FACE REALITY

With her criticism of The Province's photo of an addict using a
needle, letter writer Jennifer Lee would have us censor the truth.

The IV drug epidemic in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is real. The
damage being done to people's lives is real, and the newspapers have
a responsibility to show this to the public.

As a child, I was terrified of needles. Children have experience with
needles through inoculations from a very young age. They know what
they're for, and they know they hurt. Your front-page image doesn't
depict an exciting lifestyle that kids will be in a hurry to try.

In deciding when your children are exposed to our area's drug
problem, even through images, you insulate them from reality.

Use the image to inoculate them against the idea that IV drug use has
a happy ending. Your children will thank you for it.

Pearce Richards, Burnaby