WE NEED A SOLUTION THAT DOESN'T ENABLE ADDICTS

Re: 'People need to treat the problem, not the symptom' (Your Letters, Daily
News, Aug. 8).

It hits the nail on the head. In the early 1980s the government of the
day planned on Brannen Lake Security Instituion becoming a drug
treatment centre where convicted addicts had the option of jail or
Brannen Lake.

The plan was shot down by the Charter although it ws certainly a case
for "opting out" and I wonder how many lives would have been saved
because the goal was rehabilitation not incarceration.

No doubt public opinion would support a similar endeavour today as
opposed to enabling those who can no longer help themselves.

DOUG MCKAY

Nanaimo