HAVE MERCY, THEY WERE SOMEONE'S SISTER, BROTHER...

I am 23 years old and used heroin for the first time when I was 16. I used
it until I was 21 and put my entire family through hell.

I never ended up in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside because of the endless
support from my family. But it so easy to end up on the streets of Vancouver
when you're addicted to heroin. When you become junk sick and desperate from
the drug and don't have any money or anyone to turn to, where do you go?

If you call Detox they will put you on a waiting list for one week. If
you've been to that Detox centre before, you have to wait longer than a
week. Now every addict knows that when you ask for help, you need it that
same day.

What I would like to know is where is this $50 million being spent? The
methadone program is a complete joke; it's just a way to keep the addicts
from stealing to support their habit. It does not take care of the real
problem. It's just exchanging one drug habit for another.

These people on Hastings weren't born down there. Most of them are from good
homes.

Right now, you think this not your problem but when your daughter, son,
brother or sister tell you he/she is addicted to heroin, whose problem is it
then?

Jackie Watt, Burnaby