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Comment by pstrateman | Hacker News Reader

The same is happening in Canada, it's because addicts are able to get money from the government and they buy far more drugs than they're used to having.

Edit: all the people downvoting me, why? not a single comment

seriously, this isn't a theory, it's just the facts

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cerb-pandemic-opioid-addict...

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I've suspected it's the same and this is an extremely hard conversation to have.

If Trudeau says 'he will take care of Canadians', how can anyone argue against that? He's a hero, he's sending out $2000 to anyone with a social insurance number, based on the honour system. In practice, people began gaming it from day one, started groups telling each other how to game it, and soon the disconnect between CERB applicants and actual newly unemployed was in the millions.

If you pass a policy that gets money in to the hands of Canadians, great, however, surely there should be some restrictions for those who can't handle any sort of money over $100 for their own health. Give a hard addict more than $100, and in a night they'll overdose. Give them, people skirting the line with full blown addiction, $2000, along with a border shutdown limiting supply and you have a recipe for a drug crisis.

Unintended consequences are important to acknowledge too, and this I think is too hard to talk about, because how can you argue with someone who is just trying to take care of Canadians?

Potentially a factor, but don’t you also think widespread unemployment and general trauma - collective and individual - could play a role?

Drug addiction will cause people to do truly unthinkable things. They get a wad of cash, the only thing they think about is drugs, and to hell with anything else. It's amazing how it re-prioritizes the structure of the brain.

As someone who has experienced it, it’s absolutely unreal just how thoroughly your priorities shift towards the substance. Everything revolves around it, nothing and no one else matters until that need is fulfilled.

I’m glad I’ve escaped that hellacious ride (for now)

Were the drug addicts the ones that were employed beforehand?

There are plenty of gainfully employed drug addicts. You may even know a few.

It's not this. After all to get CERB you need to show how you've been put out of work due to covid 19. How do you do this when you have no job or fixed address? How do you do this if you're a sex worker selling sex for survival and your occupation is illegal?

A side effect of covid19 is that drugs have become more scarce and expensive due to the border shutdown. This may be having an impact.

That's the requirements for the program, but in practice anybody can get it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cerb-pandemic-opioid-addict...

> A side effect of covid19 is that drugs have become more scarce and expensive due to the border shutdown. This may be having an impact.

Wait, less drugs, more overdoses... what?

It’s possible that the limited supply of drugs lowers opiate tolerance enough where the fentanyl causes an overdose. Like when an addict relapses and does the same dose they used to with a much lower tolerance and ends up ODing.

This makes the most sense. Perhaps being forced inside away from someone who could say stop.

Which raises the question would a basic income cause more misery for the general masses?

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