Junkie is a harsh term and that’s why I’m using it. It represents a harsh reality and I want to tear the sugarcoating from it. People addicted to substances who live on the streets of Canada are putting themselves and other citizens in danger every day. Activists, bureaucrats, and politicians dancing around the problem using euphemisms and refusing to acknowledge the harm caused by unchecked addiction are killing people and making the catastrophe worse.Unless a person is blind, they have seen an explosion in the growth of street people in the last decade. We never used to see the types of tent encampments that have sprung up everywhere, nor did we ever have to deal with the zombie-like groups of strung-out souls congregating at transit facilities, in parks, in alleys, and in every corner of city centres. The vast majority of these people are either addicts or suffering from mental health disorders or both. If we want to help these people, we must begin by accepting what their conditions are.Civic politicians and their associated bureaucrats are the worst. They use every term they can to deny reality. People went from being called homeless, to unwell, to unhoused, to my personal favorite, ”vulnerable people”. These “vulnerable people” stabbed people in two separate incidents at the same LRT station in Calgary just in the last week. These “vulnerable people” have set brush fires at their encampments, caused spikes in property crimes as they steal anything they can to feed their addiction, and they create a thriving market for organized crime as they consume illicit drugs..Look, I don’t want to crap on addicts here. The people on the streets need our compassion, and they need help. We have a social obligation to aid the folks suffering out there and funds directed toward addiction treatment and expanding secured, long-term mental health facilities are dollars well spent. We won’t be able to help them if we keep pretending the addiction isn’t the problem, though.It was maddening watching Calgary news this week as legacy outlets reported on a vandalism rampage committed by an addict, where he did tens of thousands of dollars in damage to cars and then they got a quote from an idiot advocate for the homeless talk about how this is an issue caused by high rents. I wish I was making this up.The delusional dolts from the enablement cult have been blaming the explosion of crime and street person populations on everything from capitalism to racism, to climate change, all while refusing to admit it’s the damn addiction. A late-stage addict, whether it’s fentanyl, meth, heroin or crack is incapable of finding a job or maintaining a home. They do indeed need to be taken from the streets if they are to be treated, but they aren’t in any condition to live within any form of long-term housing unless they have been treated, despite what smooth-brained “housing first” advocates claim..Another term that should be stricken from all public discourse is “social disorder”. The proper term is crime and it’s getting out of control. Hatchet attacks, robberies and fentanyl dealing aren’t a disorder issue. They are bloody crimes. Apologists for the havoc they have fostered on the streets through addiction enablement policies often try to blame citizens by saying people expressing concern only have a “perception” of unsafety. When people have to run a gauntlet of addicts in various states of frenzy just to get to work, it’s more than a perception of unsafety and people shouldn’t have to deal with it.In Nanaimo, the local government went for full enablement and managed to create one of the most dangerous small cities in Canada. While the city has a beautiful backdrop, it has become a dump. Because the fools in city administration felt the risk was only a perception issue, they allowed an addiction enablement facility to be set up next to their city hall. Now, the imbeciles are calling for a fence to be built around city hall because they are surrounded by out-of-control addicts and feel unsafe.Enablement advocates blame the deaths of addicts on what they call “toxic supply”. They live in a state of delusion where they believe addicts would be just fine if they could get pure drugs and its only the nasty additives drug dealers put into the supply which kill people. There is no such thing as a safe supply of meth, fentanyl, heroin or crack for an addict. Addiction is a progressive condition causing addicts to continue to seek higher doses until they finally overdose and die. The term is overdose, and even the most pure of drugs will cause it.The sound of sirens are ubiquitous in urban areas as ambulances constantly respond to overdoses. Meanwhile, people suffer and potentially die awaiting emergency services and hospital spaces tied up with addicts.The addiction epidemic will only become worse as authorities refuse to acknowledge the realities associated with it. If we do truly care about the addicts, we must speak bluntly about it and deal with it directly. Even if it means forcible confinement.But what about their dignity? Enablement advocates love to trot that out.There is no dignity left when an addict is filthy and residing behind a dumpster on the path to death.It’s a complex problem and it won’t be solved by simplistic souls who haven’t the courage to call a junkie a junkie.No serious social problem has ever been solved with Pollyanna attitudes and euphemisms.
