SIMPLISTIC SOLUTIONS

Re: Addicted to the simple idea, April 25.

Thanks to columnist Ken Gray for telling the other side of the story
on Ottawa and drug addiction. Politicians of all stripes like to have
simple targets with simple solutions.

Dr. David Salisbury rightly points out the failures of U.S.-style
interdiction -- from Prohibition to the "War on Drugs." The latter has
been monumentally expensive, poisoned the habitats of many countries
in Central and South America, and poured billions of dollars into the
U.S. military-industrial complex, while the problem of drug addiction
really has its roots in mental illness and socio-economic deprivation.
Wait times for emergency rooms and elective surgery are intimately
linked, not just to inadequate human resources, but also to our
inability to get patients out of hospitals because there is limited
extended care in the community.

The mayor has latched on to our drug problem as a distractor from his
political woes, and his posturing reveals a distinct lack of
understanding of the complexities that face us. Let's see now, what
happened to the promised municipal tax freeze?

Dr. Geraint Lewis,

Ottawa