Opinion Piece #2

With summer only a few months away many people have begun purchasing their tickets to music festivals being held all over the world. These festivals are a time to let loose with friends and enjoy some music. It’s well known that these festivals will have many individuals engaging in drug use to enhance their experience. As someone who has been a festival goer for years, I have witnessed this myself, but I have also seen the horror of someone who was overdosing. This is quite a frightening thing to witness, and I was disheartened to realize that overdoses like this could easily be prevented by having a drug testing station available. I believe that testing stations should be required for festivals all across the world to reduce the risk of overdoses and inform people what is present in their substances.

This summer, most festivals will opt for a heavy police presence accompanied by drug detection dogs to limit the amount of drugs that enter the grounds. Despite these measures, a large quantity of drugs will inevitably be brought in. If police are unable to combat this issue at the gate, then having testing stations as a hard reduction measure is simply logical. The use of testing stations isn’t new, according to April Welsh, mobile drug testing stations have been stationed in Zurich’s night scene since 2001. Currently, many festivals have introduced testing stations to quell the number of overdoses seen in years past. It has proved effective at multiple festivals in Australia, the United Kingdom, and British Columbia. The most staggering reductions coming from the “Secret Garden Party” in England, where there was only one drug-related hospital admission compared to 19 from the year before. In BC, the Shambhala Music Festival held in Salmo introduced testing stations in 2017 and found fentanyl present in nearly a dozen samples. These twelve samples were disposed of and almost certainly saved multiple lives. Other test results showed many substances being cut with other drugs or being a completely different drug altogether. Many individuals choose to believe that their substances are “pure” but as results have shown that is rarely the case. Allowing people the opportunity to test their drugs will give them the necessary information to dose correctly or to abstain from their drugs altogether.

There is a common misconception that providing testing stations is giving individuals the green light to consume substances. This idea is blatantly untrue. Festivals attendees that are planning on consuming drugs will engage in this behaviour regardless of the presence of testing stations, it is simply a question of whether we want the people who are doing drugs anyways to do them safely. Society must accept that people aren’t engaging in recreational drug use and focus on methods of harm reduction. Ignoring an issue because you deem it as unpleasant or scary doesn’t make it disappear. By incorporating mandatory drug testing stations at all festivals, lives will not only be saved but we will be opening up the conversation regarding the cutting of drugs and the correct dosages.

References

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/06/02/festival-drug-testing-shows-a-way-to-reduce-harm

https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/shambhala-festival-drug-testing-for-safety-1.3194264

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/24/secret-garden-party-pioneers-drugs-testing-for-festival-goers

https://www.factmag.com/2017/07/30/how-on-site-drug-testing-at-festivals-can-help-save-lives/

Free Tuition Opinion Piece

The current job landscape in Canada has one consistent variable if you are searching for a higher paying job than minimum wage and it is the need for a post-secondary education of some kind. In order to engage in a post-secondary education you require funding which depending on your program of choice can cost a prospective student upwards of $50,000. The post-secondary system is disadvantageous to those individuals who lack the necessary funds to fulfill their journey and puts them into crippling student loan debt before even beginning. This puts students in a difficult situation; either take the debt with the hopes that your degree will pay off in the long run, or take a low paying job without the immediate debt. This poses the question, what if post secondary tuition were fully paid for? Free post-secondary education would be beneficial to students in British Columbia because it gives them the opportunity to follow their passion wholeheartedly without the risk of financial downfall.  

Currently, when students are choosing their major or area of interest for post-secondary studies they are guided towards more practical options that have a more lucrative post-grad income. According to Ellen Anderson from CollegeRaptor, going down this path may warrant you with a higher salary, however it may lead you astray from your actual passions and areas of interest. If shelling out thousands of dollars for your education was not an issue, students would have the freedom to choose an area of study that particularly interests them and they will actually enjoy. This would lead to students being more devoted to their studies and increase the chances of them finishing their degrees. The opportunity for students to study what they desire without any consequences would increase the number of people who choose to attend college and therefore creates a more educated workforce and a populus with better critical thinking skills. With free post-secondary education the younger generation wouldn’t be crushed by student debt and would be able to contribute to the economy in a variety of ways such as buying houses, cars, and travelling.

Having tuition free post-secondary education in British Columbia would allow students to choose their area of study freely without the concern of repaying student loans in the future. This would entice more individuals to engage in a post-secondary path which would be beneficial for themselves and the populus overall. The provincial government should attempt to create an open dialogue for discussion regarding tuition fees to see where citizens stand on this topic and take action if need be.

Bike Lane Expansion

The city of Victoria is full of individuals who choose to commute to and from their destinations by bicycle on a daily basis. People make this choice for a variety of reasons, some simply love the workout that comes with biking, others don’t want to contribute to further fossil fuel pollution, and many simply can’t afford a vehicle. Regardless of reasoning, biking in Victoria has been on the rise since I moved here in 2009 and with that has come changes to our bike lanes.

Mayor Lisa Helps introduced new bike lanes in Victoria’s downtown core in 2018 and I believe they have created safer roadways for bicyclists, drivers, and pedestrians. I avoided biking downtown due to the dangers of being hit by drivers while I was stuck in a small portion between a driver’s side mirror and the sidewalk, or riding in traffic amongst them. If I felt unsafe on the road I would transition to the sidewalk but would be met with glares and comments from pedestrians. Either option caused safety concerns for the bicyclist, pedestrians, or drivers. The bike lanes have alleviated these concerns for all parties and I am for the further expansion of Victoria’s bike lane system. The benefits of bike lanes are more than road safety, there will be more places for bus stops, more individuals choosing to ride bikes which will promote physical activity, and may increase the sales for local businesses. Promoting physical activity by enjoying the beautiful scenery that Victoria has to offer can only be seen as a positive and the ability to quickly lock up your bike to help a local business by making a purchase is something we should be encouraging.

The expansion of Victoria’s bike lanes will create safer roadways for everyone and allow people to feel safer biking around their city. These changes won’t come without hiccups as we are retrofitting an old city but we should be moving forward and not back. Individuals should voice their concerns and opinions regarding these changes without wanting to abandon the idea all together.