ENABLING ADDICTION

Insite was begun as a government-funded program to allow addicts to
inject drugs inside its facility to prevent overdose deaths. How has
this morphed into a recovery program? There are already many excellent
recovery programs all over the Lower Mainland yet we never read about
them in the media. But we do hear a constant drum beat from Insite as
it attempts to garner media attention and further funding.

What is so glamorous about an unproven program whose end goal of "harm
reduction" still has an addict taking a daily dose of drugs, albeit
mostly methadone, paid for by the taxpayer? I question Dr. Julio
Montaner's attack on the government: "These people have no morals.
They want these people [addicts] gone." This from someone who
advocates services that support and enable addicts to continue in
their addictions and on their downward spiral, when most have the
capacity to recover.

Most of us do want them gone -- into recovery and back into their
homes and their communities as productive members of society.

BARRY JONESON

Burnaby