TOBACCO OUT, SLOT MACHINES AND HEROIN IN?
Maybe it's time to create the Ministry of Vice Recycling
The B.C. provincial government is dabbling in "sin" with a capriciousness that is both cynical and mischievous. It's a vice-juggling act that combines paternalism and moralizing, greed, powerlust, and a desire to pacify those who call for "harm reduction." Right now, all these factors are in full collision.
Consider the circus. At the same time as Health Minister Joy MacPhail prepares a lawsuit against the tobacco companies to make them "accountable" for health consequences, she rejects measures that might provide a more sheltered environment for intravenous drug users in Vancouver's downtown eastside, even though health and community workers feel it might help stem the AIDS epidemic raging there. A province-wide public smoking ban is under discussion, as an out-of-control anti-smoking campaign heads toward de facto tobacco prohibition. At the same time, Justice Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and others talk about decriminalization of hard drugs to help stem the HIV crisis -- since prohibition of these drugs is clearly not working toward public health ends. All this while the same B.C. government insists on shoving another vice -- gambling in the form of slot machines -- down the throats of cities who have made it clear that they do not want slot machines in their community. Surrey and Vancouver reject a plan that, in their view, allows the provincial government to become profiteers of a vice creating "addiction" and undesirable social consequences. But the provincial government insists that these cities host the machines, and have promised to use some gambling money to "cure" the addictions that they agree will be created.
Confused? It's all quite simple, really.
Vices are always financially profitable, and sometimes politically profitable. Some Sins -- depending on the spirit of the moment -- can be embraced for their full profit potential with only a minimum of political risk. At the moment, gambling fits this decription. When fashions swing a certain way, political and financial advantage is to be had by "taking a stand" against a particular Sin. See smoking. And, most inconveniently, there are always those Very Bad Sins -- those underground and out-of-control Sins -- that occasionally rear their ugly heads so prominently that society can't ignore them anymore. Illicit heroin and cocaine in Vancouver have attained this status.
So this is how the "moral" argument works. Some vices are unspeakably evil and must be stopped by all British Columbians who want to "do the right thing." Other vices, having been declared unspeakably evil, have proven to be unstoppable, and therefore must come under consideration for more tolerance -- not for humanitarian reasons, but because the middle class doesn't want to catch nasty diseases from the lower class. Yet other vices are good, because they have been harnessed to raise some money for charity -- and much, much more for the government itself. These vices must be established and encouraged -- one might say, pimped for -- no matter how loud or distressed the protests from communities that don't want them and have passed bylaws against them.
Clear now? And yes, this material will be on the test -- at the next provincial election.
|