Check It Out: Driving home some basic ideas
By Joan Janzen
The caveman said, “I bet I could use this stick to hit that rock into that hole.” That may have been the first primitive use of a driver, but how can ordinary Canadians “drive home some basic ideas”?
According to Global News, Facebook has recently announced it started to block news in Canada. The censorship ban is happening “as we speak,” or in this case, as “we don’t speak.”
Canadian Andrew Lawton discussed the importance of open discussion and sharing of ideas in an interview with Dr. Mike Hart. Lawton said, “I used to have a daily radio talk show, and if someone called in and disagreed with me, I’d have them as a guest three times as long as anyone who agreed with me because I thought it made for a better show.”
He said discussion can either force you to admit you’re wrong or embolden you if you discover you’re right. “But I’m finding the other side doesn’t want to engage in discussion. They don’t want to admit there’s a legitimacy to other perspectives, and I think that’s a huge problem for society,” he observed.
One of the issues where discussion is needed is the “safe supply” of opioids in Canada. The federal government has spent over $800 million on the program since 2017 and plans to scale up these projects with an additional $74 million in the next five years. Yet statistics show 3,000 people died of overdoses in 2016 compared to almost 7,000 overdose deaths in 2020.
Despite ongoing censorship, information on this topic is reaching the public. Aaron Gunn spoke to Andrew Lawton about his recently released documentary exposing Canada’s drug and crime crisis.
“YouTube made it very difficult for it to be distributed. They demonetized the documentary; It was quite frustrating,” Aaron confessed. Nevertheless, it received 500,000 views within the first week.
His documentary is bridging the divide between people of differing political views. “I am openly conservative,” Aaron admitted, “But people respond to the documentary and say I actually don’t agree with you on almost anything, but I agree with you 100% on what is going on in Vancouver and my own city.”
So what is happening in Canadian cities? Aaron explained, “The safe supply program has a pharmacist handing out 1000 mg of hydromorphone pills every single day. That’s just one pharmacist at one pharmacy in BC. It’s an incredibly powerful drug. It’s supposed to be a fentanyl replacement. The money and programs are driven by Health Canada and the federal government.”
Aaron said the ideology of harm reduction is that doing hard drugs is a respectable choice, and we should simply make that respectable choice as safe as possible. It’s the government’s attempt to destigmatize hard drug use. But in doing so, “they are essentially entrenching and furthering the sense of denial in individuals who don’t realize they have a problem,” he said.
After supplying an addict with their prescription, a pharmacist informed Aaron that she sees people walk out and sell the drugs in the parking lot of the pharmacy. She’ll then contact the doctor about the prescription, and some doctors will cancel the person’s prescription. “But there are other doctors who say that’s OK; at least somebody somewhere is getting a safe supply,” Aaron said, repeating the pharmacist’s words.
“I talked to an addiction councillor,” Aaron continued to explain. “She said three years ago, 90% of people were addicted to fentanyl. But in the last six months, 50% of people are addicted to hydromorphone pills, which is the drug the government is handing out.” But the government is unwilling to walk back on this issue and acknowledge that there’s a problem.
“The program is leaving a trail of pain, enabling destructive behaviour, and creating the next generation of addicts,” Aaron observed. And as he talked to recovered addicts, he found out that they agree.
“They (recovered addicts) said if they had been given free drugs and a free hotel room supplied by the government, they would be dead on the floor with the drugs beside them,” Aaron continued.
In the final segment of his documentary, Aaron looks at solutions. He proposes a recovery-oriented system of care, hope and treatment, as opposed to destigmatization, decriminalization and handing out free drugs.
“People need a message of hope. They need to know treatment is available, recovery is possible, and we’re going to help you get better and return to being a participating citizen in society,” he explained. He said Alberta is going in that direction.
This is a topic that proves the vital necessity of open and honest discussion. It proves that we cannot afford the blockage of information such as Aaron’s documentary.
Andrew Lawton summed it up well, saying, “Anyone who has changed their perspectives realizes the value of open and honest discussion.” It’s what makes our society healthy and strong and builds it up instead of tearing it down.
Even cavemen realized the potential benefits of using the tools we have to reach the desired goal.