It'll work when government spends real money on it.
That means real institutions, not shoestring strip-mall locations with precarious funding. It also means safe-supply. It also means housing. And--this is the hard one for advocates--it means humane incarceration for people for whom support, housing and safe-supply aren't enough.
All of this comes with a price tag, but we'd rather build a spa parking lot or give Galen Weston money to upgrade his fridges or some such bullshit.
To be honest, a lot of the problem is because people--not addicts, nor the people who are trying to help them--aren't seeing the benefit, and advocates have been terrible at messaging.
I'll give you an example: the common refrain is that harm reduction saves lives, and that Naloxone saves lives, and that safe-consumption sites save lives.
And while this is true, most people don't care. In fact, a sizable--and growing--percent of the population sees "saving lives" as a bug, not a feature. They're tired of being robbed, of having their property stolen, of being assaulted, of being chased out of downtowns. Many have seen their supply of empathy run dry, and a lot didn't have any empathy to begin with.
They would be quite happy if most addicts died.
I've heard a lot of people saying "You know what? Fuck naloxone. Fuck safe-use sites. I haven't had a doctor for six years, I have to dodge needles and crack pipes while walking, I can't use the park down the street any more, someone shit on my front lawn and someone stole my kid's bike. If a junkie ODs, that's one less junkie who makes my life miserable". And that's pretty much a direct quote.
We need to do a much better job of explaining to people how safe consumption sites reduce crime overall, and why safe-supply cuts out predatory dealers and thusly the economic incentives that drive crime. We really need to talk more about social services and treatment. Because, and again, this is hard to hear, an increasing number of people don't really care if addicts die.
And we need to do it, because the people who vote, are burnt out and the political right is at least talking to their insecurities and anger and anxiety, where the left offers platitudes at best and condescension & condemnation at worst.
Filesystem snapshots are the best thing since sliced bread.
The only issue with the podcast is that he cant get rights for the entire song, so it's not quite the same as radio.
It's still as wonderful as the show was in all the other ways.
Metric isn't bad, either.
I admittedly haven't been a big radio listener for almost twenty years, but I saw a huge difference in ~1997 or so, when a lot of Canadian indie started getting airplay. I don't think we'd have Metric without CanCon requirements.
This hasn't been the case since the 1990s or so, when CanCon started to actually get good.
I will agree it sucked through the 70s and 80s, though. There was a looooong incubation period between the time CanCon took effect and the time it bore fruit in, eg, Canadian bands stopped sucking en-masse.
Alan Cross has a good podcast on CanCon and the long tail it required. I don't think modern governments can or will do anything like that again, where the payoff is decades after the costs and implementation.
Anyone have that gif of Rupert Murdoch with a plate of cookies?
Found it...
The problem with the current program is that we did a "half Portugal" where we stopped with enforcement because it was cheaper, and also didn't put in funding for support and treatment because because they (the goverment) thought is was cheaper.
The problem with this, knowing that our government is cheap. They'll talk about enforcement, but will be super cheap about it. I'd actually be more worried about this endeavour if I thought they were going to fund it adequately.
"Thunderdome except it's billionaires" would solve so many problems.
Putting aside the obvious concerns, a mayor doing this and using "it's the same as the maintenance guy" should be a red flag.
I've worked in companies where high-level people take it upon themselves to do operational work. It's at best pointless retail poltics, and at worst it's rampant bikeshedding.
Don't worry, he'll build it, make it a toll highway, and sell the rights to a foreign company for 99 years. It'll all work out, just trust me, bro!
This is pure poetry. Well done.