They are not the only ones reaping massive profits from the DTES.


There are a LOT of people who want to keep the status quo, as it transfers money from the government to private citizens, in exchange for keeping that area fucked up.

The government spends 1 million dollars a day keeping that area going, don't you think that a lot of that money ends up in the hands of:

A. Criminals
B. Lawyers
C. Private citizens


That's government money (our money) ending up in the hands of the crackheads(lowest class citizen wealth transfer)who in turn give/spend the money on drug dealers(untaxed blackmarket), hotels, and food. When they get caught and arrested(keeping the police, judges employed) then they need lawyers(big money paid for by the taxpayer)and when they are convicted, need to be housed in jails(paid for by the taxpayer)and meet up with social workers(tax money) and probation officers(tax money)


In the above, of all the people getting paid, who wants to fix the solution and be out of work?

I've been to Juarez, and its nicer than most people think.

Sorry, I have to disagree with you on this one.
In Singapore, the death penalty is pronounced on very small quantities of illicit substances.
According to countrystats website, Singapore's stats were 94 drug related offences/ 100,000 citizens.
In comparison, Canada was something like 294,000/100,000; as many people have multiple offences.
If you have a crazy enough deterrent that people would lose their lives, they'd much rather not do this.
Coming from a health professional's point of view, the drop in drugs would help at least two-fold the cost to society - a decrease in available drugs would prevent the homeless users from overdosing less, resulting in reduced extended care needs.
The second more long-term aid of cutting drugs out, would be the removal of another variable which skews the patient's judgment. If many of the mentally ill were not on illicit drugs, they would be in a better frame of mind mentally to engage their drug regimen with greater compliance.

As well, the justice system is far too slow in the West.
China should be admired as murderer's appeals occur in the morning, and if rejected, they are usually executed that same afternoon. No drama.

Isn't this the country where having the right colour license plate means you can run all the red lights you want?

Yes indeed. But that isn't related to their success in the eradication of Opium, which the Europeans had brought and plagued the Chinese for two generations.
In the context of drug eradication, Mao's harsh penalties are credited as one of modern history's greatest triumphs over chronic drug addiction. His policy was incredibly simple:

-Send addict/users to "re-education" camps
-Execute all traffickers

The Mao Zedong government is generally credited with eradicating both consumption and production of opium during the 1950s using unrestrained repression and social reform. Ten million addicts were forced into compulsory treatment, dealers were executed, and opium-producing regions were planted with new crops. Remaining opium production shifted south of the Chinese border into the Golden Triangle region, at times with the involvement of Western intelligence agencies.[38] The remnant opium trade primarily served Southeast Asia, but spread to American soldiers during the Vietnam War, with 20% of soldiers regarding themselves as addicted during the peak of the epidemic in 1971. In 2003, China was estimated to have four million regular drug users and one million registered drug addicts.[47]

The silly drug war in the Fraser Valley would never stand a chance in Singapore. Either they'd be beaten to paralysis in police custody or earn a (legal) bullet in the head.

Yeah well that's the difference between a Liberal democracy and a Communist dictatorship.. we tend to have a few more human rights.

And if you like China so much, why don't you move back there already.

Mao's great leap forward caused the deaths of untold millions upon millions.


Walking around executing people for lifestyle choices that hurt noone but themselves?

Perhaps we should execute people over a certain bodyfat %, since later in life medical problems that the state pays for will be directly related to bad eating habits.

Alcohol, cigarettes, both worse for you than marijuana. Why must be continue down the path of 20th century mentality?

I do not applaud all their policies. In fact, the majority of their policies are brutal and unacceptable to most people in the world today
I am merely presenting the fact that many Canadians (and many other western countries), exhibit a hypocritical stance on drugs.
On the one hand, the people cry about the gang warfare and battle on drug addiction problems. They also cry about the need for more money into social services to alleviate the root problems at hand.

As someone who has volunteered for several years at the Three Bridges Medical Center in Downtown (clean needle exchange, free health care for people with no fixed address, etc.), I am for the increased infrastructure needs in regard to the current problems face.

As a medical professional however, I find it ludicrous that the very freedoms Canadians boast about, are the root cause of the drug problem which plagues us and other countries (I'm talking about hard drugs, not marijuana).

Having military police going around making drug users/traffickers "disappear" is obviously overtly harsh.
But what I am proposing is that the system must fundamentally change to eliminate hard drugs altogether.
Singapore is the example which clearly stands out:

Singapore: 46.8 drug offences per 100,000 capita

Canada: 92,590 per 100,000 people


http://www.nationmaster.com/country/...pore/cri-crime
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ca-canada/cri-crime
*note that these figures are also the same as found in The Economist's world fact book.

The problem of course, is compounded. For all these drug offences that occur in Canada that are completely eliminated in Singapore by the element of fear; ALL Canadians pay for it. They pay for social services. They pay for the Judges and court staff for hearings. They pay for prison staff.
All money which would have been far better spent on Hospitals, Universities, Research facilities, etc.

So next time you apply to a University and don't get a spot, or perhaps wait in Emergency for several hours and bitch about why they're so understaffed, this is clearly one of the reasons.