REHABILITATION THE CORRECT ANSWER TO DRUG USE

WHEN SOMEONE talks of proposing that a "safe injecting room" be placed in
our city centre, what is that person really asking for? Is it that we have
gone into such apathy on the major drug problems that we have in our
society that we have decided to support a deadly habit that not only
affects the user but the rest of the community as well? The best help and
safety that we can give users is effective rehabilitation. Free drugs and
further drugs to "help get rid of the original habit" have only made things
worse.

When you accept the drug problem, instead of fighting it with preventative
and rehabilitative methods, we are giving the message to our younger
generations that drugs are okay. Well, hard as it may be to face, we are
helping to create the problem by not taking full responsibility for it and
actually handling the real problem - drug use. So let's create a drug-free
society and actually handle the real problem.

Narconon is a drug-rehabilitation program that is being used successfully
in many countries around the world. In Spain, for example, 62.2 per cent of
the Narconon students had committed robberies before doing the program.

After completing the Narconon program not a single report was made that any
one of the graduates had committed any crimes. Sixty-nine per cent of the
Narconon students had been heavily addicted to drugs and had been using
them for an average of eight years prior to the Narconon program.

After successfully completing the program, 78.6 per cent of the graduates
were still drug-free four years later.

It is easy to see that Australia is behind the mark in dealing with the
drug problem. Rehabilitation is the answer, not apathy.

Let's do it!

CASSANDRA STEWART

Holt