Extremists claim there is a demand for free crack pipes

Front page of the Vancouver Sun yesterday was an article about the plan for Vancouver to hand out free crack pipes. Never mind singing about a warm San Fransisco night. This program will attract crack addicts to Vancouver from across the country.

The article quotes one extremist who claims that more people are switching over to crack and there is a large demand for free crack pipes. No kidding. There's a large demand for pedophilia too. Do we start supporting that next? There's a large demand for murder as well. Do we start handing out free guns to satisfy that demand?

I cannot over emphasize how wrong this program is. Never mind shooting ourselves in the foot. This program shoots ourselves in the head. It makes policing not only counter productive but a waste of time.

Needle exchanges were supposed to be exchanges. You turn in a used dirty needle and you get a free clean needle. The intent was to help reduce the spread of Aids and reduce the number of dirty needles being thrown out in allies and school yards.

I met a Victoria resident who complained about the fact that in Victoria they stopped making it an exchange and just started handing out free needles. As a result there were twice as many used needles ending up on his lawn and all over the neighbourhood.

The other automatic problem is that where ever you have a needle exchange or hand out free mouth pieces or crack pipes, police allow drug dealers to sell drugs in public in that area. As a result, drug use and crime in that area skyrockets.

Every city has good and bad. The Vancouver hockey riot was a perfect example of that. A bunch of spoiled brats empowered by the mob destroying private property just because they can. It was an embarrassment for the world to see. The next day a huge number of people were outraged. Volunteers came out to help clean up. Activists posted photos from facebook to help identify rioters for the police.

What if a new facebook group of rioters was to start demanding the city hand out free lighters and free rags to help them set cars on fire? There's a demand for it. Just because there's a demand for it doesn't mean we are morally obligated to fulfill that demand. Idiots.

These Xanadu freaks from Vandu are part of the problem. Handing out free crack pipes is a corporate stunt organized crime would pull. "Here ya go. Your first three hits are free. After that you are addicted and become my personal criminal slave."

Handing out free crack pipes supports the drug dealers pushing Native women out of hotel windows in East Van for drug debts. It supports crack addicts being tortured in crack house basements in Prince George or those filmed being beaten to a pulp by wing nut Tony Terezaki at the Cobalt or the American Hotel. Vandu doesn't say much about supporting that but they do.

Take a look at what crack does to people. It's sad. These are human beings. Supporting them ingesting that poison is not compassionate. This program is as much of an embarrassment for Vancouver as was the hockey riot. The majority of good people out there need to vote against it and support the four pillars not just one.

Pandora's Pharmacy in Victoria started handing our free needles and there was a huge increase in dirty needles all over that neighbourhood. Why were they handing out free needles? Because they were also a methadone outlet. They were paid by the government to give people methadone. Only patients on the program are not encouraged to decrease their dosages. It's a pharmaceutical scam. Doctors who get kickbacks from supporting methadone are in a conflict of interest promoting that program or others like it.

One person wrote in to the Province and said "Giving our crackheads free pipes is a boneheaded move."

More free crack pipes for Vancouver

This shows how f*cked up our country is. We're going to cut funding for the RCMP and the Gang task force, raise taxes through the HST to pay for more prisons for nonviolent crimes like the possession of pot while we hand out free crack pipes at the taxpayers expense. Need I say more? This is so wrong.

Nanaimo got rid of the program but the special interest lobbyists brought it back. No wonder the police are frustrated. The law biding citizens are frustrated too because the politicians simply are not listening. The public sale of crack fuels the gang war and the violence associated with it. Handing out free crack pipes supports drug dealers pushing addicts out of windows in East Van for drug debts.

Enforcement, prevention and treatment are three other pillars the special interest spoilt brats completely ignore. They just scream harm reduction over and over again until we become complete enablers and our economy and tax revenue is sucked dry. Brilliant.

Amy Winehouse reported dead

This is a shocking tragedy. Amy Winehouse was indeed an immensely talented singer. Her struggle with drug addiction was very public. I myself joked about the fact that she was a poster girl showing why people shouldn't smoke crack yet no one would wish this kind of misfortune on anyone.

She was famous for her remake of the song They tried to make me go to rehab. Amy Winehouse certainly isn't the only famous musician that struggled with drug addiction. All that money and all that pressure can be a very challenging combination.

The reason I joked about the situation was because some were taking her mocking about going to rehab to the extreeme and were rationalizing drug addiction which clearly is nothing to joke about or endorse. The physical transformation on her body was extreme. The obsession with anerexia is tragic. People need to be more acepting of themselves. The obsession with losing weight is not healthy. Yet skinny or fat people are human and despite Amy's physical transformation she was still a beautiful person.

Betral and loss are hard to deal with. It was tragic when one of her "friends" sold a copy of a video she made of Amy smoking crack. That must of hurt. Even more painful was to see the context of the video. It was after the break up of her marriage. She had a wedding photo on the wall and was looking at it as she lit up the crack pipe. It was heart breaking to see.

I am very sorry to hear of Amy Winehouse's death. I still think joking about not going to rehab and promoting drug adicition is wrong and this tragic death reinforces that. People who make money off that kind of addiction are parasites. Amy Winehouse will always be remembered as a talented musician and a beuatiful human being.

The New York Model

Everyone talks about the New York model but few have any idea what that means. From the mid 19th century in Gangs of New York to the Warriors of the /70's, New York City had a history of being plagued with gang crime. Yet everyone talks about how New York has changed and how safe it is now. This is what people refer to as the New York model.

It didn't happen through safe injection sites or through legalization of crack. Three things happened. 1) They cracked down on the gangs 2) They cracked down on the crack dealers and stopped letting them sell crack in public and 3) They moved Disney on the Deuce.

When I visited New York in the /80's there were no real gangs. Just a handful of small insignificant ones. The police broke up the gangs by making it harder for them to do business when they wore colours. If they saw a gang or individual wearing gang colours, they would take the person aside and search them. If they were found with drugs or weapons, they were arrested.

Wearing gang colours was just cause for a search. Here gang tattoos should be just cause for a search. Gang tattoos are not freedom of expression and freedom of association. Chris Hudson in Australia pointed to his Hells Angels tattoo and said "Don't you know who I am? I'm a Hells Angel." Having and showing that tattoo was an act of intimidation. Being a member of a criminal organization is just cause for them to be periodically searched.

Not every day in the middle of the night but certainly as they go out in public and jeopardize public safety. Random searches of known gang members for drugs or guns is an example of the New York model which was successful in restoring peace in that crime ridden area.



When I was in New York, gangs weren't the problem, the crack epidemic was. That was the first thing they did to address the problem. They stopped letting crack dealers sell crack in public. This sounds simple but takes focused determination to achieve. As soon as police turn the corner the crack dealers come back like rats on garbage.

Knowing that crack dealers get released quickly and that the paper work on the arrests is undaunting, it's easier to drive by and turn a blind eye to it. Following up on a campaign to stop crack from being sold in public at Surrey central requires ongoing attention. Surveillance cameras would help.

Moving Disney on the deuce was shocking.

East 42nd Street was full of crack dealers and smutty porn theatres like Soho in London. Moving Disney in was high risk but it paid off. That's like moving Disney to Main and Hastings in Vancouver. Yet a coordinated effort saw a transformation in the City which the rest of the world refers to as the New York Model. It doesn't come through complacency and safe injection sites. We've tried being enablers and it didn't work. Now let's try being responsible citizens and see how that goes. Let's try the New York model and leave Amsterdam for Amsterdam.

Let's give it up for New York.

That's not where I'm from but it is where I've been.

I support the Ghetto Gospel.