- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
I recently left Vancouver after 11 years, my mother and sister still live there and in many ways I still think of the city as my home.
Crime, poverty and addiction are shocking and sad, particularly when juxtaposed against the natural beauty and cosmopolitan culture in Van.
Make no mistake, crime is out of hand all across the lower mainland and it is getting worse. I don't think that anyone in Vancouver doubts that when your apartment gets ransacked or your car window is smashed and the contents stolen that drugs are the motivation. It used to be that needles were only found in places like downtowns Blood Alley (yes, that is a real place). My sister lives in a trendy Urban area outside of the downtown core. While on the phone with her last week she looked over her balcony to see the contents of a purse scattered in the alley below. Due to the used needles in the pile we weren't sure if there had been a robbery or if a junkie had simply lost their possessions along the way. She wondered if she should clean it all up and I advised her not to, I know someone who was stuck with a dirty needle while trying to help once. We ended up hoping that the staff of the doctors office on the main floor would take care of it because they have sharp boxes.
It seems that the safe injection site has done some good. I know that I was all for it when I lived there. I'm glad that fewer addicts are dying in the streets, that the spread of infectious diseases has been positively impacted and that rehab is a real and promoted option. But this isn't nearly enough. Vancouver is trying but it needs to do more, I just think that the world is at a loss for realistic, financially viable solutions to this immense problem.
I was back home last month for a visit after being away for over a year. Standing outside a gastown bar I was approached by a trio of ghostly addicts with their hands out for money. My companions politely declined and turned away, the same reaction I used to have. I handed out the cigarettes I'd purchased for the night and wished them luck just before the doormen ushered them back out into the street.
Jayne
