Why Do We Treat Some Lives As Worth More Than Others?

Heather Mallick as cbc.ca has a interesting piece asking why do we treat different addictions differently. She goes on to explore the idea with reference to the Pickton trial. It took years before anyone in power (like the police) starting looking into all the prostitutes that were going missing. If we took the lives of prostitute as seriously as the lives of others, this case would have gone to trial way before there were so many murder charges laid. Why do we, as a society, treat the murders of prostitutes differently than others murders. Because it isn't just in this case. It happens all the time everywhere in Canada.

Warning: inappropriate addiction can be fatal

Heather Mallik
Jan. 26, 2007

...I don't know why reporters are so dismissive when reports of murdered prostitutes come into a newsroom. Alcoholism remains a problem in the media. The only difference between a reporter shaking for some rye and a skeletal young woman on the street on a rainy night is that the reporter can get their fix cheaply at a liquor store.

I can never decide what's worse, to be addicted to something that's readily available and will kill you slowly like booze or cigarettes, or to be hooked on a substance that is hard to find, unreliable and expensive. Alcohol, heroin, crack, they all have a stranglehold on the frail forked human body but with liquor you can cling to your middle-classness for decades. In most provinces, the government sells you your fix in attractive little shops. How sweet...

Everyone should be afforded the same protection of the law. Of course it isn't just prostitutes that are paid less attention to in law. And sometimes they get a lot more attention than they should (people in the escort service don't get charged very often...street prostitutes are hit by the law far more often.

The government just gave a (grudging) one year renewall to a program in Vancouver for a safe injection site.

Vancouver's safe injection site successful: study

Last Updated: Monday, November 20, 2006 5:38 PM ET

Meanwhile, one of Canada's foremost AIDS researchers accused the federal government of being against the injection site, saying he doubts Ottawa wants to hear that it has been having a positive effect...
..."Unfortunately, no matter how many attempts we have made to have an intelligent and educated discussion about this issue, their principles stand in the way of evidence-based decision making," said Montaner.
"And to me, that's unacceptable."

We shouldn't be talking about closing down safe injection sites. we should be asking why there is one in the country. We should be talking about how we can have more safe injection sites in other cities.
We shouldn't have a situation in Ottawa where the

Ottawa police stepping on city's crack pipe program: medical chief

Last Updated: Friday, January 19, 2007 9:52 AM ET

Police are undermining an Ottawa program that has drastically reduced the spread of deadly diseases such as AIDS, says the city's medical officer of health.

Dr. David Salisbury spoke out forcefully Thursday against police who confiscate unused city-issued crack pipes as he addressed the city's Community and Protective Services Committee...

Because the life of an herion addict, a crack addict shouldn't be treated so differently than the life of an alcoholic. Or anyone else's life. There is no question it is and getting medical help is for an addiction is way more difficult than for many other health problems. If you need to be in a hospital for a physical reason they find you a bed. Trying to find a bed for addictions can be very difficult. Why the difference? We should be asking ourselves that.P