LAWYER'S VIEWS ON ADDICTS, ADDICTION MEET DISAPPROVAL

Re: Drug addicts should be sent to isolated work camps, Opinion, Sept. 14

Thank goodness dinosaurs like Brian Purdy have been largely replaced
by hard-working prosecutors in the Public Prosecution Service of
Canada, who while pursuing their duties with vigour and dedication,
mostly temper those duties with compassion and empathy for those who
suffer from the ravages of addiction.

I thought immediately of the time and effort put into the development
of Vancouver's Drug Treatment Court by upper echelon management of the
Department of Justice here in British Columbia.

For those interested, Public Safety Canada has published an online
guide to this court's purpose and goals, endorsed by the Government of
Canada.

Mr. Purdy should also seek to get his facts straight.

In fact, crime rates have decreased over the past several
years.

His comments on the Insite Program in place in Vancouver ignore the
empirical studies done by wellrespected health care professionals who
have attested to the benefits provided by harm-reduction programs.

I wonder where Mr. Purdy proposes we go next?

Should we send those mentally disordered persons who were displaced by
our mental hospitals some years ago and abound on the streets of the
Downtown East Side and are now ravaged by drugs, mental illness or a
combination of both, to the same re-education camps proposed by him?
Where will it end? Does he really think that a bottom-up approach is
the answer to the problem of drug abuse?

J. Douglas Jevning

Vancouver