When my wife and I moved to Edmonton from Vancouver 3 years ago, the thing we loved most about the city was that it wasn't strewn with needles. That's over: This was in my backyard today. 2 weeks ago there were two in the front. Addicts are treating my community like a toilet. 
.@CityofEdmonton knew that our overdose crisis was primarily happening in the suburbs. They opened FOUR safe injection sites in the core anyway, ignoring resident pleas that their streets would soon be strewn with needles and public disorder.
Meanwhile, they had the unbelievable gall to commission this billboard. I can't shovel snow without kevlar gloves or take my baby for walking practice in public parks, and here's a pleasant cartoon pretending that it's just some fun civic initiative.
Oh, and literally every one of my neighbours has been ripped off in some way in the past year. SAFE INJECTION SITES REQUIRE DRUGS ACQUIRED THROUGH CRIME. It was ludicrous to believe you could ring the city's most vulnerable neighbourhoods with these sites without consequence.
What did the city say when my wife called 311 about the needle? "It's on public property. Pick it up yourself."
These policies were planned and implemented by people who will never be affected by them. Who will never be told "you're on your own" when their bike is stolen again or their dog is found carrying around a bloody needle.
There are literally talks in my neighbourhood of forming a vigilante street patrol to stem the problem before it gets worse. In the face of a city hall who did this to us before cheerfully moving on to gondola talk, I can't say this is an irrational response.
We decided to have a family in large part because we thought Edmonton was a place with the courage not to let this happen. Now, we think about moving every day.
And my neighbourhood has it easy. We're not yet putting up signs asking people TO STOP SHITTING IN OUR PARKS. This is from a few blocks over.
*private property
Everyone on this thread saying that legalizing all drugs will fix my problem. That's roughly as dumb as "violent crime would cease if everybody open carried." Remember when we legalized alcohol and drunk driving stopped? Please think before you talk.
And everyone else saying needles strewn about public parks aren't a problem because you can clean them up? I'm going to piss through your mail slot every night, okay? Urine is sterile.
Last thing. If your proposal is "your family lives in a crime-ridden shooting gallery forever or hundreds die" you are the worst public policy planner ever and we should probably stop listening to you.
Also, good luck everyone with the "not wanting to step over needles every morning is an insanely elitist request" argument. Please tell me where i can subscribe to your newsletter.
I'm not disputing the science on safe consumption sites preventing fatal overdoses. But keeping people alive so long as they're in your care daily isn't exactly solving a crisis. And I've seen the Insite data on detox referrals. It's not compelling.
And fuuuuck everyone saying that complaining about needles everywhere is obviously a fascist call to indefinitely jail addicts in a Victorian prison. I'm not the straw man you're looking for.
By the way, Chinatown has been saying everything I'm saying here for years, but city council seems to have had no problem ignoring them.
If I've made any mistake here, it's in hinting too closely at a causal link between harm reduction and an increase in disorder (something I can't verifiably establish). But I think I've established that authorities fervently don't care/deny that it's even a possibility.
(And that some very vocal proponents do not care if your neighbourhood goes to shit. I thought that was right wing propaganda 24 hours ago).
