DON'T HELP THESE DRUG ADDICTS WITH MY TAXES

IT SEEMS to me that a lot of thought and consideration has gone into the
welfare of heroin addicts. If the safe-houses scheme goes ahead it will
cost $18,000 per patient. I find that to be totally repugnant.

I have not worked hard all my life to see my taxes injected in people's
arms. I apologise to all the families who have addicts and I sympathise
with you in your pain of watching someone waste away or possibly die.

Yet nothing seems to be done for the thousands of people out there who have
a genuine illness.

For example, diabetics still pay for their own needles. They must still pay
for their medications and sometimes fight for further medial assistance and
medicines that sometimes can be outrageously expensive.

I agree that there is no easy solution for heroin addicts, but at the end
of the day it is a choice that they make freely.

There is enough drug education and information out there that is freely
available so that people can make a choice, even young children and teens.

The only innocents in this unfortunate saga are the children who are born
to addicts who have to go through the trauma of being weaned off the heroin
still in their system. They are the real victims.

At the end of the day the responsibility lies with the person taking the
drugs. I am heartily sick and tired of my taxes being used to assist
politicians to have a better life and to assist criminals get a better
defence and life. Now we are pushing safe-injecting rooms.

When is it all going to end? When are we going to go back to the old basics
of being responsible for ourselves?

I am all for helping those who genuinely need it, but they are constantly
being knocked back in favour of those who don't.

J. GREEN, Armadale