Nettie Wild has turned the masses on their heads over the ongoing dilemma of the Downtown Eastside. Susan began her presentation on the documentary, Fix, by briefly describing the features of the "four pillar approach" advocated by supporters of safe injection sites. Not only must we prevent drug usage by providing access to support and treat, deter usage by enforcement by policing, and reduce drug usage with safe injection sites and resource centres, we must also address the housing issue.

The discourse surrounding drug usage has mutated in recent years due to the surfacing of the underground culture of raves. No longer are the homeless and the untouchables the only people using drugs-suburban teens are experimenting with drugs. Rave culture headlined newspapers describing the devastating effects ecstasy could potentially have on (growing) minds. The crisis in the Downtown Eastside has prevailed far longer than the crisis of teens experimenting with drugs. So why the imbalance in media coverage over the two problems, and lack of attention to the Downtown Eastside in general?

Wild brings the issue to light with her "raw" documentary of the situation. But is the film really a reflection of reality? Co-presenter of the issue, Andrew, does not think so. He argued in class today that Wild created a version of reality, taking her perception of the situation and reinvesting it into the film, Fix. In this sense then, the result is a new reality-a skewed reality. I think Andrew makes a terrific point. However, given that the documentary has a single political purpose, I feel it is necessary for the distortion of truth to win the acceptance of shooting galleries.

I'd like to make a small point from a sociological perspective. Rosemary Gartner, an expert on deviance and crime from the University of Toronto, believes the definitions (discourse?) of deviance (in this case, drugs) are often flexible because different groups and institutions articulate the norms and expectations for behaviour for the rest of society. Moral crusaders actively define deviant behaviour in order to legitimatize their moral standards and increase social solidarity. Like alcoholism, drugs has taken a turn from being labelled a criminial activity into an disease, a treatable illness.

However, an ideal society free of deviance and crime is not sought because those who follow the rules of acceptable behaviour need to feel virtuous and therefore reinforce their conformity. Even in a group of angels, one won't have her halo on just quite right.