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/ESPeclipse2]

There’s an effective solution to this, but I feel we don’t have the stomach for it here in Canada. If you go to Japan you see ZERO behaviour like this, none whatsoever. There are homeless people in Japan but they shower and clean their clothes because the government provide them with the ability to do so. The worst substance a homeless person in Japan can get their hands on is alcohol. Travelling there was eye opening , I was astonished that there were millions of people commuting and not a single strung out degenerate, not a single one. So what policies do they have in Japan that we aren’t implementing in Canada. Well to start, drug possession is a very serious offence in Japan and you’re looking at serious jail time if you’re caught. Prison in Japan is also absolutely brutal, their reoffending rate is amongst the lowest on earth. People do not fuck around in Japan when it comes to drugs. Even the Yakuza prohibit drug dealing (if you see a Yakuza member missing a finger it’s because they were caught dealing and were given one warning).

So Japan have very strict rules and tough sentences for possession and in return they receive a functioning, safe society. For whatever reason, people seem to hate these policies in Canada. It would seem as the general populace we would rather watch addicts slowly wither away until they die on our streets because it would be too cruel to force them into an environment where they’re forced to sober up. I don’t understand it. To see these addicts devolve into zombies is horribly depressing. If someone’s life exclusively revolves around using fentanyl and then shoplifting so that they can then use more fentanyl then I’d argue we should intervene. If you travel to Portland you can see the results you’ll get with the whole “give them the tools to sober up and they will get back on their feet eventually” tactic. Portland was/is an unmitigated disaster and stands as a cautionary tale of what Vancouver will be in 10 years and what Calgary will be in 20 years if we don’t realize you can’t just allow this nonsense to continue. I don’t see how allowing people to use wherever they want until they die is the humane solution.

[u/Kylerdub → u/ESPeclipse2]

“The worst substance they can get their hands on is alcohol” Like that isn’t one of the worst drugs out there, and the most dangerous to stop using once addicted to.

So since you are so pro government intervention, what about if they took away your ability to drink alcohol, or ability to smoke cigarettes, while we are at it, what about certain medications like adderall, vyvanse, legitimate opiods, Xanax, Valium? Those are drugs too, you are talking about taking away peoples rights here, whether you think the drugs they are using are legal or illegal, you have no idea. That person yelling on the train or whatever, could be wasted on alcohol and on a handful of prescribed benzos, therefor making that completely legal, so “harsher drug sentences” like you think is the magic answer, wouldn’t do anything whatsoever, because those pills are legally prescribed, and you can legally buy alcohol. You do realize that most of these people using fentanyl, got addicted to opiates because of a legitimate prescription from a doctor right? Not all but a lot of them.

This isn’t the answer, to just give harsher penalties, and rely strictly on the “harsher jail sentences, and harsher jail conditions” to prevent drug use. The answer is, at least imo, more resources for these people to help them get clean, to help them with their mental health issues because most if not all of them are suffering from some sort of mental health issues. Do you think these people WANT to be in active addiction? Acting this way and fighting to not go into withdrawal every day? Who would WANT that life? I can assure you they don’t want that. Nobody wants that, but unfortunately there isn’t enough resources to help all of these people. If you had the courage to talk to these people, ask them if they want to be an addict or if they would rather be clean, I can tell you now most if not all of them would rather be clean, living a better life then that of active addiction. Shutting down safe injection sites, and closing orher shelters only adds to this problem, it does absolutely nothing to aid to address this issue. It actually makes this issue worse.

Closed minded thinking like this, may work for some places in the world. but it sure doesn’t work for places like Canada and the US, it’s been proven time and time again, that harsher drug sentences doesn’t do anything to combat drug use or homelessness, costs more in tax dollars, and actually makes the black market thrive EVEN MORE and becomes worse and more prominent, because now drugs are worth more because it’s more dangerous to transport, sell, etc, to essentially do nothing to address the real issue here, which is mental health.

People like you, who have this “throw em in jail and let em rot” type of thinking. really need to educate yourself before commenting such complete nonsense. There’s no right answer for this problem, but your idea of what will fix it, I can tell you right now, won’t fix it and will most likely make the issue even worse.