How stupid can people on RS be?

Thousands of drug users do whatever they can to feed their habit (steal property, work the streets as prostitutes, whatever). They buy drugs from a street level dealer. That street level dealer gets his drugs from another dealer higher up the chain and so on.

The guys at the top of the chain are the ones driving the Range Rovers. They don't get their hands dirty by actually doing any of the street-level work (selling drugs to users or fencing stolen property). But they sure as hell get the profits from all those low-level transactions.

good documentary - damn 12 year olds taking heroin? Makes DTES look like a walk in the park

That Teenage Epidemic Video is fucked up.

I think the main thing is the delusions they tell of themselves. The girl was basically sold into prostitution at 13 for drugs and then people in the comments are saying "oh, well they made the choice" Fuck, really? She made no choice...she was born into a life of drugs and when you are on that level of drugs, everything you say and do is because of either being high on the drug, or seeking out the next fix. So how was she to realize there is a different way.

Guys, if you want some insight on it, take the hour and watch it.

You guys who want to learn more should watch this video:


It's good to get perspective and opinions. BTW, Toby the cop, he seems like natural police. He seems very genuine.

^^That one really compares well to the "improvements" made in the area. Is it still a problem? Fuck yes, but can you imagine spending day after day walking around and feeling like you are the only person that gives a fuck and even then, you care just a little less the next day. At that point, everyone considered that neighborhood a lost cause.

A politician can sit in Ottawa and say "lets get rid of insite" and that's fine, but until you watch something from the late 90's and to now, you really can't. You had to acknowledge the problem, admit that you can't arrest the problem away and actually deal with it. Hang bio-waste containers for needles, open a safe injection site and start working on people, one by one.

Ultimately, I think you need to open the area to gentrification and break up the neighborhood. That won't go well with the activists in the area but the last move is to break up a large clump of people and move them into smaller areas.

What a fascinating thread. I'm really (in quotes) "enjoying" it, as much as I'm really not enjoying it at all.

That video hit close to home. Thanks for sharing.

Reminded me of a book called: In Plain Sight
"Stories from 7 women that live in the Downtown East Side. The author meets with them periodically over a couple years and lets them describe their stories unedited."

More drug movies.

So how do you tell what a gang member looks like??

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So I drive a Mercedes and BMWs, does that mean I am a gang member too?

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Jesus, washout the sand from between your nuts, and stop being so ignorrant.

reminds me of planning high school class... watching these anti drug documentaries LOL

And if you want to see the extreme end of this topic....
Krokodil Tears | VICE

Warning Video is Graphic but completely real.

Berz out.

this guy is such a tool... 2:50 in the 2nd video, he goes in a garbage dumpster and gets dirty. No one fucking does that. Douchebag


edit: on part 4, he smokes crack :fulloffuck: he is a stupid cunt after all

edit2: on part 5, he takes herion :fulloffuck: in the government building wher ethey help you out...

He didn't say drug dealers can be found by labeling young dudes drive ranges, but that if you see a drug dealer DRIVING a range.

I like that he went in knowing nothing, and then commits to digging deeper. By the end he's :heckno:

I don't know if parenting is always to blame. My sister and I were raised the same. I don't smoke, I rarely drink and I don't do drugs. The thing that bothers me more then anything is the lack of taking responsibility for ones actions. Addicts always seem to try and place the blame, my sister actually tells my mom she was a terrible parents and it's partially her fault she ended up where she did.

At the end of the day we all make choices. I choose not to be around people who might steer me wrong, I've made those choices since I've been old enough to. She obviously didn't make the same choices and that's her bad. I'm certainly not perfect but the biggest difference between my sister and myself is when I fuck up I'll be the first to admit it and accept whatever comes my way, she looks for someone to blame.

Anyway end rant I'm derailing this thread. Addiction is a fucked up thing and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. My advice stands, if you know somebody who's an addict tell them you care about them and because of that you're choosing to remove them from your life.

K i thanked and failed for your documentary on that idiot who smoked cracked and faked a mental illness. I would punch him in real life if i had the chance.

LOL, he didn't make the documentary, he just linked to it. Relax.

Unfortunately, it goes even further than that according to this article because that does not even factor in all the costs for all the agencies, medical, police, and court resources that are necessary to keep the addicts alive. Taxpayers on the hook once again.

Global BC | Downtown Eastside worse than ever despite $1M a day being spent, says retired officer

I found that one very interesting, as you can just see him descend into this world. And, most important...he went all the way. Especially when he's coming off the heroin, and you see him get irrationally angry, the redness around his eyes-that's DTES man.

Basically tells the Mayor-you're nuts. You don't even know what the problem is, and you are trying to solve it. Ain't gonna happen.

Surely the billion dollar hard drug trade doesnt stop at the high level dealer, whos's at the top of the pecking order sire?

Governments are moderately to heavily involved in the drug trade.
especially heroin now that they control afghanistan.
they use the drug trade to further advance their own agendas. it's happened many many many times.

I think most people focus on the problem from the wrong perspective.
they shouldn't try to get rid of the drug. that's not gonna happen. ppl that want drugs are gonna get drugs. if they don't get it, they'll make it themselves or import it themselves.

drug dealing, is exploitive. by exploitive i mean, humans exploit everything. until a fix is made, and that fix has to be satisfying, and relatively perfect, satisfying both sides of the coin.

people exploit everything, rules, the financial markets, they cut every corner they can, until the corners are refined by society to the point where no one has an upper hand, it reaches an equilibrium.

drug dealing exploits the fact that it's heavily unregulated (well it is semi-regulated, by drug lords now... punishment is not regulation), it's basically monopolized and they rip people off for high margin of profit, and because it's basically uncontrolled.

until it reaches a point of equilibrium, it's going to be a problem.

perhaps its an attitude problem. perhaps the cost of addicts to the public is something people just have to accept.

i mean, the public covers your medical costs if you choose to do dangerous sports. or put yourself in situations where public health might have to cover you. is drug use not the same?

just a semi far out example.

People make mistakes all the time, if your child ends up being a slave to a drug and sucking people off for $10 a pop, can we say too bad he or she wasnt born in an era where equilibrium was reached?
We have to face the facts that the people are powerless to live in a wholesome and just society, like you said there are agendas.
Look how far the cheating society in America has reached when the Mayor of New Jersey was involved in organ trafficking.
This is not going to stop, efforts in educating the youth will still be over powered by the media and the easy availability of drugs.

I have to admit that I'm starting to think that way myself. After experiences such as walking downtown Victoria with the wife a few summers ago and having some wacked out druggie shouting threats at us.

Or hearing how 2-years some drugged out wacko stabbed and killed a 15 year old kid at a bus stop for absolutely no reason.
Victoria stabbing suspect battled mental health issues - British Columbia - CBC News

I'm supportive of Insite, and I understand the plight of those people, but it's getting REAAAAALLLY hard not to think of those people as anything more than society's garbage which need to be cleaned out.

You know, its sad that each of us probably has some experience in this city with a junkie and that experience helps paint the picture for us of what they are ALL like. I'm not at all calling you out with this, because I do it too.

I had a guy in our back parking lot turn some abandoned furniture into a living room, piss on the wheel of my truck and make lunch on the roof of my car, and get pissed off when I yell at him to leave. He wasn't there. He was gone.

I don't know what the answer is. I honestly don't. I think the answer is different from what most people do. Gregor wants to give them a home. I do agree that if you make life too comfortable, you start bringing in more people at the next tier. If I'm struggling to make it and live relatively "drug-free" in terms of I've probably done it, but don't want to descend into that world and I'm on welfare, living in a shithole SRO but if I'm homeless enough, they'll put me up in a nice little condo...I'm going to say "fuck this", and stick my hand out.

So, we pour millions into that neighborhood for the sake of the 5000 worst cases. Let's say we 'solve' those 5000 cases, then we have another 4000 ready to become the new worst cases. It will never end.

Then you get the residents of the area screaming against development for the sake of their neighborhood. Everything built should be low income housing.

It won't work.

I think a lot of the things happening in there are actually improving. You look at 'Through the Blue Lens' and I see a lot of despair, not from the users, but from the Police. Basically saying that they were effectively powerless.

Now, they have bins up in all the alleys, so the needles have been reduced. New needles are available, hopefully reducing disease. I see today and then as an admission that we can't hide this anymore. And I think insite helps. I'd love to see some stats on how many addicts they have directed to treatment, but even opening the lines of communication with these people is a huge step. Treating them like humans, is a huge step. That's a worthwhile step..at least to me.

Yes, this guy is an idiot, but do you think the people in the same situation don't do those things?

The point is how there is help out there for people that want it but it's still hard since you always have to be on guard for people that will steal your shit and rob you.

Yeah, the documentary seems like it was made by some rich kid that doesn't know shit, but at least he went out there and found out first hand what it would be like to be homeless.

Edit: To be clear, I have no part in making this video. I saw it on the CBC some years ago.