INSITE AN UNSTABLE PILLAR

In my previous life I bought supplies for the Vancouver Coastal
Health Authority, including a sterilized metal cup and syringe filter
system for our "clients" to use for melting drugs.

It was obvious that the lack of the remaining three of Vancouver's
Four Pillars approach provided an environment for our usage to
increase every quarter. And Insite's use of that product alone
doubled before year's end.

The local health authority insists it is cutting emergency care costs
by keeping drug addicts from overdosing and dying.

Keeping addicts alive without treatment ensures they will continue to
live as addicts, on welfare, and often use prostitution and crime to
sustain their habit.

Eventually they will overdose and die, and there will be nothing
Insite can do about it.

Contrast this to an Albertan organization where an acquaintance works
as an addiction control councillor. Without harm-reduction
techniques, they enforce three weeks of hard-core abstinence, with
life-skills training and home-environment shaping. This not only
keeps addicts alive but shows them that they are valuable.

We show care by helping people to live.

Tony Chung, Coquitlam