ADDICT TELLS PANEL OF 'HELLISH EXISTENCE'

The Interior has a choice on whether to help people with drug
addictions -- a choice an addict digging through a garbage bin for a
needle doesn't share.

A panellist at an addictions forum Thursday evening told his story of
rooting through a bin outside a veterinary clinic in Los Angeles in a
desperate search for a needle to satisfy his heroin addiction.

"It's a hellish existence," said James Giles.

Giles said both his grandfather and father died of heroin overdose.

"I was born into an addiction. It's lineage. It wasn't a choice."

The glimpse at addiction shared by Giles punctuated the forum
designed to determine gaps in treatment for people with drug and
alcohol problems.

Panellists, experts and audience members said more attention and
resources are needed to make headway against drug addiction -- a
choice voters make at the ballot box and politicians decide at budget meetings.

Several of the 100 people at the Henry Grube Education Centre
attending the forum said the city lacks services for people coming
out of jail or struggling with a deadly cocktail of multiple drug
addictions and mental health problems.

While social and health agencies offer myriad programs in the city,
several people said the operating hours are for the office, not the street.

"Don't open at 9 a.m.," said a woman who identified herself as a
sex-trade worker. "Open at four in the afternoon."

Representatives from city health and social agencies outlined
programs targeted at youth, inmates, women and working people with
hidden drug and alcohol problems.

Reid Webster, a psychologist who teaches at Thompson Rivers
University and works with convicts at Kamloops Regional Correctional
Centre, said the majority of people at the jail are there because of
drugs and alcohol.

While a convict's first decision to stick a needle in his arm may
represent a choice, Webster said "at this point, it's no longer a choice."

Webster and others said ensuring people who leave jail get housing,
financial and counselling support is critical to keeping them out of
the institution, which is increasing being used as a last-resort
solution to social problems.

A probation officer who asked a question to panellists said she is
regularly faced with sending people using drugs, contrary to their
court orders, back to jail.

"I find it frustrating. You know the issue is because supports and
resources aren't there."

Many inmates have mental problems associated with fetal alcohol disease.

While there are resources in B.C. for children coping with the
disease, "once they reach 19 there aren't any services," Webster said.

"We'll continue to see these people coming through the doors at the jail."