Vancouver’s safe drug-use sites are wrenching to see. California should open them anyway | Los Angeles Times

October 8, 2022

Medics with the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services attend to a man who overdosed on drugs in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

VANCOUVER, Canada — In the coastal cold of a Vancouver morning, nine people crowded at the door of the Insite safe injection center, itching for it to open so they could shoot heroin and fentanyl inside.

Around their huddle on this two-block stretch of East Hastings Street, hundreds of people, the majority habitual drug users, were crushed together in tents and chairs, on discarded rugs and under wet tarps. Some were sprawled on the sidewalk, motionless and unconscious. One man repeatedly hurled a hatchet at the pavement.

Open-use drug havens such as San Francisco’s Tenderloin and L.A.’s skid row have become notorious and contentious, but those places have nothing on East Hastings, part of a neighborhood called Downtown Eastside. In every direction, there were needles in arms and butane lighters melting chunks of fentanyl, heroin and meth — the stench of burning chemicals was unavoidable. For many residents and business owners in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown, only a block away, East Hastings means theft, garbage, graffiti and a near-constant blare of sirens.

I came to Vancouver to see what can be learned as we debate safe consumption in California, where more than 6,000 people die each year from overdoses. Think about that. Six thousand is the roughly number of Californians who die each year from traffic accidents and firearms combined. Across the U.S., one person dies every five minutes from an overdose. In California, on average, 16 perish daily.

Los Angeles Times

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NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (Dec. 19, 2022) | Elon Musk to Step Down as Twitter CEO?; El Paso Braces for Influx of Illegal Immigrants | Video: 24 Minutes 35 Seconds

By Great Bloggers | December 19, 2022

Will Elon Musk step down as Twitter CEO? The social media company owner asked people to vote on his future in a Twitter poll. We have the results.

What will happen when Title 42 ends this week? The city of El Paso, Texas has an idea, and it has declared a state of emergency.

Kari Lake called for free and fair elections at America Fest in Phoenix as her team begins inspecting a small selection of election ballots this week.

Topics in this episode include:

1. El Paso, TX Braces for Influx of Illegal Immigrants
2. Kari Lake at America Fest
3. Musk Launches Poll on His Future as Twitter CEO
4. Starbucks Union Strike
5. China Struggling to Keep Up With Covid Deaths
6. Over 5000 Lbs of Opium Seized at Canadian Port
7. Thai Navy Vessel Sinks Off Thailand’s Coast
8. 36 Injured After Hawaiian Flight Hits Extreme Turbulence
9. Couple Survives Car Crash Off Canyon
10. Foxconn Could Face Fine for China Investment
11. Winner of Gingerbread House Competition Crowned
12. Argentina Wins World Cup
13. Santa Around The World