MORAL CHOICE BEHIND ACCEPTING ADDICTION

Re: Support needed for rehabilitation (letter, Aug. 31).

Letter-writer Evelyn Rebman puts a lot more stock in political will
than she should. Money has never solved the spiritual problems of a
single soul since time began. Drugs act on our bodies and not our
moral character.

The true nature of addiction needs to be understood. In short,
Canadians have medicalized life over the past 100 years and we now do
our moralizing in medical sounding terms like "addiction." Chemically
speaking, there is nothing in periodic table substance we politically
label as drugs that can attract people to keep using them.

Yielding to the temptation of pleasure drugs is a moral choice.
Lusting for pleasure to the point of being a glutton about it leads to
spiritual death. That has been well understood for thousands of years.

The timeless conclusion of Thomas Jefferson that the care of every
man's soul belonged to himself served our ancestors well and it is an
idea we ought to reconsider, too.

The fact of the matter is that each individual is responsible for his
own frame of mind, his own thoughts and his own moral valuations.
Canadians have just got to quit making drugs the forbidden fruit that
everybody wants to give a try. Restore our natural right to drugs, all
of them, and the users can rehabilitate themselves once they have
gluttoned out.

The best help has always been self-help when it comes to having the
character to resist whatever temptations life has to offer.

Chris Buors

Winnipeg