For anyone who walks the streets of Montreal and now most cities in Quebec, there is a new reality that breaks the heart, this growing presence of highly intoxicated people wandering through our cities. I wish I had the insensitivity to ignore it, but I can’t help but look at them and wonder what could have precipitated them into this extreme misery.
Who are these social castaways who have come to lose all trace of human dignity to flounder in this cruel purgatory?
The destructive power of these opioids is so harmful that they seem to have let go of simple basic social conventions, such as the good old consensus of not urinating anywhere. I’ll spare you the details, but I’ve seen even worse.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Extreme poverty, where homelessness and drug addiction mix, is increasingly present on the streets of the metropolis.
We see these undead almost everywhere. They appear anesthetized, their brains washed out, slumped at the entrance to businesses with all of their possessions near them, which often amount to a few bags of trash. When I manage to have eye contact with them, I perceive shame and an emptiness in the eyes, that of a person whose soul has left the body. The remains of food nearby suggest that at nightfall, the meal will be shared with the first rodent that comes along, rats and men. How did human beings get there? Unfortunately, we see more and more women joining this sad picture of misery, gender equality to the point of decline.
In certain streets of the city, there are so many of them that, for fear of being around them or by reflex to escape this suffering that we never want to see, we are ready to give way to them. Leaders don’t really seem to know what to do with this social abscess which is becoming more infected day by day.
No one wants to see them in their yard, we would like them to be moved without really knowing where to send them. An army of zombies that we dream of parachuting into a no man’s land to no longer have to witness their agony. We even renamed a street Crack Alley.
The Toponymy Commission could not have come up with a worse name. Sensationalist TV reports show us poor residents horrified by unsightly scenes that poison their days and nights. We are talking here about a hidden defect of Olympic caliber.
The degrading images of these addicts lead us to believe that these artificial paradises are in truth passports to hell. We are miles away from the friendly old robin who was supposedly given a dollar to buy himself a coffee when we knew very well that it would miraculously turn into alcohol. Now, when we give a person addicted to one of these infernal drugs, we risk pushing them into the arms of their next dose, and thus contributing to their dramatic addiction.
The company undoubtedly deserves blame. This dramatic combo of housing and opioid crisis has been in the air for several years and no one seems to have measured either the scale or the consequences. Poverty is a pathetic game of dominoes. A person suddenly finds themselves on the street, begins to mix with other vulnerable people who use drugs and, just to numb their anxieties, ends up being tempted too. The dizzying fall towards the abyss has begun and seems very difficult to slow down. It’s much easier to brace your feet when you’re already on crutches. That said, the problem is global, most large and now medium-sized cities around the world face the distressing reality of victims of the fearsome addictive properties of these substances. In three doses, one person is dependent, one switch seems to quickly begin to off and the disconnection from the world begins.
The producers of these poisons, obviously manufactured without any concern for public health, should be in the crosshairs of the authorities. They are totally responsible for the lamentable state of their “clientele”. The heads of these zombification machines should have to take care of after-sales service themselves.
I personally have no solution to this scourge, I only witness the daily worsening of the phenomenon. I am deeply affected by it. And above all, I am totally powerless in the face of these human beings on a premature journey into the afterlife. These women and men could be my brother, my sister, my parents. I could be one of them.
We are all one unfortunate event away from being derailed and finding ourselves in this situation of deep vulnerability.
Could the extreme loneliness in which more and more people find themselves involuntarily be singled out? I sincerely believe it. While waiting for the creation of a Ministry of Solitude, let us work collectively on our empathy, our patience and our kindness. Maybe let’s start by just taking care of each other. Who knows ? That might help!
Who is Dany Turcotte?
- Originally from Saguenay, Dany Turcotte first became known as a comedian, within Blood Group, in the mid-1980s.
- After the dissolution of the group, he continued his humorous career alongside his accomplice Dominique Lévesque.
- From 2004 to 2021, he is Guy A. Lepage’s “jester” in Everybody talks about it.
- He is the host of The little seduction from 2005 to 2017.
What do you think ? Participate in the dialogue