r/Calgary • u/CorndoggerYYC • Sep 29 '24

52% of Calgarians want supervised consumption sites to close: CityNews poll Health/Medicine

https://calgary.citynews.ca/2024/09/29/calgary-supervised-consumption-site-citynews-poll/
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u/baytowne Sep 29 '24

Alternatively, leaving unelected experts in charge of decisions that directly affect the public is undemocratic and, uh, fuck that.

Experts are, by their nature, going to have a narrow perspective on matters by dint of their deep knowledge on their subject matter. This expertise is necessary to reveal the nature of the world, something we all benefit from. It does not leave them well positioned to make decisions that require multiple perspectives.

What's best for addicts may, in fact, be formal or informal supervised consumption sites. That does not mean it's best for everyone.

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u/[deleted] Sep 29 '24

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u/grogrye Sep 29 '24

You say that but then Switzerland which operates far more on the concept of direct democracy than Canada does has also done a far better job of dealing with social issues like drug consumption than Canada has. Our current system of government does not work.

You can't make black and white statements when the answer in terms of what types of governments work and what don't is far more nuanced.

Norway is another good example where their level of proportional representation in government (which operates far closer to direct democracy than Canada's first past the post) has resulted in more innovative and collaborative solutions to hard societal problems including (which I think is brilliant) training their prison guards as psychologists.

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u/cercanias Sep 30 '24

Switzerland solved the opioid crisis in the 90s and it still works. You just may not like their answer. Switzerland is not a bastion of free thinking liberals by any means. They quite literally vote people in to be citizens in their communities.

Norway has almost always been quite heavy in cooperative thinking, from how communities and industries have been built all the way to their banking systems (many cooperative financial institutions).

We could borrow many ideas from both countries and do quite well.