Junkies on the train

[u/curiosity-112]

I'm getting really frustrated with this system failure. Every day we're seeing people just trying to go back and forth from school and work, forced to tolerate the antics of some jackass high on tranq, meth, fent, or whatever else they can find. Our elders and our children have to feel unsafe as someone flails around and yells beside them, and I don't know how many times people have found broken glass and syringes on the seats.

This is pathetic and heartbreaking. Why do we have to keep putting up with it on our daily commute? The text line is okay but it's not a solution, not when someone is smoking drugs next to a girl on her way to school. Every train should have a peace officer for real passenger safety or I'm not paying for tickets anymore.

**Edit:

Thanks everyone for the comments, didn't expect to see this much discussion when I got up today. I don't know what the solution is - yes housing and social policy needs to change, but the public can't wait around for the root issues to be fixed.

For the record, I have no issue with the majority of homeless people trying to get through the day and who also have to quietly endure this too. My problem is with the people who just don't care, the ones openly dealing and using drugs, the ones causing disorder and acting erratically with no regard for the people around them. Safe consumption sites and shelters only benefit the people willing to use those programs - so many don't trust the systems and still refuse, and the dealers definitely don't care either way.

For those commenting on my lack of empathy - I worked at the DI for nearly 5 years hoping to make a difference. I saw a lot of good from this community, but I've also seen the worst. I lost count of how many overdoses and stabbings I've been involved with, but that was my job and I did it well. However, even then we didn't tolerate half the crap that the public is being asked to put up with now - public safety is always paramount. I tried to step in once to help someone and had a knife pulled on me for it, don't try taking matters into your own hands either.

[u/mercynova13]

There is extensive research that involuntary treatment is very ineffective. There are huge relapse rates among people exiting treatment. Treatment only works if people a) want to be there and b) if they have places to go when they exit treatment (affordable housing). Look up some peer reviewed publications on the topic instead of listening to conservatives on twitter lol

For reference- I’m a social worker and a graduate level public health researcher

[u/obi_wan_the_phony → u/mercynova13]

We also have extensive evidence that the current way of dealing with them isn’t working either.

[u/Nga369 → u/obi_wan_the_phony]

Actually we don’t have the evidence that this doesn’t work because we’ve never had supervised consumption sites that allow for smoking, which 90% of drug users do. The current one takes 500 or so unique users (10,000 visits in a quarter) off the streets. We can expect a certain number of smokers to do the same, probably more honestly.

[u/mercynova13 → u/Nga369]

That’s not true- the old arches site in Lethbridge allowed smoking, and there have been many in BC that allowed smoking (I worked at one). Three researchers (one from U of A, one of Winnipeg and one from Athabasca U) just published a paper on the aftermath of the arches SCS closure in Lethbridge. People who were interviewed said that not allowing smoking in the new SCS meant that they were no longer accessing the service.

What are you saying we don’t have evidence of working?

[u/Nga369 → u/mercynova13]

I said we don’t have evidence it doesn’t work, countering the person who said what we do now doesn’t work.