DON'T FEED AN ADDICT'S HABIT

Why am I not surprised to read that politicians are touting free
booze for alcoholics? Free heroin and cocaine for the addicted made
it through the hoops. And the big selling point of course is harm reduction.

Why don't we just publicly fund all addictions? After all these
things place a cost on society.

All sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it? Because it is.

If your child was a drug addict or alcoholic, would you set up a
little room in your house for him/her to imbibe and then supply it
for them too? Of course not. You love them and don't want to feed
their addiction.

Why are nicotine addicts treated like pariahs and all other
addictions are treated as diseases? What an insult to people with
cancer, lupus, MS, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases. A
disease is an involuntary condition and an addiction is a voluntary
condition caused by obsession and lack of self-control.

These programs have been proven not to work.

If there other viable options being considered, I sure haven't heard
about them. All I read about is the 'sweep them under the rug'
option. And in my opinion that is what it is all about, cleaning up
the city streets.

Why do you think the idea of creating a red light district in Rock
Bay outside of the downtown area was floated? To get it out of sight.

On Nov. 25 the TC had an article headlined, "Saskatchewan opens door
to involuntary detox for youth."

But of course we could never consider that. That would be cruel.
Denying someone of their addiction against their will?

My parents taught me the concept of tough love. What it boils down to
is this: Do we starve them of their addiction, or feed it?

Bob Broughton,

Victoria.