A SIMPLE DYNAMIC

As director of the largest treatment program for adult addiction
disorders in the country, I found Margaret Wente's series of articles
on harm reduction and Vancouver's supervised injection site to be a
breath of fresh air. Our centre, too, offers a number of
harm-reduction services, but they never are, nor will be, an option
for the progressive brain disorder named addiction. To the addict, the
drug is their solution and sobriety is the problem. Most
well-intentioned policy-makers don't understand this simple dynamic,
seeing abstinence as a punishment. Thank you, Ms. Wente, for shaking
some complacent cages.

Graeme Cunningham

director, Addiction Division, Homewood Health Centre

Guelph, Ont