Pierre Poilievre’s Pipe Dream: Imprison Drug Users for Life

How many people does alcohol kill per year, Pierre?

Remarkably hard to track down actually compared to the easy opioid numbers.

Perhaps the human situation, healthcare, and economic costs are more complex.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1470018/deaths-attributed-to-alcohol-use-canada/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1450104/economic-cost-of-various-substance-use-in-canada/

I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to imprison alcoholics either

This guy has too much free time.

Of course he does. He's never had a real job.

I think if the policy specifically targets people pushing and selling fentanyl, I agree those people do deserve to be in prison.

The vast majority of people using it don't even know they are using it, it's been laced into drugs they buy

I agree that the "drug kingpins" do deserve to be locked up.

Problem though: a lot of them are tightly interwoven with the pharmaceutical corporations, so you're kinda calling for checks notes pharma ceos to get jail time, Pierre.

And I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that's not what you meant.

“There are always hand-to-hand transactions, from dealers to drug users to other drug users. It’s a constant exchange in the Downtown Eastside. It’s pretty common for people to pool their money to buy from a dealer and then those drugs get distributed.”

These hand-to-hand exchanges constitute trafficking, which would — under the proposed policy — subject every habitual fentanyl user to a punishment of life in prison

The article explains how the users are often also selling, and I disagree that those people (who are "redistributing") should be in jail, specifically for life.

The legislation would need to differentiate between redistributors who are users and like big, idk the term, wholesale drug dealers? But under PP's plan, anyone with 40 mg (according to the article that's less than half a baby aspirin) would go to jail for life for that.

It just doesn't make sense to me to jail drug users, even if they're just selling amongst themselves, and especially not for life where we have to pay for them in taxes.
- according to the article that’s less than half a baby aspirin
  
  It's also the equivalent of 20 to 40 entire doses
  
  One dose of fentanyl laced in other drugs is usually less than a single grain of sand
  
  So 40mg is a fuck tonne of fentanyl to have on hand.
  
  Usually users don't carry pure fentanyl around, it's already been laced into other drugs, so they maybe have a couple mg total on hand even for multiple peoples worth.
  
  40mg is like an entire box of laced pills.
No reason to do this "meet in the middle" shit, they're not interested. Pierre and people like him want to make people suffer. The cruelty is the point. They will never support a policy that doesn't involve cruelty and suffering.

Good: Article title is accurate

Bad: Why is the author deliberately comparing the mass of two vastly different drugs?

Under Poilievre’s plan, “anyone caught trafficking, producing, or exporting over 40 mg of fentanyl” would receive a mandatory life sentence in prison.

This 40-milligram threshold is a mere 1.6 per cent of the 2.5 grams that someone can possess under British Columbia’s decriminalization pilot project. For context, 40 milligrams is less than half of a typical baby Aspirin tablet.

For reference, 40 milligrams of Aspirin is safe for a baby. Without building up tolerance, even 2-3 milligrams of fentanyl can kill a full grown adult.

Because they are providing context on quantities not how lethal it is.

40mg of fentanyl is 1.6% of the 2.5 grams allowed in BC. For those wondering what 40mg physically looks like (for context), it's about half the size of a <common pill people know the size of> .

If they had said 0.00000001 football fields, they weren't comparing the lethality of football fields to fentanyl.
- In the context of fentanyl, isn't that completely irrelevant? So 5mg of fentanyl is 1/8 the mass of a tablet of baby aspirin. Now what?
  
  I completely understand the aim is to illustrate how arbitrary outlawing possession of 40mg would be. I'm aware of the implications and I agree. But comparing fentanyl to baby aspirin generally doesn't make sense and especially not in terms of mass or concentration.

The fuck is he wearing?

Does this include drugs like opioids and alcohol?