Despite having two drug injection sites that the Trudeau government insists “save lives,” people continue to die of drug overdoses at record rates in Vancouver, British Columbia. During the first half of 2017, 780 people have died from using illegal drugs — 88 percent more than the same period in 2016.
During his final news conference of the Parliamentay session, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that the federal government’s promotion of “safe consumption sites” would be a means of combatting the opioid crisis in Canada.
Vancouver was the first city in North America with a drug injection site, where addicts can go and legally inject heroin. These facilities are sometimes described as “safe” because the addicts are supervised by medical orderlies while they shoot-up. Vancouver just opened up a second site in the while the Trudeau government is actively encouraging other Canadian cities to open such facilities.
In 2016, 978 people in Vancouver died of drug overdoses. The city is well on the way to surpassing that figure within a month. That figure doesn’t even include the overdoses that don’t result in death: there are about 175 of these every week in the city.
All of this worries Bob Capano, Republican candidate for New York City council. The city is considering being the home of the first drug injection site in the U.S. and initiated a feasibility study in September 2016. Capano wonders what happened to the study and if it the results are being held back for the benefit of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s reelection bid.
“New York City voters deserve to know the status of this study; where is it and when will it be released? It’s been almost a year since the City Council allocated the funding for the study. One has to wonder if the delay in its release is merely a stall tactic so that the voters don’t catch wind of this crazy plan before the election,” Capano said in a news release.
“Drug dealers are true entrepreneurs; they’ll relocate close to a Supervised Injection Facility to better serve their customer; the addict. If one were to open close to 86th Street in Bay Ridge common sense tells you that there will be dealers setting up shop between the subway entrance and the facility,” Capano said.