Discussions

The provincial NDP have introduced a bill to ban pill presses. This does sound like a good idea. However, are criminals going to pay any attention to it?  
 
"OMG, it is illegal to possess a pill press, we can't make the illegal street drugs anymore here in Manitoba! We are going to have to import our illegal street drugs in pill form from somewhere else!"  
 
Yup, it has sure made a difference on gun related violence with criminals not owning illegal guns.  
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/pill-press-ban-manitoba-1.3870288?cmp=rss

But being optimistic isn't a bad thing. However I'm sure there will be ways people get around the issue. But I also think this is an issue that's been said a few time before.

ZachT said "The provincial NDP have introduced a bill to ban pill presses. This does sound like a good idea. However, are criminals going to pay any attention to it?     "OMG, it is illegal to possess a pill press, we can't make the illegal street drugs anymore here in Manitoba! We are going to have to import our illegal street drugs in pill form from somewhere else!"     Yup, it has sure made a difference on gun related violence with criminals not owning illegal guns.     http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/pill-press-ban-manitoba-1.3870288?cmp=rss "

Another tool to use is better than none at all.  
 
Edited by Degenerate108, 2016-12-01 09:40:32

ZachT said "The provincial NDP have introduced a bill to ban pill presses. This does sound like a good idea. However, are criminals going to pay any attention to it?     "OMG, it is illegal to possess a pill press, we can't make the illegal street drugs anymore here in Manitoba! We are going to have to import our illegal street drugs in pill form from somewhere else!"     Yup, it has sure made a difference on gun related violence with criminals not owning illegal guns.     http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/pill-press-ban-manitoba-1.3870288?cmp=rss "

Wouldn't even have to get them out of province. Buy a press in another province and bring it here. This would just prevent selling the presses in Manitoba. Wouldn't hurt the drug trade at all.

When has banning anything ever worked speciously the drugs their making or growing and selling, , they will just get them some where else, we just had big drug bust in Manitoba and Brandon, hows the drug supply in Brandon now, nobody's complaining, drugs where for sale the very next day, back to normal in a week, cops bragged about the disruption caused by there operation when truth be known it was hardly noticed.

Midway55 said "When has banning anything ever worked speciously the drugs their making or growing and selling, , they will just get them some where else, we just had big drug bust in Manitoba and Brandon, hows the drug supply in Brandon now, nobody's complaining, drugs where for sale the very next day, back to normal in a week, cops bragged about the disruption caused by there operation when truth be known it was hardly noticed. "

But you are right.  
 
The same as the gun registry did not stop deaths from un registered weapons, just like taxing cigarettes does not stop smoking, etc.  
 
I think this move is just lip service.  
 
My question is this - and call it simplistic - but why should our officials be going so crazy to try and stop the fentanyl issue?  
 
To my mind, if it kills so readily, then either drug dealers are going to lose their market because it kills so many of it's customers, or people will get scared enough to get help to overcome their addictions. People who take drugs are doing so of their own will, knowing it is against the law. Maybe the chance that they will die instantly instead of slowly over years might be the trigger they need?  
 
Yes, I know that is a primal way of looking at it, and when you look at cigarette companies - they too make a product that kills, but it usually takes so long that the company makes a good amount of cash off of them before they do die or become to ill to smoke. I understand fentanyl is far more deadly and can kill in one use. Yes, I guess the same could be said for guns - it only takes one shot to kill.  
 
I just don't see this kind of move by the government as productive at all. All that will happen is more cross border drug movement. If people can't make their own, they will find a way to bring in pre made stuff.  
 
And JT is so proud of himself for "discussing a partnership" with Chinese officials to stop Chinese made drugs from coming into Canada - again, just lip service that will accomplish nothing at all.

Any barrier to drug production is good and a drug off the street is a good thing. Of course politicians have to give lip service to combatting the drug problem. They will be ridiculed for trying and ridiculed for not trying! It's the nature of being a politician!  
 
This problem of fentanyl won't be solved by politicians: at least not alone. With 2 Canadians dying every week from fentanyl or car-fentanyl overdoses, it's a national epidemic! And to excuse it (foxtrot) as "they chose to do drugs" doesn't remotely come close to describe all the drug users out there nor their reasons for using! Nor does it solve anything!  
 
Let me give you a scenario. Drug dealer cuts fentanyl into cocaine for distribution. Drug dealer then divides his marijuana into sellable amounts on the same table. Inadvertently the fentanyl is now in some of the marijuana. An unsuspecting 15 or 16 year old at a party decides under peer pressure that they want to fit in. How harmless is a joint? It's almost legal in Canada anyway! I think I'll try it. The tiny amount of fentanyl or especially car-fentanyl can kill that child in less than 20 minutes but shutting down the respiratory system.  
 
I know there are people who don't care about drug addicts, but just remember that everybody came from a family at some point, and not everybody has had the same journey in life as the next. For those in the grips of active addiction, they won't be scared off by the dangers of fentanyl, they only care about the next hit.  
 
We can't look to addicts in active addiction to be scared enough to resolve this problem! Do you honestly think enough addicts would even think about what they're smoking or care where it came from! That's absurd and a poor solution to an epidemic that is killing thousands and will kill thousands more!  
 
Will making a pill press solve the problem? Not on it's own. But maybe it's another piece of a very complex puzzle! To anyone who feels that it's a good thing to purge our country of drug addicts and let this run its course, I ask where's your humanity?

I think we need to put up signs. "Don't make drugs here" in big LED letters on 18th street. Its working for the bridge.

It's another charge to add when a bust is made. That can't hurt.

"The provincial NDP have introduced a bill to ban pill presses. This does sound like a good idea."  
 
Here I thought the Conservatives were running the province these days. :-)  
 
Edited by just_thinkin, 2016-12-01 19:45:47

http://web2.gov.mb.ca/bills/41-2/b207e.php would ban pill presses, capsule filling tools, and other tools of the trade a pharmacist,"supplement" or vitamin supplier might use, for anyone that doesn't have a legal use for them. The items are available from ebay and Amazon with a simple search. The ban will have no effect on the incidents of death attributed to fentanyl and the like as the bill intends. Here's a suggestion. Detailed Images of police confiscations of said pills in question on Crime Stoppers. Let the public know what something that will do you more harm than a petty criminal looks like over and over again.

One good thing about a ban is that police find someone in possession of a pill press they could be charged.

Injection sites and providing free test kits or testing services will save lives banned pill presses will not. I am sure users feel a false sense of security buying pressed pills but if they disappeared off the face of the earth it wouldn't change consumption in the slightest. People will just as readily buy undressed powder. You think a heroin addict or other opiate injection addict gives a damn about what form they buy their product in when they are willing to use a dirty needle to inject drugs cooked in mud puddle water?