Exile addicts to island, Vancouver Liberal candidate says

uploaded by Barry Artiste July 10, 2008 at 09:38 pm
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Exile addicts to island, Vancouver Liberal candidate says by Barry Artiste

Stephen Chong, the B.C. Liberal Party candidate in the Mount Pleasant district of Vancouver, recently told the Georgia Straight that he wants Vancouver's drug addicts to be put on an "island."

There, according to Stephen Chong, addicts could get training so they could later get jobs. “After they have finished their term, they can come out and they have their own skill,” Chong told the Georgia Straigh by phone. “That’s what I want.”

Chong is even ready with a backup plan if there are no available islands.

But Chong said that “if you cannot get a place for them [addicts]”, he prefers to see injection sites in each riding, not just in Chinatown. That way, “they have a choice” where to go, he said.

Still, he considers moving Insite away from Chinatown a “good” idea, a measure that he deemed “possible”. He said, “I prefer it further out in the city.”