AN ADDICTIVE IDEA

As the mother of an addicted son who is "somewhere" in the bowels of
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, I am encouraged by compassionate ideas
such as the one in the article ["Dunbar gets the treatment,"
Observer, Nov. 10-16 issue].I agree that treatment centres would have
more chance of success if they were not located in the heart of the
problem itself.In fact, at one point my son even made this very comment.

Let's face it.People with means ften go to rehab centres which are
more like four-or five-star spas - and usually located in some rural
Utopia. Why can we not at least share some of the goods with the
downtrodden and marginalized human beings whose lives and
environments are a living hell?One thing those folks in Dunbar need
to remember is that some of the "addicts" once lived in
neighbourhoods very much like their own before the disease of
addiction took hold.

There but for the grace of God ....

L. Morley