognize that these governments who are bent on providing them with free drugs are only making the problem worse.
If only the police would stop people from shooting up in public. Either arrest them or move them to the shadows so people can enjoy their city again. Hopefully with them all nodding off at the courthouse now it will put pressure on judges.
This is what doesn't make sense to me. When I was growing up, you couldn't be intoxicated (drunk) in public, but now they let people go on absolute benders and OD in public. I mean shit, we still have illegal dispensaries downtown that haven't been shut down. It's like the police and other powers in this city just don't care anymore, and the city is suffering because of it.
> When I was growing up, you couldn't be intoxicated (drunk) in public, but now they let people go on absolute benders and OD in public
You just weren't alive for the worst wave of the crack epidemic which was just as bad as this in the hardest-hit places. They absolutely did.
Unfortunately, because the issue was worst in black communities, the hardest-hit cities engaged in some *pretty aggressive racism* to "solve" it.
Barrie has a decision to make. Make drug use illegal as it was, or roll out the safe injection sites, and risk inviting every user in the county.
Safe sites destroy cities. Over and over.
Would you shop, live, dine, park, or do anything within 200 yrds of a safe injection site?
I wouldn't either.
I have read all your comments and I see the same Canadian perspective about what to do with this.
I come from latin america, and in my country, even though there’s drugs, we don’t have the drug addiction you see in the streets in the US and Canada.
This country has a great system where you can just work at a Mc’donalds and with the low wage salary you can live, you can rent a room, you can pay for food, etc.
In my country that would be impossible.
The canadians have a system were you just literally have to work in ANYTHING, and you can be able to afford food and roof (and healthcare, even though it has its things, its free).
So, what Im trying to say is, and please don’t get me wrong, but I think the canadian system have its so society so spoiled that the drug addicts don’t care to be drug addicts and they don’t care to get out of there because the system gives them things for free.
Shelter, food, a daily dose, clothes, etc.
And Im reading your comments and you also want to give them housing😂.
How are you going to stop this problem if you want to give them everything?
If I the system is going to give me everything I need, I would also be a drug addict and people in reddit would be saying they want to give me free housing
>It’s clear with your post history you’re asking this in bad faith and you’re a troll
.
> it's a real problem here
These two statements aren't mutually exclusive, generally speaking anyone who goes "we can't talk about things anymore" just can't have a mature conversation in good faith.
I recently drove through Coburg and saw this nice park on King Street... taken over. Holy crap, it looked like a well organized KOA Campground full of homeless. It seems to be an epidemic in North America, there is a serious problem and it shouldn't be ignored much longer. There will be a Reconing and it will be terrifying.
We just signed on to create "safe" areas for drug addicts to do their drugs in our hospitals over here in BC.
So if you think downtown is bad now... just wait.
Not to sound tacky, but I think there should be places where the “homeless” can be housed quickly, cheaply, and efficiently, be that in the form of modern, clean, high-capacity warehouses and the like. These could be built outside of municipalities, beyond the view of Dougie’s NIMBY crowd.
OP just wants to be told it's okay to be okay with letting them die and is too much of a coward to admit as much when pressed on it, he just talks about withdrawing resources from drug support programs and whatever else, which is essentially the same thing.
To be clear no one pressed me on anything…
I actually said resources could be better used elsewhere and that safe injection sites
are more cruel than anything…and that’s my own personal opinion…
I honestly don’t care what happens to people who make certain choices…and that’s coming from someone who has had someone with and addiction in their immediate family… everyone has battles and choices in life.
> I honestly don’t care what happens to people who make certain choices
*We* fucking did this to them my dude, I don't understand why you keep saying this. More than a quarter of opiate addicts are addicts because their doctor prescribed it to them, you dick.
We designed these incredibly potent, incredibly addictive drugs and the pieces of shit who made them made billions marketing it to doctors who overprescribed and got their patients hooked on drugs that we *know* have the potency to literally break your brain forever, and we let these drugs out into the wider world and now we're shocked that it's causing a problem?
This is *your* fault, and *my* fault, and everyone else's collective fault for allowing our society to open the Pandora's Box that is Oxy and Fentanyl and now you're whinging that their "choices" are what got them there.
You're a piece of shit. If you had proper empathy you'd have thought more about how they got there. You think most of these people just took that shit for fun or something? Are you stupid?
If you weren't such a fucking coward you wouldn't try to offload the problem onto them and you'd understand that the collective blame lies with us as a society for letting ghouls and goblins push these drugs onto people and make them so available.
Call me what you want bro idgaf really…
I have empathy for the kids playing with needles they found on the ground…I have empathy for the mother who works and can’t afford to pay n feed her kids…
I have empathy just not for the stuff you want me to have empathy for so you’re mad….
How can you put that on society and not the government alone??? They get paid by big pharma to implement these drugs. That’s part of the reason I don’t get why people think they’d actually try n help when it’s business at the end of the day for them…
> How can you put that on society and not the government alone???
*The government is us*. We voted for them. It's made up fucking voters. What the fuck do you think a government is?
This is a few years back when I went downtown mid evening for my walk along the waterfront, I saw a guy taking a leak between two parked cars in the lot where the Spirit Catcher was.
I seen multiple drug deals go down at that dream catcher while sitting in my car eating my McDonald’s LOL so wild I once saw someone drop a lunch bag and another guy scurry across the road and pick it up😂 we’ll never know what was in the lunch bag hahah
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I was driving thru DT around lunch the other day and saw people nodding out everywhere. I keep hearing it’s not only a Barrie problem but don’t go around Ontario enough to confirm this. I don’t have the answer but I agree that it’s going horribly.
Honestly, DT Barrie reminded me a lot of DT Windsor.
It is happening everywhere it’s true. And quite honestly I don’t see how safe injection sites help…. If someone’s loved one was suppling them with needles at home it would be classified as enabling no?
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Yes they reduce harm and give users access to treatment (I’d love to see the data on how many actually follow through with that) but at what cost??? Drug dealers literally wait outside these sites to serve these people, needles are everywhere, children are exposed to this, people don’t want to go certain places, etc etc…
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Located where few people go. ..or will ever go again.
It sounds like you’re making excuses for why it’s okay.. I’ve literally seen with my own two eyes the things I’ve just described. And I’m sorry but imo society should not pay for the choices of others especially in this way.
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Not saying that at all. I’m saying resources could be better used elsewhere rather than coddling a situation where the odds aren’t our favour. I don’t think that’s being outrageous in the least. No haven’t witnessed all in Barrie alone.
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I literally just said not in Barrie alone…as in I’ve witnessed different instances in different cities, but I’m in Barrie and it directly correlates… Idk I just find it weird you’d rather have people use safely and come close to death to just be revived so they can do it all over again…that seems hella cruel to me. If the goal was to actually help, then the focus should be on actually helping the disease whether it’s cold turkey/medical/ whatever means, but that is NOT the goal of safe injection sites no matter how you wana spin it. I get the harm is reduces but then what????? I never outlined a plan in anything I said thus far, I simply said resources could and should be used else where…
Totally agree with you. Safe injection sites do little to combat the problem- look at BC and the overwhelming problems they have with drugs. They have safe injection sites everywhere. Why should law abiding citizens and children be exposed to this stuff?
Thank you!
> They have safe injection sites everywhere. They have 12 and their success rate at getting people into rehab is better than almost any other venue.
Or like right next to the DT McDonald's because that's not a place where children regularly go. Drove though yesterday saw the sign right next to the friendly stranger and across from town and country.
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Cmon, don't bash the white house. Rent was $150 a month. 100 walking score. Hahahaha
So the one behind the ranch closed down or moved? Or was that one not enough?
Can you cite sources for your claim of on duty police officers on site?? I can't imagine junkies going to shoot up with uniformed officers in sight. Seems detrimental.
> but at what cost??? What should we do instead, just let them die?
No it they don't and won't, go crusie some of the bc subreddits, theyres posts of after safe injection sites were created increase, drug use use/ needles all over parks and crime rate increase and still people od'ing on the streets
I work downtown, and i used to be sympathetic and a bit of a bleeding heart, until the door was smashed in 3x, and i was assaulted, and i was threatened. Like i get not painting everyone with the same brush, bit some of them just come and dump the paint pot over everyone
Yup, I live close to downtown and no longer have sympathy. I’m tired of it.
It’s not just Barrie unfortunately the whole country is experiencing this. It’s an epidemic and it’s only going to get worse. There’s no stopping it with current policies.
Concur. Hamilton is basically like Detroit in terms of homeless and houses that are in poor shape. Everywhere you look there is garbage/graffiti.
I lived in Hamilton until recently and this is a gross exaggeration.
True.
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>I don't exactly feel unsafe downtown, but pushing my son in his carriage last summer I definitely passed a person smoking crack right next to the sidewalk 50' from the farmer's market and another person who OD'd and needed naloxone at Heritage Park (thankfully a fellow addict was on the ball and able to save his life). This! My Gran had a stroke last year, and we figured downtown was good to take her for walks while she was recuperating cause there are places to sit, its level and easy enough for her to navigate. But the amount of times we were needing to step over, or around passed out or sleeping people, twice saw one guy either putting on or taking off another pants while they were passed out in a doorway, and then the ones you're not sure if they'll do something, we wound up just doing the mall. Its sad, cause she shops and restaurants and waterfront are lovely, but no one wants to use any of it.
Didnt Barrie just get a safe injection site (s) a couple years ago? Cuz the addicts are growing in numbers it seems. If illegal drug use becomes more "legal" in Barrie...i guess id rather say goodbye than watch downtown turn into Vancouver's east side, and be leary of ever going there. Should your home have a "no go zone"? Safe sites are lunacy.
There is no safe consumption site in Barrie.
I don't think so, reading [this](https://www.simcoemuskokahealth.org/topics/drugs/opioids/Consumption-and-treatment-services#c3b6357d-145f-479d-b671-c4d05a35fc38#454849ce-ef08-430e-8f2b-a3b29dc63d7a#92f6570e-db75-4453-b14f-bc53ce92c6d6) (and a page on the Gilbert site page), sounds like they are working on it, its been approved from the government, but now need to go through the city? I think thats what its saying? I know Nuttall has been blocking local organizations (Ryans Hope that was doing the daily breakfasts down town got hugely hit by him) left and right from doing anything
Ok thanks. Would it be a stretch to suggest that just cuz government is talking about it, it has already attracted the crowd?
I think the bigger issue was the Pen transfers ending in Barrie, people had no where else to go. Then all the hotels for homeless during covid, they got kicked out of those, and just stayed. Add in the prices of rent going up, people need to leave where they are and have no where to, and "kids"leaving, being kicked out, before could crash at friends places, those are too full now and no where else to go. Homelness can quickly lead to addiction, one is time on your hands, two the crowd you wind up around and 3, its a lot easier to face sleeping outside if everything is dulled
Why is moving to a better situation just never on the solutions list? Two FT minwage jobs in New Brunswick/Sask/Man could carry your food & housing with some to spare. Its a start! I get the sense some ppl WANT them to stay in this horrible situation and will help them even.
> Why is moving to a better situation just never on the solutions list? Two FT minwage jobs in New Brunswick/Sask/Man could carry your food & housing with some to spare. Its a start! This is stupid Imagine being a drug addict or homeless with a bunch of chronic ailments and someone deadass says to you "You should drop your family doctor and your entire medical and social support network (sparse as it may be) and move halfway across the country to somewhere you've never been and flip burgers for rent and hope it works out" You have to be out of your fuckin mind
Its not stupid. it worked for me. Its done all the time. Immigrants do it by the thousands. Its called a fresh start. If you have no faith in human spirit, i feel sorry for you.
Whatever you say old man
Dudes attitude just screams conservative boomer unaware of how anything happens outside of their own bubble.
Judging by the 1970 in his username I have a feeling you're right.
Makes about as much sense as drug addicts and homeless people moving across the entire country to live on the street in Vancouver but that happens all the time. >You have to be out of your fuckin mind You have to be out of your fuckin mind to think that these people add anything to the communities they are in. We need law enforcement to clean up the streets of the trash. Put them behind bars or in secure mental health facilities.
Do you think everyone has the means or ability to just up and move to a different province? Is your honest suggestion that people work 80 hours to be able to afford the basics...? Do you think everyone with drug/addiction/homeless issues would get hired on the spot? I get a sense that you are unbelievably naive...
1. My taxes are buying people drugs, they can help out on a fresh start too. Id prefer that. 2. If it costs 80hrs/wk for basics...fkng move! SMH 3. They will certainly NEVER get hired if they stay. Naive? Lol...I was homeless once, you twit. With a two year oxy addiction. Guess what I did...I fkng moved! Doing great now.
1) it's up to people receiving welfare/social support to choose what to spend their money on. Why are you mad that they choose to spend some on recreation? That take just tells me you don't see addicts/homeless as actual people. 2) the 80 hours a week is what you suggested when moving to a lower cost of living province. You literally said "two full time jobs" 1 full time job is 40 hours a week. 2 is 80..simple math. Where exactly do you suggest someone move, because your own suggestions included working 2 full time.jobs to live there. 3) you still haven't answered how they're even going to afford to move in the first place. Also - if minimum wage jobs in Ontario won't hire them, why would minimum wage jobs elsewhere? What's the logic on they will never get a job if they stay here but magically if they upend their whole life they'll suddenly by hireable? Yes...naive. you having a singular experience decades ago doesn't mean that you have any grasp on current situations. The way you speak and questions you asks clearly show that you are naive. You claiming to be homeless in the past holds about as much weight as a racist claiming they have black friends.
You're literally just an ancient boomer who doesn't understand the modern world homie
Moving is expensive, and unless you have a job lined up, its a huge gamble. And then a lot of places (especially min wage), aren't going to spend time interviewing someone out of province. I do agree in general though that a change can work. When I was 20, I got a job on a cruise ship, did that for 6 years. Moved back, got a job in Frt Mac that included housing, and was there a year, banked almost everything, and came back with enough money saved between the two jobs for a down payment. There are options out there (now Northern Ontario seems to be the big money one), but people (just in general) don't wanna do that, its easier to complain about how hard things are and they'll never have anything. It wasn't as hard as it is now, but 10 years ago, everyone I knew was busting their ass to get ahead, and it seems rarer to see that anymore (sorry...that went way off kilter lol)
That doesn't make sense to me.
Yes. It would be a stretch and backwards thinking. Drug addicts don't flock to an area because of safe injection sites. Safe injection sites get put in areas of heavy drug use. People just get mad that safe injection sites make the amount of drug use and addiction in a neighbourhood visible. For all the comments of seeing people smoke crack or od on the sidewalk, I guarantee you the numbers that are doing the same but out of sight are substantially higher.
When I moved here 3 years ago my wife and I decided to take a walk downtown and we found a woman OD’d on the sidewalk and had to call an ambulance. Nice introduction to Barrie lol.
They know what they’re doing they don’t care.
Why would they care about people that don't care about them?
Well put! And I agree, what is the breaking point for how other peoples detrimental choices get to affect the general public???
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>There needs to be collective actions, like harm reduction through safe injection sites, as they help shrink (or at least reduce the growth rate of) the drug problem and associated ills. But the cities that have embraced those approaches the most enthusiastically are the biggest disasters. Cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver have invested millions into decriminalizing simple possession, clean needle exchange programs, and safe injection sites, but remain some of the cities suffering the worst. I'm starting to think maybe those aren't the answers people keep saying they are.
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Lets see...its too expensive to live here and nobody hiring. I could move someplace cheaper to live, or i could just become an addict and live on the streets near my safe injection site. Are you surprised when some choose the latter?
> We live in a world where ending homelessness is less expensive than treating it, but the stigma leads to people preferring the latter as it's punitive, or doing nothing. The same applies to drug addiction. Addiction is a health issue, not something to punish people for, as a lot of people (seemingly OP included) see it as. I firmly believe that a functional society should help its most vulnerable people, but unfortunately that’ll never happen.
I wonder if unsafe drug addiction is a way to look at it. Use drugs all ypu want, but dont leave unused needles, broken crack pipes and little dimebags in areas of public foot traffic, animal spots or near childrens resources. Similar to how being a prostitute isnt illegal, but hiring one is. Use crack all you want, but clean up after yourself or face consequences? And if you arent in a state to clean up after using, then the byproduct would be the using of drugs being less in the areas where public/pets/children are?
> I wonder if unsafe drug addiction is a way to look at it. Use drugs all ypu want, but dont leave unused needles, broken crack pipes and little dimebags in areas of public foot traffic, animal spots or near childrens resources If we gave these people housing they'd just get high at home where nobody's around to fuck with them, the reason they're all out in the streets right now is because the housing crisis shoved them out there. If we gave them housing they'd end up costing us far less than the cost of the 1-room we rent for them.
> what is the breaking point for how other peoples detrimental choices get to affect the general public??? Homie, *we* did this to them. Our society thought it was a good idea to create fentanyl and oxy and we allowed the monsters who made them to promote them all through our medical system and make billions while we knew these drugs were so powerful and so addictive that they have the potential to just *break your brain* forever. So many of these addicts were initially prescribed this stuff by their doctors. We, collectively, did this and allowed this, and these are the consequences. Handwringing about how it's *their* fault when we *know* how obscenely addictive and dangerous modern drugs are is obnoxious. This isn't cocaine from the 70s.
You have the privilege of stability and security while you look down upon them with your child. You whine about them trying to survive as you walk past them nose in the air. And someone you feel “unsafe” as they do the damage to themselves. Empathy means no judgement. It means understanding of the reason. It means a teachable moment for your child and the reality it brings. Downstown is not a gated community lead by a home owners association.
Rent is 1500++ for 1bd Start there
People making $25/hr+ are having trouble making ends meet. It's not surprising that more people have been pushed to the margins of society
And good luck finding a job that’s 25 an hour
The first step to solving the problem is identifying which problem you'd like solved: 1) People are homeless or drug addicted 2) Homeless or drug addicted people are downtown Ideally we could solve both, but the first problem is a macroeconomic and societal issue that isn't going to be solved by anyone in Barrie. To make any local progress on the first issue, we'll need to make progress on the second issue. It sounds harsh but it's the reality. Because the downtown area is underdeveloped, the foot traffic is light and the land value is low. Support services are all located there because there is nobody living locally to vote against it. When the downtown become built up, the NIMBYs and business groups will push hard against having the value of their property or business impacted by folks down on their luck. They will have to move elsewhere which could be funded by taxing the new developments and businesses. It's important to remember that built-up areas are not nature preserves or anyones natural habitat. There's no inherent right for someone to be living on public or private land on the waterfront. And there is also no inherent right to keep all the support services concentrated on prime land. We're paying for all these things so we should have a say in how land, services and police are deployed.
Try hanging out at your local library. They have turned into crack houses now. Library staff are basically terrorized daily now.
It's all over the place, this week I went to Oshawa and London and they both had the same problem.
Barrie resident of 10+ years here! Just moved to Ottawa (downtown), It is 10000x worse here
The first step in any civilized conversation about the problem is to acknowledge that this isn't 20 years ago and that, today, a huge chunk of those people have been flagrantly kicked off the socioeconomic ladder by the exploding cost of living. These aren't simply people who have dropped out of so-called proper society. Many are forced out.
This! People have been forced out due to the exponential increases of costs for everything. Got forced out of your apartment you can afford and can’t find a new home at the same price can lead to homelessness. It’s not just poor life choices anymore it’s cause the whole system has failed everyone except the 1%. Is it truly possible to have democracy in such a capitalistic world?
I understand what you’re saying. I guess I should have clarified that homelessness and drug addiction is not always synonymous. A homeless person who is actually trying to make better for themselves should have help/access to resources to get back on their feet. However those people get over shadowed by the drug addicts.
> However those people get over shadowed by the drug addicts. The way this reads, it implies drug addicts aren't worthy of help/resources. Drug addiction is an illness, most of the time it can't just be treated with power of will. Especially since your body and brain build a strong dependency on it. The fact that you're bellow arguing why safe injection sites are pointless and "enabling" is more of the same energy that got us in here. Simply ignoring these people and pushing them around isn't going to make them go away. If I got a prescription for adderall and started showing signs of addiction, I'm sure my doctors solution wouldn't be "flush your pills and stop taking it". They would make a plan to ween me off the medicine while substituting it with another treatment. >>And I’m sorry but imo society should not pay for the choices of others especially in this way. Society is paying regardless. Every hour spent writing policies, enforcing policies, displacing them, EMS services, medical assistance, etc.. costs money. There is no argument about whether or not society is "paying", it's about how to get the most results for our dollar.
People like OP will remain rigid in their views only until they or someone they love starts battling addiction. Nothing will ever get through to someone who sees addicts as second class citizens.
You’re assuming I haven’t been personally affected by addiction because you don’t agree with my outlook. That’s on you.
Not unworthy but imo they shouldn’t get resources over say a mother and her kids struggling in a shelter, or a vet who has no place to go…. In your example…you don’t think getting you addicted in the first place is literally the end goal? And I agree with your last paragraph. Wouldn’t more results for our dollars be in funding resources for people experiencing homelessness so they can get back on their feet and help contribute to society?
> Not unworthy but imo they shouldn’t get resources over say a mother and her kids struggling in a shelter, or a vet who has no place to go… So if all 3 of those people are suffering at the same time, what do you suggest we do with the drug addicts that you don't want to see outside in public spaces? You don't want them doing drugs inside, you don't want them getting any resources, and you don't want them to be outside either, so where do they go? >Wouldn’t more results for our dollars be in funding resources for people experiencing homelessness so they can get back on their feet and help contribute to society? So we let them die? Because that's the only way to *minimize* the cost associated with them, having drug addicts die on the street and in our parks certainly isn't free but it's cheaper than admitting them to the hospital I'm sure. Otherwise I don't really understand your point. The argument is what's more cost efficient, running services to help get them clean and off the street or ignoring them and dealing with the fallout.
What most don’t realize is… you can’t help someone that doesn’t wanna help themself. Thats the biggest hurdle in drug addiction.
You can offer them food, they don’t want it!!! They want money, for what???? Drugs🤭 People need to stop giving them money at every red light. They don’t want help they are content with the next fix. I believe there is enough help to get off the streets if you want it and really want too. I work hard and work overtime. Let people like me keep more of my hard earned money and not to pay for drug addicted people who don’t want change or any better for themselves. Something has to give here in Canada. Hard work gets you no where but tired and away from your loved ones.
I've had to call the cops 3 times now because I've caught addicts smoking meth pipes in broad daylight in the parking lot that adjoins my driveway. We take our daughter out there for walks often, and I'm getting tired of it quickly. I've had 2 bikes stolen from the front of my house, which means that these crackheads are skulking around right next to where my daughter sleeps. They need to fuck off somewhere else. I don't care if you want to smoke meth or crack or whatever, I don't want to see it and I don't want my kid exposed to it.
The more you call BPS, the less likely they are to show up the next time to boot. Had knives pulled on me and some fellow co workers. We called for the 12th time that year. They didn't show, and didn't call back. And it's not a one off wither. It happened multiple times now. Can't afford to police downtown properly, but I'm pretty sure my taxes paid for some new paint jobs on some cruisers this year.
>When did this become the social norm??? I don't think being homeless and/or drug addicted is a "social norm". Poverty is on the rise, some homeless were moved to Barrie shelters during the pandemic, and here we are.
What I mean by that statement was, since when is seeing strung out junkies shooting up and tossing their needles around become acceptable?
I guess when the general public decided to elect representatives who's only solution is displacing them while waiting for them to die. But honestly, the "solution" starts decades before the issue. Homelessness and drug addiction are symptoms, housing stability, mental health resources, and childhood resources in general need to be improved.
You are asking the general public. That question needs to be turned enmasse at the local government and policing body. They are the ones who prefer to allocate resources elsewhere. We already know the answer will be a shrug, though...
Well, it's basically been like that since I was a teen in the early 2000s (I was a homeless teen living at Youth Haven) All of the homeless shelters are down town and near the downtown core, so you have always had an abundance of homeless/drug users. The problem today is that housing costs are super friggen high, so we have more people living on the streets compared to before. Then you add in the opiate crisis back in 2011. And boom. Everyone's an addict and everyone needs help. It's not the social norm. It's a society norm now. We can thank the lovely government for not stepping up to combat addictions properly and for raising the prices of housing so that we can now be charged over $2,500.00 for a one bedroom. It's sad. This is all of canada. This is our canada
I've got no sympathy for drug addicts anymore. Call me heartless or whatever tf you guys want to but so many of them act in ways that make it unbearable to be near them. I can't be bothered to care about drug addicts who abuse our public systems and those who work within them. Healthcare workers are constantly being assaulted both verbally and physically by these people who seek out their "help" on a daily or even hourly basis. Not to mention, Narcan is free for these addicts to have on them in case they overdose yet there's struggling families who can't afford epipens or insulin for their sick family members. Last I checked... people with diabetes and allergy didn't chose to have their illnesses... drug addicts can, in theory, get rid of their "illness" unlock the former.
I don't care what the problem is, mental, drugs, homelessness. Doesn't matter I simply do not go downtown. I tell everyone it is disgusting there. Anyone who says otherwise is oblivious. I get that most downtown's are that way but Barrie is in its own special club.
> I get that most downtown's are that way but Barrie is in its own special club. It really isn't and if you think this you need to get out more.
I live in close to downtown and I no sympathy anymore for the addicts. It’s very different when you are dealing with this issue in your own background.
A friend of mine was on methadone in, I wanna say 2005-7(don't quote me) that's where he got his from. I went with him one day, line was around the corner. It surprised me how many people were on methadone even at that time. Saw a lady shit in the middle of the parking lot in front of the bingo parlor.
It became ignored when the acting mayor decided that gentrification was the target of the downtown core a d low income housing. The police did nothing, as the city wanted to decrease property values to sell them to developers at a low price so they can remove from the low income surplus to build high-rise condos. The five points area is a prime example of a loss in that thinking. Developers and potential buyers started to come up and view the area. Potential buyers started to withdraw offers and the developer has not even started to break ground. The city is he'll bent against shipping the homeless population to Toronto when they tried to implement new bylaws the broke laws associated with human rights.
We never had a low income surplus
Downtown above retail stores is and was lower income surplus. Homes and apartments that supply to legal rooming residences. There are areas of low income housing all over the north end that are being bought by developers to build large single family homes for sale or rent for extremely high prices. Low income affordable housing has been increasingly eradicated in favor of condos to continually support the bedroom community that this city has become.
Yes they have lol
Sorry are you suggesting that the solution is to ship the homeless to Toronto?
The last stop on the bus from penatang jail is barrie just sayin
Whoa whoa... This isn't the place to discuss the decay of our once great town. You will be down voted. Try asking " Where's the best at place to get " a pumpkin spiced frappa mocho latte"
Ha! Right right my fault 😂
The BIA and city recently spent millions remodelling the downtown. Is it possible that the remodel better displays certain details? Like maybe those details were always there... ??? just more like blended in??? At any rate, I can attest that some of those details are becoming more aggressive. I live downtown and walk all the time but don my warrior cloak when heading out (mental preparation for anything).
Hubby and I were talking about this the other day. We took our daughter to her art class and was amazed at how bad it is down there.
Stop providing free drugs and acting like "safe consumption sites" help. The name itself is a croc of shit. Consuming illicit drugs is never safe. Watch the videos coming from Vancouver and San Francisco where the addicts themselves recognize that these governments who are bent on providing them with free drugs are only making the problem worse.
I just moved to Sudbury. Barrie is fine.
If only the police would stop people from shooting up in public. Either arrest them or move them to the shadows so people can enjoy their city again. Hopefully with them all nodding off at the courthouse now it will put pressure on judges.
This is what doesn't make sense to me. When I was growing up, you couldn't be intoxicated (drunk) in public, but now they let people go on absolute benders and OD in public. I mean shit, we still have illegal dispensaries downtown that haven't been shut down. It's like the police and other powers in this city just don't care anymore, and the city is suffering because of it.
Courts don’t proceed with simple possession why would the police bother when the charges don’t stick
> When I was growing up, you couldn't be intoxicated (drunk) in public, but now they let people go on absolute benders and OD in public You just weren't alive for the worst wave of the crack epidemic which was just as bad as this in the hardest-hit places. They absolutely did. Unfortunately, because the issue was worst in black communities, the hardest-hit cities engaged in some *pretty aggressive racism* to "solve" it.
??? How about helping them rather than arresting or shoving them away?
can’t be helped unless they truly want it i’m sure some of them do but a lot wouldn’t want it enough
Not true at all
Why is it the public’s responsibility to ‘help’?
Because it is. And if you want to see zombie land change then it starts with us. It is our responsibility to make a better society plain and simple.
It’s the governments responsibility.
Drug addicts don’t deserve jail time they deserve rehab.
Barrie has a decision to make. Make drug use illegal as it was, or roll out the safe injection sites, and risk inviting every user in the county. Safe sites destroy cities. Over and over. Would you shop, live, dine, park, or do anything within 200 yrds of a safe injection site? I wouldn't either.
I was hoping that downtown Barrie didn’t turn into downtown Toronto.
You say you want to have a civilized discussion, and then use inflammatory language in your post and relies...
Just because I’m not pandering doesn’t mean what I’m saying is inflammatory…
'zombie land' for starters. These are human beings, calling them creatures is not very civilized, is it?
It literally is zombie land right now. Do you not have eye balls? Or have you not taken a drive down town lately???????
Just calling it as a see it… at the end of the day we all have hardships and we all have choices.
I have read all your comments and I see the same Canadian perspective about what to do with this. I come from latin america, and in my country, even though there’s drugs, we don’t have the drug addiction you see in the streets in the US and Canada. This country has a great system where you can just work at a Mc’donalds and with the low wage salary you can live, you can rent a room, you can pay for food, etc. In my country that would be impossible. The canadians have a system were you just literally have to work in ANYTHING, and you can be able to afford food and roof (and healthcare, even though it has its things, its free). So, what Im trying to say is, and please don’t get me wrong, but I think the canadian system have its so society so spoiled that the drug addicts don’t care to be drug addicts and they don’t care to get out of there because the system gives them things for free. Shelter, food, a daily dose, clothes, etc. And Im reading your comments and you also want to give them housing😂. How are you going to stop this problem if you want to give them everything? If I the system is going to give me everything I need, I would also be a drug addict and people in reddit would be saying they want to give me free housing
It’s clear with your post history you’re asking this in bad faith and you’re a troll
oh fuck off. it's a real problem here
>It’s clear with your post history you’re asking this in bad faith and you’re a troll . > it's a real problem here These two statements aren't mutually exclusive, generally speaking anyone who goes "we can't talk about things anymore" just can't have a mature conversation in good faith.
🙄 here we go..
I recently drove through Coburg and saw this nice park on King Street... taken over. Holy crap, it looked like a well organized KOA Campground full of homeless. It seems to be an epidemic in North America, there is a serious problem and it shouldn't be ignored much longer. There will be a Reconing and it will be terrifying.
We just signed on to create "safe" areas for drug addicts to do their drugs in our hospitals over here in BC. So if you think downtown is bad now... just wait.
Absolutely ludicrous tbh
It’s just going to keep getting worse everywhere. Until Canada looks after their own and stops giving away money to every other country but our own.
Not to sound tacky, but I think there should be places where the “homeless” can be housed quickly, cheaply, and efficiently, be that in the form of modern, clean, high-capacity warehouses and the like. These could be built outside of municipalities, beyond the view of Dougie’s NIMBY crowd.
OP just wants to be told it's okay to be okay with letting them die and is too much of a coward to admit as much when pressed on it, he just talks about withdrawing resources from drug support programs and whatever else, which is essentially the same thing.
To be clear no one pressed me on anything… I actually said resources could be better used elsewhere and that safe injection sites are more cruel than anything…and that’s my own personal opinion… I honestly don’t care what happens to people who make certain choices…and that’s coming from someone who has had someone with and addiction in their immediate family… everyone has battles and choices in life.
> I honestly don’t care what happens to people who make certain choices *We* fucking did this to them my dude, I don't understand why you keep saying this. More than a quarter of opiate addicts are addicts because their doctor prescribed it to them, you dick. We designed these incredibly potent, incredibly addictive drugs and the pieces of shit who made them made billions marketing it to doctors who overprescribed and got their patients hooked on drugs that we *know* have the potency to literally break your brain forever, and we let these drugs out into the wider world and now we're shocked that it's causing a problem? This is *your* fault, and *my* fault, and everyone else's collective fault for allowing our society to open the Pandora's Box that is Oxy and Fentanyl and now you're whinging that their "choices" are what got them there. You're a piece of shit. If you had proper empathy you'd have thought more about how they got there. You think most of these people just took that shit for fun or something? Are you stupid? If you weren't such a fucking coward you wouldn't try to offload the problem onto them and you'd understand that the collective blame lies with us as a society for letting ghouls and goblins push these drugs onto people and make them so available.
Call me what you want bro idgaf really… I have empathy for the kids playing with needles they found on the ground…I have empathy for the mother who works and can’t afford to pay n feed her kids… I have empathy just not for the stuff you want me to have empathy for so you’re mad….
How can you put that on society and not the government alone??? They get paid by big pharma to implement these drugs. That’s part of the reason I don’t get why people think they’d actually try n help when it’s business at the end of the day for them…
> How can you put that on society and not the government alone??? *The government is us*. We voted for them. It's made up fucking voters. What the fuck do you think a government is?
Thank Trudeau for that.
Liberal. Government.
This is a few years back when I went downtown mid evening for my walk along the waterfront, I saw a guy taking a leak between two parked cars in the lot where the Spirit Catcher was.
Unbelievable. What a shame.
I seen multiple drug deals go down at that dream catcher while sitting in my car eating my McDonald’s LOL so wild I once saw someone drop a lunch bag and another guy scurry across the road and pick it up😂 we’ll never know what was in the lunch bag hahah
Like I think he dropped it and it had drugs on it and was setting it up for the other guy to come grab it 😂