Since the congregation took naloxone training in March, there’s been seven outside St. Albans. But that number is quite modest. At the drop-in centre beneath the church, where some of Ottawa’s most afflicted seek daytime refuge once the overnight shelters close, they’re doing at least one [naloxone application] a day.
Oh I’m not referring to myself, I live quite well. I just think it’s shitty to let people rot when it’s so easy to help them. You have to be an incredibly bitter person to believe someone deserves death because they were desperate for some sort of comfort
I’ve talked to a few people and I can see how you can get there. To be honest, I’ve gotten pretty down myself.
A lot of people on drugs are, well, not nice people. It doesn’t take too many instances of having your bike or mail stolen, picking needles out of your dog’s foot, not being able to let your kids use the park next door, or being woken up by someone pounding your door at 2am looking for the crackhouse down the street, or talking to another neighbourhood business that’s considering closing because they’re done with shoplifting, harassment and/or breakins.
It gets tiresome, and it really, really drains your empathy to see supports given to people, only to see those same people rob you blind three days later, especially when they have access to medical care via a clinic and you don’t.
Now, to be clear, I do see that this is a systemic problem, and that a lot of addicts are where they are because the system is broken and they’re collateral damage, so I’m sympathetic, but a lot of people who are allies could spend some time understanding why people who aren’t addicts but are victims of crime addicts perpetuate are resentful.
The problem is, Allies can be both a) terribly arrogant, and b) irritatingly exclusionary. Case in point: pre-pandemic, the local support network where I lived opened pop-up safe-use+free-meal sites in the park next door to where I live. I walked over and told them “I’m really glad to see a safe-injection site” and how it’ll help the area and got an absolute earful of angry correction about how they’re not called “safe-injection” sites any more and that it isn’t about helping the community, it’s about saving lives.
That pretty much, instantly, put me off helping this particular organization, and I’ve seen that attitude–that monstrous chip-on-the-shoulder on the part of a number of Allies–put off local businesses and citizens who would normally like to help.
Allies really need to here this, because it’s important: victims of crime are in a place where they are disinclined to care about saving addicts’ lives, and if you want the support of people in the community for services that will help save addicts’ lives, bridge-building is important. And to tie it back to the above poster: berating them for not caring isn’t going to make them care, but explaining to them how services that support addicts result in less crime and less hazardous waste will.