THE DRUG CONNECTION

Hospitals report that as many as half of their emergency admissions
are intoxicated. Panhandlers puff cigarettes as they collect cash from
those who don't notice or care where their money is going. Police
report again and again that nearly all their low-level property crime
is drug-related, with a few hardcore actors doing most of it.

The big-city debate continues in Orwellian language, defending "safe"
injection sites that can't possibly be safe and needle "exchange"
programs where dirty needles are discarded on sidewalks and parks.

Perhaps the ultimate solution is to provide hardcore addicts with not
only free shelter and medical care but free drugs as well. But I don't
think the public is ready to surrender that completely.

Solicitor General John Les has high hopes for the drug court pilot
program in Vancouver that was extended for three years by the federal
and provincial government. It sentences chronic offenders to treatment
rather than jail.