WAIT TIMES AND CRIME GO HAND-IN-HAND

In our view: Combat the lack of addiction help with an attitude
change

Imagine the enormous decision to finally seek help for your drug
addiction.

After years of abuse, crime, family estrangement, health problems,
poverty and all the other vices that accompany addiction, you take
that first floundering step toward recovery.

You summon to courage, make that call, spill your heart out, and are
told you could wait seven months before getting into a rehab program.

That news is enough to send you spiraling back down into the black
hole of addiction and crime just because of the sheer enormity of the
long road ahead.

That's the reality facing drug addicts in Fredericton. Depending on
their circumstances, seven months can be the wait time to get into a
methadone program here.

It's not that addiction workers aren't doing their best - they are -
but they can only do so much with the resources at their disposal. A
lack of beds, staff and money limits their ability to treat everyone
who wants to be treated in a timely fashion.

We all have to live with medical wait times. They are an unfortunate
fact of life in New Brunswick. But unlike the person on a waiting
list for a hip replacement, there is a hefty price to pay when an
addict has to wait.

Judge Graydon Nicholas sees this price in his court on a regular
basis. He's lost count of the number of shoplifting cases linked to
drug abuse. He says robberies have increased in recent years, all
linked to drugs. And pharmacists are at risk of being held up by
those seeking the most direct route to their fix.

This is a desperate cry for help from the addicted, but the cry is
being put on hold.

In the meantime, break-ins, thefts, fraud and robberies will
continue. Our community is bound to be impacted as victims of those
crimes, while the same old attitude that this is a correctional issue
continues.

What needs to change before anything else will change is the attitude
surrounding the issue: it's a health problem, not a crime problem.
The crime that accompanies drug addiction is merely a symptom of the
disease.

Once we recognize it for what it is, then we can focus on cutting
wait times with more resources, and adding more prevention programs
to our education system.

Until then, hold onto your purses and lock your doors, because it
isn't going to get any better.