THE ONLY WAY TO DEAL WITH DRUG ADDICTS

I was a police officer for 27 years, during which I spent time on the
Vancouver drug squad and on the beat in the Downtown Eastside.

I arrested drug users for various crimes, which had been committed to feed
very expensive habits.

I watched well-meaning citizens' groups offer help to these individuals to
"kick the habit" voluntarily, which for the most part was useless.

You see, most drug users are not addicts because they want to be, but
because the drug controls their every waking thought.

They do not care whom they victimize to get the funds required to buy their
drug of choice, only that they get enough to make a purchase and fulfil the
need.

We as a society must pity these people; they are lost souls who need help
badly.

The only way to properly deal with addicts is to take over their life just
as the drug they are using has.

We must put them into a treatment facilities against their will. We are
deluding ourselves if we think that we can ask them to quit voluntarily.

There are those who will tell you that it is too expensive to build
facilities to place addicts in to get them off drugs. But it costs far more
to leave them on the street to prey on anyone or anything to maintain an
addiction.

The spiralling cost of insurance, businesses unable to continue because of
multiple break-ins, and loss of lives are just a few of the consequences
that we all pay for leaving users on the street.

The civil rights advocates will argue that you are taking away their
freedoms when, in fact, the drug already has.

We can no longer allow this plague to continue unchecked.

All you have to do is talk to the parent of a user who helplessly watches
as a son or daughter has their life taken over by drug addiction.

I am well aware of the pain this causes. I am one of those parents.