WARMINGTON: Crack and fentanyl smokers are in charge on TTC buses, streetcars or subway
· Toronto Sun
If some of the crack being smoked by the person sitting next you on the subway gets on your skin or into your mouth, nose, lungs, eyes or brain, it could be a catastrophic heath risk.
Crack cocaine and crystal meth are dangerous enough but if fentanyl is mixed in with this concoction being consumed on the TTC, and is blown out for others to inhale against their will, it can kill a person or their kids riding with them.
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Lots of first responders have needed instant, life-saving treatment after overdosing by accidentally coming into contact with fentanyl.
Those who take these lethal drugs in public put their own lives at risk, which is troubling. But they put everybody else’s at risk too. Yet, all of the consideration in the world must go to the person smoking this pipe. You can’t say anything. You can’t do anything and neither can the authorities. If you hurt them in trying to defend yourself, you may be the one who ends up in jail.
The crack smoker is in charge in Toronto. They decide how this is all going to go down.
You may pay the fare to be on the TTC and your taxes may fund the whole show, but make no mistake on who the boss is. It’s not you.
The same goes with those who brandish a knife or weapon on a train, bus or streetcar. Unless you want to be stabbed, you are in a position of extreme vulnerability and that person — many times already known to police and the courts — gets to determine whether you live or die.
Bradford says time to clean up TTC
Councillor Brad Bradford would like to change this. He’s not the first who dared to take on those who run the show but since he’s planning on running for mayor, his suggestions are being taken seriously but many. Outside the TTC’s St. Patrick Station on Monday, the councillor set three main goals for a council motion he’s put forward.
One is to have “police officers at every TTC subway station.” Two is to have “clear standards for cleanliness and lighting so stations are consistently clean, maintained and bright” and three is to “accelerate installation of platform edge doors, starting with priority stations, to add a physical layer of protection between riders and the tracks.”
Said Bradford: “Cleanliness and lighting are not cosmetic. They are safety. When stations are dark, dirty and neglected, it tells people nobody’s in charge. When stations are clean, bright and staffed with the right personnel, it changes behaviour and it changes how people feel.”
Pull the emergency strip
But the person using heavy narcotics may not get this memo. None of this is the TTC’s fault. They don’t control the drug and crime world. If you are riding the TTC and see someone smoking crack or carrying a weapon, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green says that “given the imminent risk to the public, it would be appropriate to push the yellow strip and have the train hold at the next station so our response personnel can assess the situation and resolve it accordingly.”
Green adds the “safety of employees and customers is our paramount concern and we have invested tens of millions of dollars in new safety and security initiatives” and “we take all incidents seriously, no matter how rare they are on a system that moves hundreds of millions of trips a year without incident.”
Recent stabbings are the catalyst of the latest calls for change but everybody knows the taxpayers’ money that goes into hosting the World Cup or for Mayor Olivia Chow and her pals to go on a summer trip to the United Kingdom is still going to be a priority of where public money must flow.
“Parents say they will not let their kids ride alone,” says Bradford. “Shift workers dread the late-night commute. Seniors have stopped going out. People are changing their routines and bracing for the worst, because they do not believe the current approach is working. Toronto cannot keep treating that as acceptable, or pretending that more announcements are the same thing as real results.”
He’s right. But the people at the top of this food chain will not like this – namely the drug users or those who live on board the TTC. And when they are violent, we treat them with generosity and understanding and leniency and work the system very hard to make sure they can get back out there and do what they do.
Even though we have had TTC staff murdered, and riders murdered or wounded , those who use the subway for their drugs and shelter know we are all here to service them. In fact, some feel we should apologize to them because their situation is as a result of us not giving them enough of what we have earned.
The heavy drug users are more powerful than the mayor or the chief of police or even God. They are god in that moment. And we make sure they are happy. We help them with their drug use by giving them the right equipment and a safe zone for them to obtain it and use it. Every other person pays rent or a mortgage or pays to park or attend somewhere or pays a fee or a fare.
But not the drug user. They are exempt. In fact, they are the boss.