Maybe two young people I love would be alive today if there had been a safe consumption site available for them and a gateway to treatment.

The tragic circumstances of many mostly young women who sell their bodies for a hit has been largely ignored by city, county and state authorities and kept in the shadows.

Seattle should now get ready to have its homeless population increased by an influx of desperate souls whom never will be interested in affordable housing.

@1 - A lot of young people we’ve loved would still be alive today if they hadn’t got addicted to shooting up, period.

@2:

People who live in homes can be junkies too - but they shoot up out of sight, so we tend to ignore them.

@2 You haven’t a clue what you are talking about. Yes, they got addicted and that leaves many in a lot of pain. Trite comments don’t help at all. We want to make it better so others don’t have to hurt and lives aren’t ruined by addiction.

Great, pretty soon Vancouver's eastside "Zombie town" may becoming to a neighborhood near you!

Treatment has always been available, unfortunately the users just don't want to put forth the effort.

If people looked at other parts of the world that have been using safe injection sites for 40 years instead of spouting unhelpful beliefs/opinions, they'd immediately realize that these sites prevent overdoses and provide access to addiction treatment and other helpful services, such as housing.

Imagine what could happen in a state in the middle of a 70% increase in fentanyl overdose deaths. In countries with safe injection sites, overdoses all but disappear, the rate of new addiction drops dramatically, and the number of addicts seeking treatment increases dramatically.

There will probably always be addicts but it'll be a real victory when we can keep the number of addicts to a bare minimum. Criminalizing addiction didn't work but it's entirely possible that treatment will.

@7 - Funny you should mention it, if heroin, etc. were legal, like in Portugal, the rate of addiction would go down, like it did in Portugal. They haven't solved the problem of addiction but it's a much smaller (and less costly) problem there than it is here. And yes, they have safe injection sites.

https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/portugal-heroin-decriminalization/

@9...So can a person in Portugal go into a drug store and purchase medical grade heroin for their own personal use?

"If people looked at other parts of the world that have been using safe injection sites"

Ever walk down Hastings street in Vancouver near the Insite shoot-up gallery? F*cking shit show for 5-10 blocks in every direction.

@10

Repeat after me: correlation=/=causality.

@11: Read after me: supporting evidence = making a case

@4: "You haven’t a clue what you are talking about"
Well, even if I didn't know what I was talking about, it doesn't mean that it's not true.

"Repeat after me: correlation=/=causality."

Yes, just because there's a shoot-up gallery on Hastings Street on Vancouver's eastside, it has no causal relationship to the 5 block radius of drug-zombies around it.

@13: A causal relationship is not required to make the case. It's a community decision and should be decided by the will of the voters.

re: The only safe consumption site in North America is in Vancouver, B.C.
Edmonton, Alberta ALSO has a safe injection site
https://globalnews.ca/news/4106685/edmonton-safe-injection-site-opioid-drugs-overdose/

"State House Rep. Lauren Davis" should read "State House Representative-Elect Lauren Davis". She won her election, but doesn't get sworn in until January.#ItsTheLittleThings