'STOP SUPPORTING ADDICTION'

What can I say that would make a difference?

I myself have been homeless. I had a drug problem for over 30 years.
Today I'm clean for seven; been there, done it all. I see the toilet
we call the Downtown Eastside as nothing more than a bank machine for
misguided, misplaced, misunderstood solutions.

Since I've turned my life around, I see the chaos continue year after
year with very few results. I have friends who have been to treatment
over 15 times, detox 20. They have been "Narcaned" [saved from an
overdose by a narcotic-antidote injection] between three and 10
times. Meanwhile, the same drug dealers have shown up for work
faithfully at the Carnegie every morning for the last five years
between six and noon.

So, with all the money and support services that are available, why
are there such poor results? Some people would disagree, but it
starts with enforcing the law of the land, making people accountable
and giving self-esteem back to those who have none.

Stop supporting addiction -- free needles, crack pipes,
methadone-injection sites, food money on welfare day and on and on.
Those of us who have walked the walk would agree in general that
these exact same services added to destroying our lives.

I'm not saying no more services, but to stop or change the problem
for any one person, sometimes the solution is as simple as hitting
rock bottom, or being fed up, or finding the actual desire to change,
but as long as you have a peer group that is 10,000-strong in a
twelve-block-square area, the odds are stacked against you.

- -- Sean (recovered addict), Vancouver