Canada considers funding crack houses ...

[[AK]Abaddon]

Interesting read.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128483,00.html

What's sad is their healthcare system already funds centers for heroin injection.

[Slaughter]

The government-run crack houses would provide a safe place to toke up and would distribute little crack kits to crack addicts that would include a pipe, five brass screens, two new mouthpieces, condoms and printed material on "safe" smoking techniques.

ROFL!!!... Not only will they provide the safe place to do it.. they'll provide everything BUT the crack itself...

You have to love the way they go aboot things..

[The Purchaser]

Rationale people....think open mindedly about it for a second:

There is an AIDS epidemic on the West Coast. One of the main causes of the spread of the disease is the sharing of needles. The mindset is, give them the needles and a place where they don't need to swap them, and control the AIDS epidemic to a degree, or don't give them the facility and let AIDS spread more rampantly. Perhaps some will argue "let the druggies get AIDS..they're asking for it". The problem is that AIDS doesn't just stay in the "druggie" community. It moves very quickly out of that circle into mine. AIDS doesn't care if you are gay or straight, rich or poor, on drugs or clean and sober. I'm not saying that their aren't better ways of controlling this situation. I'm just informing you guys of WHY us Canadians have adopted this policy for heroin addicts.

Crack addicts? Haven't a freakin' clue why they need a safe place to smoke up! They aren't in anyway contributing to the spread of a disease. Perhaps its just a simple case of "Well since he gets this or that, so should I!"

[Slaughter]

Yeah, I can see the heroin thing.. but crack?? I say give them a place to smoke it in "safety" and while they're there shoot them in the head.

[[AK]Clay]

As I understand it, AIDS spreads from drug user to drug user through the direct blood contact.

It spreads from Sexual partner to sexual partner through anal sex, which can be rough on the goods, causing again, direct contact. AIDS transmission through normal sex is pretty rare - though can happen.

In short, I'm not particularly worried about it making it into your circle purchaser. Don't get spooked by the scare tactics.

[The Purchaser]

I agree...the chances are minimal...lets keep them that way. If the junkies wanna shoot up and kill themselves on smack..that's thier perogative. I'm willing to spend the 0.000001% of my taxes on making as sure as possible that the diseases they carry are kept minimized and out of my "circle".

Again though, gov't sponsored crack houses? I'm having to agree with Slaughter on that one (although the idea does also transfer nicely to Heroin as well...a dead junkie doesn't spread AIDS either). Heartless? a bit yeah. But I didn't stick the needle in thier arm. It's not an easy road, but if you have the willpower, any addiction can be beaten..I firmly believe long time users have no urge to quit.

[[AK]Abaddon]

Yeah, there's a certain interest group out there that wants EVERYONE to feel like they could catch AIDS at any time, unless more funds are allocated to research. In the U.S., this is a disease mostly limited to a few high-risk populations. It's pretty damned hard to catch ... and the stats, last time I checked, showed no danger of an epidemic here in the states. In Africa, it's a whole other story.

[Slaughter]

It is true that any addiction can be beat.. I got over my Evercrack addiction afterall..

[The Purchaser]

In the U.S., this is a disease mostly limited to a few high-risk populations... and the stats, last time I checked, showed no danger of an epidemic here in the states.

You might want to focus the stats gathering on Washington and California. These are the "liberal" areas that are typically having the problem. True, it's not to Africa standards, but it is something that is more prevalent on the west coast, which, incidentally, is where the safe injection sites are!

Evercrack...LMAO!!!! that was a good one!!!

[[AK]Abaddon]

But again, is AIDS rampant among the general population, even on the Left Coast? I know all the Hollywood activists would like us to believe it is ... but these people believe Michael Moore, too. Sounds like some people on the west coast are getting "unsafe" injections.

Cancer, heart disease and a host of other ailments are more pressing issues to me - as I am much more likely to suffer from one of those in my lifetime. I'll be okay if the government (read, my tax money) funding for AIDS reflects the percentage of people in the U.S. population as a whole who are afflicted by it.

As for the addiction ... in the U.S. we have methadone clinics to help heroin addicts. I don't think that works so well either. That crackhouse idea though ... that sounds like it came from the mind of someone who was, well ... smoking crack - not to put too fine a point on it.

[[AK]JD]

You missed one important point about the safe injection site Purch, they not only provide a safe sterile environment for junkies to shoot up they also provide counselling and encouragement for addiction treatment that these people would not otherwise be exposed to unless forced to.

Personally I don't agree with safe injection sites, I think they should all rot but thats just me. This crack house thing is pretty much media Bull$hit it was on the news a couple weeks ago and its a classic case of the media sensationalizing an issue that otherwise if it were not a slow news day noone would ever have known.