Monday, April 20, 2009

Regional services for drug addicts? Not likely.

Apparently all the local drug addicts were either born in the City of Victoria or traveled from off island just to go there. Clearly, they have no connection to the other 12 local municipalities.

I say this as Dean Fortin has suggested that if we are going to have/need needle exchanges, they should also occur in areas like Saanich, Esquimalt and Langford. However, the other mayors are “not so sure.”

The mayor of Esquimalt would like to see “one central location.” The mayor of Saanich thinks there needs to be a lot more homework done and that he would not want to create a demand for it in Saanich. The mayor of Langford does not want to see what happened in Victoria, happen again, with too much demand and not enough money.

So the problem with our municipal system is obvious from this. Maybe we should have no needle exchange in the CRD. But if we are going to have a needle exchange system, then clearly one city would be best able to learn what should be done and implement the best practices possible to minimize the impact on all of us. This issue arises from people who come from each and every one of our 13 municipalities. Not long ago I woke up a fellow who seemed stoned and was sleeping in my parking spot down town. I asked where he was from and he told me “Sooke”. I asked why he did not get help from his family there and he told me “no one wants me”.

Why are we having to have numerous mayors even consider the issue? Such a waste of time and resources.

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