More than 2 million syringes are handed out free every year. Clean mouthpieces for crack pipes are provided at taxpayers’ expense. Around 4,000 opiate addicts get prescription methadone. Thousands come to the injection site every year.

addiction is a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning and develops physical dependence, as in drug addiction. When the drug or substance on which someone is dependent is suddenly removed, it will cause withdrawal, a characteristic set of signs and symptoms. Addiction is generally associated with increased drug tolerance common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems

Impelled by the horror show of the Downtown East Side, prodded by activists and convinced by reams of academic studies, the police and city government have agreed to provide hard drug users with their paraphernalia, a place to use it and even, for a few, the drugs themselves.

The Harsh Reality of Drug Addiction

Not for the faint-hearted, this video is graphic and shocking and shows the depths of depravity that the human soul can descend to.

After 11 months of sobriety from cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs this individuals mental state has sunk to an almost animal-like existence.

http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca/reality_of_drug_addiction

2010 Homeless Champions supports The Servants of Hope Recovery House

a proven model of recovery recently acknowledged by Operation Phoenix and the Vancouver Province Newspaper

This website is dedicated to telling the stories of the unfortunate individuals living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in the hope that awareness of this problem will spur people to get involved, to let all levels of government know that something has to be done to alleviate this misery rooted in addiction, homelessness and depravity. To point the way to recovery from addiction, which we believe is the root of most of this situation. With the 2010 Olympics coming to Vancouver it is our mandate to record the transition and the extreme changes that are even now occurring and will continue to unfold in the Downtown Eastside.

http://www.2010homelesschampions.ca

If you give me drugs screw the shopping cart

In Vancouver alone there’s a few of us who like to hang out in the dtes, the ten shelters that are available are not quite enough. The advocates who speak on our behalf are pushing for homes houses etc. Me personally i would be happy to have a new place to rest my head after a long day pursuing my addiction, hopefully there will be soup lines and handout’s close by because i will have no money to take care of myself. As a person who takes full advantage of addiction support services which are every three feet in the dtes i have no other goal or motive in my life but to get high and stay high. I’m used to handout’s except from the dealers, they are brutal they only want the money I obtain by begging borrowing or stealing with the exception of welfare day, when the taxpayers pay the bill. What a great country why would i even think of turning my life around when everybody will give me anything i want except what i really need, which is a swift kick in the ass and a life free of addiction .That’s me homeless and addicted and living and loving your support keep it coming or Judy Graves will make a movie about me and girlfriend Wendy from the Carnegie will start a protest march, they seem to think they represent me when in reality they represent the drug dealers.