08/03/2025
"Supervised consumption services are not the problem. They are part of the solution."
"Supervised consumption services are not the problem. They are part of the solution."
A Times Colonist op-ed focusses on a Victoria councillor's bid to close an overdose prevention site in the city.
"This idea that OPS sites cause disorder is not supported by the data," writes Ron Merk, past co-chair of the Port Alberni Community Action Team.
"What causes disorder and tragedy is the chronic underinvestment in immediate access to detox and recovery facilities, housing and mental health supports, a toxic, unregulated drug supply, and the criminalization of substance use.
"OPSs are a humane response to these failures, not their cause."
We are at this point because of the longterm failure of the war on drugs. Policing cannot remove demand for illicit drugs, it can only address supply.
It's too easy for politicians to criticize facilities that are responding to a social problem, but these services exist because of a lack of investment in social housing, mental health care and drug treatment.
Read on: https://archive.ph/i6T6J
