Will the courts stop Doug Ford from banning safe consumption sites?
Will the courts stop Doug Ford from banning safe consumption sites?
What might the Charter of Rights and Freedoms say?
Note that the government isn’t talking about moving SCSs outside of their arbitrary 200m zone from schools, they’ve simply announced their outright closure.
This is the crux. I don't really want a safe consumption site near my kids' school or daycare. I even think 200m is probably insufficient for a distance from a school or daycare. (I don't know what the actual distance should be, 200m just feels insufficient)
But I also want SCSs. Literally just move them. The infrastructure demand is not that intense.
So tell me, if the choice is between having the safe consumption site close to your kids' school and having people doing their drugs in the open near your kids' school and leaving their used needles lying on the playground, which are you going to pick? Often, these places are where they are because that's where their clients already are.
You may also want to measure out the radius of 200m from every school or daycare in your town or city on a map and see how many places are left where they can park SCSs. I admit I haven't actually done this, but my bet is that the options will be considerably reduced.
It's just about inevitable that some SCSs are going to end up in someone's backyard. Figuring out where they'll do more good than harm is more important than enforcing arbitrary limits. This is typical right-wing "think of the children" rhetoric. Don't fall for it.
if the choice is between having the safe consumption site close to your kids' school and having people doing their drugs in the open near your kids' school and leaving their used needles lying on the playground, which are you going to pick?
SCS
Often, these places are where they are because that's where their clients already are.
Are they? Or is it just close enough the areas where underfunded volunteer organisations are able to get a physical site.
You may also want to measure out the radius of 200m from every school or daycare in your town or city on a map and see how many places are left where they can park SCSs.
This is neighborhood dependant. Somewhere like Sud-ouest in Montréal? Impossible. Somewhere like a Kingston suburb, a lot of real estate.
But that's a great point, allow me to rephrase, the SCS sites should be an appropriate safe distance from schools; what that distance is is going to vary greatly between neighborhoods and their densities; and even the day trip programming of these schools (as an example if daycare always does their walks north to a canal which has playgrounds, then a SCS any distance along that route isn't great, but a site to the south could be super close.
Figuring out where they'll do more good than harm is more important than enforcing arbitrary limits.
Agreed, but this needs to be looked at holistically, not solely for the clients. That requires understanding the communities these sites are going into, and funding sites appropriately so selection isn't based on funding.
What about a third choice of confiscating their very dangerous drugs?
Or a fourth choice of putting them in a drunk/drug tank for 24 hour hold with optional invite to a treatment center? I get it's certainly not ideal to use force on people.
Why is thinking of the children not valid? Certainly they have some right to be able to walk around their neighborhood without fear.
I feel like if there are people shooting up in your schoolyard, then you really need a SCS within 200m.