1st responders are beyond stretched and is really affecting response times to the wider community. Violent crime in the Lower Mainland has sharply increased. Giving people a choice between incarceration or programs with restrictions is not being utilized. Closing psychiatric facilities in the 80s was a mistake. Better to have improved them. People with mental health issues are not protected from criminals. The current politics isn't new in Vancouver and isn't helping: proof is that these issues are 30+ years old.

What a wonderful treat to see you speaking out in Austin. You have guts.

👍🇩🇪

Megan …do you have an interview with Michael Shellenberger in the pipeline? Im sure he has a lot to say about San Fran .

Also, Decriminalization of prostitution is not just about harm reduction and destigmatization. It's about making sure that sex workers (prostitutes) have the same rights that other Canadians take for granted.

16:10 I think you missing something here. these people don't have economic options. this is liberalism. if they worked two jobs they'd barely have enough money to live with roomates in vancouver until they die. they are sentenced to a life of the most demeaning wage slavery – forever on the edge of economic destruction. is it really surprising some would choose oblivion to that sentence mass immigration and globalization has imposed on their lives?

The Harper Government sued Insite and eventually lost at The Supreme Court of Canada. What role do you think that played in the continuation of Harm Reduction? Perhaps it prevented Vancouver from spending money on the other pillars of its drug program.

Good points about Portugal and Europe.. they are finding better solutions. Taking away someone's addictive substances and getting them into rehab is better for their dignity as a human than just keeping them technically alive but still addicted.

Good interview. Edmonton has had a similar problem explode in the last few years (probably exacerbated by a combination of the pandemic and fentanyl). What used to be limited to small parts of the inner city has just spread all over. No enforcement on public transit, so drug users and homeless people just squatting in stations and using drugs openly (smoking crack pipes, needles everywhere). Plus crime has peaked around every major transit station as stuff gets broken in to in order to support the addicts' habits. The emergency rooms are full of homeless and overdoses, tent cities everywhere, vandalism, people ranting and raving on the street… Downtown is just awful now. 🙁

Portland, OR is facing similar issues. Not much is being done about the tents popping up besides the mayor making a stern declaration banning tents along "dangerous corridors" and near schools which is barely enforced. The city periodically perform sweeps, only for tents to reappear a few days later. The upcoming candidates for governor include non-specific generic solutions like "We'll end homelessness for veterans, families with children, young adults, people 65 by providing more community resources. The police force continues to shrink and has one of the lowest number of cops per capita out of every other major city in the US. It's a hopeless mess. Every drug has also been decriminalized in Oregon, which is a double-edged sword; fewer people will be prosecuted with felonies but many more drug users will be using with impunity as addiction rates increase.

As long as housing remains scarce and increasingly unaffordable, as long as people are able to pitch tents wherever, as long as mental health issues remain rampant (Oregon ranks last for access to mental health services), and as long as politicians shout useless feel-good slogans that do nothing to address the root causes of homelessness (I meant houselessness, sorry using such evil and uncompassionate word), the problem will continue to worsen.

Vancouver progressive elites have sold the soul of a once promising city.

Pretty softball interview. So there's one solution to homelessness. Jail drug users. No. All levels of government need to be involved because there is no quick fix. Low-wage employment, no mental health facilities, generational poverty, rascism etc are some of the many causes. This guy is a 3rd rate Michael Schellenberg, jumping on that bandwagon.

Two people I appreciate. Thank you both for your efforts

Thank you both for the courage to speak openly about these important topics!

👆 – ВЕSТ ADULТ DAТING SIТE 😘✅p💦

👆 – FREE GIRLS IN YOU CITY ♂😜k👄

I’ve been saying this for years, harm reduction has ruled since the mid nineties and it just gets worse and worse. Definition of insanity anyone?

"…another battle…." sounds familiar.