The Places to Live

The yearly rankings of the most livable cities came out this week, and as I've pointed out in years past, it's dominated by cities that are at the forefront of harm reduction drug policies (Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Sydney, Amsterdam). It's hard to know for sure whether the harm reduction policies themselves directly contribute to the livability, or if people in more livable cities are more likely to go along with harm reduction techniques, but what's undeniable is that the rhetoric we hear about harm reduction being a "slippery slope" is entirely unsupported by the real world. Even within Eastern Europe, the city with the most progressive drug policy (Prague) is the highest ranked city.

Despite this, the Canadian government is still determined to move away from harm reduction. Not only have they been ignoring clear signs of success in threatening to close down Vancouver's safe injection site, but they're also phasing out a maintenance treatment program for addicts in both Vancouver and Montreal. As with Insite, the Canadian government has absolutely zero interest in the facts:

Similar pilot opiate maintenance projects in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands produced results showing reductions in criminality, drug use, and economic costs to society, and increases in health, stability, and employability among participants. NAOMI researchers and supporters are hoping it will produce similar results. While the final research report from NAOMI is not expected until the fall, preliminary results suggest the findings will be similar to those in Europe.

Stephen Harper and the Conservative Clown Collective running things in Ottawa can't wait that long. When President Bush and John Walters tell them to jump, they jump. Hopefully, Canadians get a chance sometime soon to elect a central government that doesn't threaten the livability of their great cities.