Pictures Outside a Coffee Shop - Addiction, Is It Really Harm Reduction, Not Insisting on Treatment?

            On the doorstep directly across from the coffee shop. Gastown District of Vancouver BC. 

Activists in Vancouver BC don't believe that addicts should be pestered or forced into rehabilitation. They believe only in decriminalization and telling addicts it's OK to be addicted, it's just a disease. And as the Downtown East Side of Vancouver becomes even more overrun with the destitute and addicted, as the overdose deaths rise, they wring their hands and scream, why? The politicians I think love the harm reduction mantra and how it is practised in Vancouver as it means they don't have to figure out how to budget tax dollars for rehab and treatment of addicts. Proper rehab is not a week in a detox facility. It takes years. I know from being on very strong opiates for pain for a couple years. It's not that I don't have sympathy. I don't have sympathy when people don't want to get off of the stuff, and I don't have tolerance for do-gooders and 'concerned citizens' who don't understand that the longer people are on junk and meth, the longer they have to ruin themselves and die. It's called dope for a reason. I couldn't work while I was on opiates (for a back injury) because I was too dopey. You aren't useful on the stuff (and it took a few years to recover). Vancouver needs to be less tolerant and more insistent on treatment centres. To add to this, as the number of homeless, mostly due to addictions, increases, the crime rates of downtown Vancouver has skyrocketed. Areas of one of the most affluent downtown areas in North America are suffering from smashed windows almost daily, and residents are starting to leave, and some businesses closing.

Taken in: Canada / British Columbia / Vancouver / Chinatown de Vancouver (show map)

Taken on: October 25, 2021

Tags:

addiction

Homeless

methamphetamine

crack

drugs

drug use

pic

photojournalism

Street Photography

Street Photo

man taking drugs on the street

Nikon

D850

Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 A025 (Nikon F)

Tamron TC-X20 Teleconverter

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Camera: Nikon D850, f/5.6, 1/60 sec, 400mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D850
Lens:	70-200 mm f/2.8
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	400mm
ISO:	800
Exposure Bias:	-1 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Capture One 20 Windows
Show full info

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