DRUG TREATMENT CENTRE OFFERS BETTER HOPE

Re: Taming the beast of addiction takes effort, Jan. 24.

Although letter-writer George Smitherman, our minister of health and
long-term care, praises the crack-pipe program for its role in harm
reduction to crack cocaine addiction, he undermines his own argument
by further extolling its virtues as a catalyst for talk between the
user and the health-care worker about a better "crack-free" life.

While I support the principles of harm reduction, I fail to see how
the contact between the user and the health-care worker amounts to
much. Ottawa has very little access to very few addiction treatment
options and waiting lists for treatment range from one month to a
year. The Ontario government needs to establish a treatment centre for
Ottawa and other municipalities struggling with the "treacherous
beast" of crack cocaine addiction.

Crack pipes might lessen the harm to the crack smoker. Talks with a
health-care worker might offer a glimmer of hope for a moment or two,
but when the talk shifts to actually getting into treatment that hope
is gone in one puff.

GEORGES BEDARD,

Ottawa

Councillor, Rideau-Vanier