THIELMANN -- Build the integrated recovery-programs desperately needed to address the crises overflowing from the streets into our hospitals

The following commentary was written by Tim Thielmann, Conservative Party of BC candidate for Victoria-Beacon Hill. With his permission, it is shared here:

A nurse called me last night to share her experience dealing with drug users inside a lower mainland tertiary care centre where she’s worked over the last year and a half.

Not only can patients bring their drugs inside, staff are expected to provide lockboxes for safekeeping! They then smoke or shoot up in parking lots, bathrooms, and even inside emergency rooms filled with extremely vulnerable patients.

She tells me nurses are left without any guidance or tools whatsoever to deal with the chaos.

Staff can’t take the drugs away. There are no limits to how much drugs or alcohol can be consumed, leading, naturally, to verbal abuse, physical assaults, and on-site overdoses.

Nurses are being exposed to fentanyl smoke, triggering vomiting, illnesses, and several on sick & stress leave. It’s not that they don’t care.

They do!

In fact, doctors know that there aren’t appropriate mental health and recovery facilities available, so they’re slow to release patients back to the streets. This turns hospital beds into makeshift shelters instead of addressing sure care needs.

This mayhem is EXACTLY what the NDP and the BCU asked for last year when they worked with Justin Trudeau to decriminalized hard drugs in BC.

It’s why the status quo is not helping anybody. Not the people trapped in the downward spiral of addiction, trauma and abuse. And not the nurses, doctors, and other frontline workers who haven’t been trained or equipped for it.

BC Conservatives will end the decriminalization of hard rugs. We need to protect and equip our dedicated healthcare workers. And we need to build the integrated recovery-programs desperately needed to address the crises overflowing from the streets into our hospitals.