ADDICTED TO WHAT?

We just enjoyed the highlights of National Addictions Awareness Week.
Did you even notice? It has been pretty low key, after all. What's it
about? Addicted to love? Coffee? Shopping? Smoking? Nope - not really.
It's pretty much all about drugs and alcohol. It is not about the
individual and what one does to themselves, although that is a factor.
It is more about what affects us all. We just lost two Mounties. Good
young men both of them. One to drugs and the other to alcohol. Let's
take that as a call to action. Alcohol has long challenged our
society. It is the drug of choice for pleasure and fun. It has also
ruined people and families. It intoxicates, induces euphoria and is a
catalyst that takes the personality on a voyage of pleasure. The prob

We just enjoyed the highlights of National Addictions Awareness Week.
Did you even notice? It has been pretty low key, after all.

What's it about? Addicted to love? Coffee? Shopping?
Smoking?

Nope - not really.

It's pretty much all about drugs and alcohol.

It is not about the individual and what one does to themselves,
although that is a factor. It is more about what affects us all.

We just lost two Mounties. Good young men both of them. One to drugs
and the other to alcohol. Let's take that as a call to action.

Alcohol has long challenged our society. It is the drug of choice for
pleasure and fun. It has also ruined people and families. It
intoxicates, induces euphoria and is a catalyst that takes the
personality on a voyage of pleasure. The problem is, with some people,
a lot of people in fact, it gets out of control. And for some, when
that happens they get downright ugly. Fights, abuse, family violence,
car accidents, death and more are all a part of the 'fun.' It costs
billions of dollars in damage and it ruins many, many lives. This drug
of choice is also a sickness that has been a burden far to long.

The new challenge to the dominance of alcohol is a bouquet of drugs
including cystal meth and crack cocaine. They are pleasurable
initially, but they are also addictive, and they steal your life away.
They take people over and rule them, and then it gets nasty. They prey
particularly on youth. They are evil. This is not about Vancouver's
downtown east side or some other urban ghetto. This scourge is in
every community in Canada, including our own in the North.

Christmas is just round the corner. It is all about feelings of good
will toward others and the spirit of giving. It is about forgetting
about all that is bad for the moment and focusing on the good things
in life.

For a short while, we get to turn our backs on the 'issues' of the
world. It seems so many things are out there to stress us. But crack
cocaine and meth will be happily joining their older sibling alcohol
in the celebrations - and the two will bring their evil and their
sickness to the party.

We don't want to dump cold water on Christmas. It is a good time, one
of the best of the year. But do not let Addictions Awareness pass by
unnoticed. It is important too.

Something has to be done to stop the sickness of alcohol that pervades
our lives. The aggressive stance taken by MADD - Mothers Against Drunk
Drivers - is commendable. Abusing alcohol is simply not acceptable. As
with smoking and its costs, we as communities and we as a society have
to draw the line. We have to get serious about it. We have to say "NO
MORE" to alcohol abuse and the damage it causes.

The evil that is drug addiction will continue to grow, the trend is
obvious. It will become more pervasive. It will affect youth at even
younger ages. Our young people are getting more and more liberties,
more and more money and their lives are going faster and faster - and
they are very susceptible. This 'affliction' must be recognized and
confronted, and combated with all the resources we can muster. If we
'let the authorities handle it' we are lost. It is everyone's battle.
We cannot afford to be complacent about this.

Help those who are fighting addiction, the ones on the front lines.
Show your support. Get involved.

Lives are being ruined. It affects all of us.