The most galling part of premier's ban

After the provincial government’s announcement that it will force the closure of more than half the supervised consumption drug sites in the province, including five in Toronto, can we start by acknowledging that we’d pretty much all prefer such places didn’t need to exist?

- EDWARD KEENAN

Taking away such life-saving approaches to the worst symptoms of societal problems while demand for them is still high is worse than ineffective. It’s cruel

They’re not easy to have in your neighbourhood. They can wind up surrounded by desperate and dangerous characters, their very existence is a sad acknowledgment of our failings, as human individuals and as a society. The approach they are part of is called “harm reduction,” a name that acknowledges the real harm still caused by what takes place in and around them.

Pretty much all of us would prefer that no one be so addicted to harmful substances as to require supervision to prevent a fatal overdose. Pretty much all of us would prefer that those who wind up addicted would seek successful treatment rather than continue using. Pretty much all of us would prefer there be no demand at all for these sites.

But we don’t live in the world we prefer. And in this one, the choice is not between consumption sites and an addiction-free environment.

These places exist because our choice is between desperation under supervision or death on our neighbourhood streets. They exist because they are proven to save lives.