This is a needle stuck in a telephone pole that I walked past early one morning while I happened to be carrying my Canon G9. I haven't seen many needles in my neighbourhood, but there are quite a few people who look like they use them. It's hard not to be shocked by the sight of a bloody needle, which is no doubt what the Canadian Conservative party was thinking when they sent out a recent mailer showing a needle like this under a swing set with a child playing soccer in the background. It stated quite simply that "Junkies should be behind bars or in rehab" and that the Conservative Party are the only ones capable of saving us. Last week, the Conservative Health Minister went so far as to criticize the ethics of doctors who work at Safe Injection sites. I sent the following to the Health Minister, the Prime Minister, my MP, the Canadian Medical Association and the Vancouver Health Authority:

I read about Tony Clement's recent comments to the CMA regarding the ethics of doctors working at safe injections sites, so I'm writing in support of supervised injection sites and the work of Canadian doctors. Tony Clement's comments were clearly made based on political motives and represent a very polarized outlook; attacking the ethics of doctors who are trying to help is reprehensible. Obviously, drug addiction is a complex issue and injection sites are not an ideal solution, but ostracizing addicts as Clement would have us do would be worse. The policy of treating drug addicts as criminals has failed, it is time to try treating drug addiction as a mental health and medical problem.

Here's a great essay on consensual crimes which explains the various reasons why criminalizing things people choose to do to themselves doesn't make sense.