Dispensing and Expensing Crack Pipes
Tell me it isn't true. Tell me I'm dreaming. Tell me you'll wake me up when it's over. But don't tell me that Vancouver Coastal Health is actually going to give away crack pipes. $50,000 worth of crack pipes. $50,000 of taxpayers' money that could be used to fight crime, subsidize housing or pay for training courses for the disoriented.
I admit in some ways I'm old-fashioned. I admit that the New Math (like so many other failed social experiments of the 60's) was not my idea of fun. And I admit that I still believe city officials, policemen, social workers and general do-gooders should be making it HARDER, not easier, for society's outcasts and the "temporarily despondent" to do drugs, commit crime and wreck their brains and lives.
Having copped to such an outdated bias, I suppose I may have forfeited my right to express my opinion but I will do so anyway. Some may think I live in a fantasy world but I assure you it is more solid and dependable than the world as seen from the used end of a crack pipe.
There are many ways to admit defeat. Flying the white flag is one of them. Making humiliating apologies for things one still believes right is another very sad way to succumb to forces beyond one's power to control. But volunteering to pay for the expenses of the occupying forces is a condition usually reserved for the losers of a long and bitter war and usually extracted at the point of a bayonet. For health officials in Canada, to subsidize socially destructive addictions with the hard-earned tax dollars of unwilling taxpayers is an admission that our whole culture is off the rails and that some politicians and bureaucrats really have earned themselves a station of disrespect somewhere near drug dealers and pimps.
Sure, there are times to mend fences, build bridges and smoke the peace pipe (oh sorry…bad analogy) with those whose philosophy or lifestyle offends you. But there are times when surrender is not an option, when compromise is traitorous and circumstances call for resilience and steady perseverance. This is one of those times. Giving approval and support to a habit that enslaves some and enriches others, that destroys integrity and logic, that leads many into filth and squalor—such spinelessness betrays our youth, hands over our cities as ransom and tells the overlapping generations of Canadians now sharing the journey of life within our borders that: there are no moral absolutes, no solutions for the real tough problems, no higher purposes than momentary pleasure, no social rewards for self-restraint and no politicians left that can say "NO" to the demands of a mob.
What could lead the respected guardians of urban health to trade away principles for a momentary peace? As king Hezekiah famously said when the prophet showed him the judgment coming on Jerusalem and on his own children as a result of his carelessness and easy manner with the enemies of Israel: "As long as there is peace in my day". One might as well say: "As long as I don't have to handle any tough questions or any disappointment from the party-goers." Confusion breeds confusion. Preconceived notions about the futility of efforts to "shift up" and seek long-lasting moral solutions that include life-purpose and self-control doom the efforts of the muddled middle to short-term harm reduction and long-term anarchy.
Every time a city decides it's easier and better to give the least successful members of society exactly what they want (be that drugs, prostitution, pornography, gambling) instead of looking them square in the eye and saying: "You deserve better than that; I will fight for your future," the sun sets a little earlier and the alleys take on a more sinister appearance. A man or a city or a nation cannot find higher ground while settling for lower standards.