HANDOUTS WON'T FIX DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

Forgive me if I sound Scrooge-like about the news that Ottawa and
Victoria plan to play Santa Claus to the "homeless" and other
"at-risk" groups, mostly in the Lower Mainland, by throwing a further
$84 million their way.

And it's not just that I'm skeptical about both Liberal governments,
now on a tandem mission to appear caring, compassionate and
re-electable.

Nor is it I'm so cynical I think nothing can be done for those who are
drug-addicted, depressed or down on their luck. After all, many of us
are probably just a step or two away from going down that road ourselves.

No, the reason I'm deeply suspicious of this latest cash injection is
because I've seen so many worthy-sounding, government programs for the
"poor" over the years. And so many of them seem to do so little good,
at least for those they're intended.

I mean, who can honestly say conditions in the Downtown Eastside,
where many of these millions are to be spent on "affordable" housing
and other public services, are better now than they were in, say, the
1970s?

Since then, literally billions of dollars of taxpayers' money have
been poured into a mushrooming inner-city drug industry that should
have been put to sleep long ago.

Much of the blame for this rests with our misery-addicted media. We
keep calling the Downtown Eastside Canada's poorest postal code, when
poverty is not the real issue.

Just ask the street people or the cops. They'll tell you many folks
there make hundreds of tax-free dollars daily selling drugs. That's in
addition to their tax-free, monthly welfare cheques.

But instead of saving that money or putting it to a mortgage, they
spend it on crack or meth. Indeed, the only reason why some are
"homeless" is they prefer to split their government shelter allowance
with their landlord, so they can buy more smack or crack.

"Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is reportedly the poorest neighbourhood
in Canada, yet somehow people are able to find the money to spend
millions of dollars on illicit drugs and alcohol annually," notes
Vancouver police Const. Gerry Wickstead.

No, the problem in the Downtown Eastside is not a lack of life's basic
necessities. There are more social agencies down there than sturgeon
in the Fraser. Everything is free, from meals to haircuts and legal
help.

The problem is a fast-growing, national addiction to illegal drugs.
And that's what our governments should be addressing -- with,

I strongly suggest, a made-in-Canada war on drugs.

It could be similar to the one successfully waged against smoking and
big tobacco. And it should include a major, celebrity-supported,
public-relations drive, like that conducted against drinking and driving.

Instead, our way-too-cool civic leaders and oh-so-earnest health
bureaucrats appear headed in precisely the opposite direction.

They're still engaged in a kooky campaign to make it easier for
addicts to feed their habits, either directly through various
spaced-out government schemes or indirectly through ripping other people off.

In doing so, of course, they're making fools and victims of us
all.