A new report released last month found that the hard drug problem in Vancouver is “epidemic”, according to a new article.
The report from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS cites a ten-fold increase in the use of crack cocaine and a major increase in the use of crystal meth by Vancouver’s street youth over the last 10 years.
Specifically, researchers found that an approximate 90 percent of adult drug users could score crack or cocaine within 10 minutes, and 60 percent of street youth claimed to be able to score crystal meth in the same time frame. Furthermore, 40 percent of street youth surveyed reported having injected drugs publicly.
The study, the “first comprehensive look at the epidemic of hard drugs in Vancouver”, concludes that the federal government’s drug strategy is “failing”, according to authors Evan Wood and Thomas Kerr.
They argue, instead, for more harm reduction policies, like the controversial supervised injection sites, as the key to reducing the various harms related to drug addiction. Insite, one such injection site, and initiatives are cited as the reason for significant reductions in both HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C cases from the reduction in needle sharing.
Consequently, the Canadian government is in the process of trying to shut down Insite. At the moment, the government is appealing a May decision from the BC Supreme Court that keeps their doors open while their fate is being decided.
Critics, however, argue that Vancouver has the more harm reduction programs in place and yet has the largest drug problem in the country. Although harm reduction policies, they say, successfully reduce harms to addicts, the programs don’t necessarily work to curb or end drug use.
At Heritage Home Drug Rehab Centre, we work closely and intensely with all of our clients to achieve total abstinence through a psychotherapeutic addiction program.
However, we also recognize that this can be unrealistic goal for some and so we also provide services such as Methadone Therapy, also considered a harm reduction program, to support and enhance our holistic addiction treatment program.
Source: Maclean’s
