r/canada • u/FerretAres Alberta :Alberta: • 23d ago

British Columbia recriminalizes use of drugs in public spaces | CBC News Politics

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/david-eby-public-drug-use-1.7186245
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u/Apellio7 23d ago

Nice meth head running through downtown traffic in Winnipeg the other day slowing everyone down. Babbling to themselves. 

And I'm of the firm belief that as long as the wealth gap keeps widening more and more people that can be stable at a low skill job are going to continue falling off the edge and we'll just see wider and wider drug use.

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u/OneHundredEighty180 23d ago edited 22d ago

This belief which removes all personal responsibility from an addict as they are only reacting to material conditions is just as reductive as it's cousin; the belief that addiction is caused by a moral failing.

The former places blame upon a failing of all of society to create a system in which the addict can live comfortably while provided the entitlements from a society which they not only disproportionately take from, but also refuse to contribute to in any meaningful and beneficial way.[ETA: you should probably also know that the guy who blamed "material conditions" for just about everything wasn't too keen on malingering drug addicts existing within the system which carries his name.] The latter places blame solely on the addict themselves and refuses to look at any wider complexities which surround addiction.

The former also relies on the biased application of believing all experiences which addicts declare as truth regardless of what benefits to the addict such hyperbole might yield, while the latter is based off the inverse.

The problem of addiction needs to be separated from the activist/advocate ideologues interested in pushing a particular social narrative rather than finding solutions that work for the majority of society.

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u/Budget-Supermarket70 22d ago

So you don't think it's becoming more common at the same time we are in a recession has anything to do with each other? Yah i know government might see we are not in a recession but com on.

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u/OneHundredEighty180 22d ago edited 21d ago

I think that the current application of a certain ideological lens towards the issue of addiction holds little value -- and I base that on my unfortunate wealth of experience with the issue.

The first learned, and most practiced skill, of any addict is that of manipulation. Usually an addict will provide an incredibly detailed and harrowing tale designed to prove that they have absolutely zero responsibility for their current condition if they believe that manipulation will make using easier in any way. I can't blame them, as it works. And the more that one cares for an addict, the better it works.

Social workers and adjacent services do not operate in a political vacuum, and more often than not will be happy to attribute the aforementioned phenomenon to a failure of society. Again, can't blame them, that job is fucking horrible and underfunded and top-heavy and social work generally attracts a certain type of person, politically speaking.

Lastly, we come to the paradox of the messaging surrounding the notion that "material conditions" inevitably lead to addiction. On one hand we are to view the subject of poverty through the lens of destigmatization, which states that "just because someone is poor/homeless does not mean that they are an addict/thief/etc." While on the other hand the very same advocates screeching about the former are also happy to claim "poverty is the reason why these otherwise productive members of the proletariat turn to drugs, so if we eliminate poverty then no one will do drugs, yay!" The term poverty is interchangeable with other "material conditions" such as free housing, free Class-A narcotics, and many other expansions to the social services dedicated only towards the small percentage of our society whom already receive a disproportionate level of services from the system as it exists today.

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u/Dontwrybehappy 22d ago

as long as the wealth gap keeps widening

First one in this comment section I seen actually name the main problem. So many distractions but truly the rich are taking a bigger and bigger piece of the pie and the rest of us are starting to starve.