STATUS QUO ADDICTS

IT'S hard to understand why our provincial government, as fiscally
conservative as it is, is willing to pay so much for addiction.

A report from the British Columbia Medical Association, released
Thursday, suggests the costs to our health care, law enforcement and
economy as a whole run close to $6 billion annually. As many as one
in 10 visits to Vancouver General Hospital's ER relate to substance
abuse, according to the association. Across the province, enough bed
space is taken up by addicts to fill Kelowna General Hospital to the
brim for a year.

As alarming as this is, it is hardly news. Few would argue that
addiction to drugs, alcohol and other poisons costs our system
dearly, but our government steadfastly refuses to do what's needed to
address it. Instead, our leaders give us more of the same, trying to
arrest their way out of the problem.

The majority of the expense could be avoided if we simply changed our
approach. Addiction should be recognized for what it is: A disease.
Those who fall prey to it are willing to forfeit their possessions,
steal from others, risk their freedom and even sell their own bodies
to feed their habit. No amount of enforcement will change that. But
medical treatment just might.

The solution won't be cheap, to be sure. The BCMA estimates 600
treatment beds and 240 detox spaces will be necessary. But as much as
those will cost us, surely the tab will be lower than the one we're paying now.