Wet Coast Journals

Tourism and the Safe Injection Site

There was a curious article in the Vancouver Courier yesterday about the opening of the safe injection site on Hastings. It had all the usual quotes from people for and against the site, but then it veered off on a different angle - about the effect of the site on tourism.

A tourism official was interviewed, as were a couple of American tourists, all of whom expressed negative opinions about the site. Well, excuse me, since when do we tailor our social policies to the tourism market? Yes, tourists are important to the Vancouver economy; but the people who llve here come first. Unsafe drug use is a major killer in our community, and if we can alleviate that in any way, we should, and not give a damn about whether a couple of tourists from Detroit don't like it.