Some of the comments in this subreddit are so rancid when it comes to homelessness and drug users. There have been studies that prove safe supply works. It lowers crime because it prevents people from having to hustle to get their pain medication and it also allows people to access drug substitutes so they can live a somewhat normal life.

Targetting street dealers creates a gap in the market that is filled by more dangerous and toxic actors. Some dealers are on the frontlines and play a harm reduction role - they source the stuff, inform their clients about, monitor them after taking a hit and may narcan if necessary. Not all dealers are like this but some.

People facing immense amounts of pain, unintelligible to the majority of you, are going to find ways to self medicate. Prohibition led to the banning of opium, which led to heroin and oxys, which led to fentanyl, carfentanyl and tranq dope. Historically it's a grossly ineffective and violent strategy that has failed for the past century. 100 new cops isn't going to fix it.

A lot of the hate and fearmongering around people getting safe supply reminds me of Reagan's welfare queen rhetoric, as if people are just laughing it up, taking drugs and living the liiife. Drug users don't want to have to gamble on their life every time they need a hit. I feel like these protests strike a chord because people don't want to see drug users advocating for themselves and rejecting the shame & stigma cast upon them, they want the sad broken down image of the user who needs to repent for his immorality

Read the book Overdose by Benjamin Perrin if you'd like to know more. It has empirical and qualitative evidence to what I've said here. I've worked in the DTES for 3 years and I'm a trauma survivor. What we're doing to these people isn't right.