WE NEED TO WAKE UP TO OUR HORRENDOUS DRUG PROBLEM

Congratulations!

To everyone who planned and worked so hard to bring an end to the
detox and mat program -- you win again!

As a parent, who has counted on and pleaded with government to have a
detox centre established in our city over the past seven years, my
hopes have again been smashed.

For some of us, the very lives of our loved ones are at stake. The
long waits to get into Edmonton or Calgary can sometimes be a death
sentence when someone needs immediate help.

It seems that no one wants it in their back yard.

It seems that everyone is so afraid of the people who would be
attending these programs -- their property values declining, people
stoned on drugs or drunk in their neighborhood.

Guess what? These people are already living in your neighborhoods --
in your alleys, in my home and couch surfing in the homes of many
other citizens all over the city of Red Deer.

With no mat program these people can go back to sleeping in doorways
or alleys (maybe even your yard).

You see, the drug problem is not going away but is growing
exponentially in Red Deer. Three years from now when another site is
available, what will your attitude be then?

Because no one wants it in their "back yard", the citizens of Red Deer
will continue to pick someone's dead loved one off the streets or out
of back alleys in someone else's back yard.

The EXH Program was only a beginning to address the drug and alcohol
problem as well as the severe homeless, but a beginning
none-the-less.

Wake up Red Deer, we have a huge drug problem that is not going to go
away because no one wants to see it in their back yard.

Until we get serious about helping our addicted sons and daughters,
fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, we can only count on
increased death and increased crime to support this problem.

Sharon Congo

Red Deer