ADDICTS NEED A HOME AS WELL

It's time to take responsibility for our problems as a society rather than
sweeping it under the rug for others to deal with.

A case in point: the negative reaction when the city signed a rental
agreement with John Howard Society to create housing for recovering addicts
in the Old City area.

Some businesses say crime will spike in the neighbourhood, keeping
customers away.

What that really states is there will be a crime wave simply because the
neighbourhood acquired five new residents, all of whom are walking the
difficult path back to sobriety.

That's a bit of a stretch, if you really think about it.

While criminologists have identified a loose link between addiction and
crime, that's usually during the addict's downward slide to rock bottom.

Recovering alcoholics and others coming to grips with substance abuse are
usually no different than their neighbours.

And face it - recovering addicts are everywhere.

Too often, we see a knee-jerk reaction when organizations appear with
proposals aimed at helping people with substance abuse problems.

It happened when 7-10 Club sought the zoning needed to move its soup
kitchen to Cavan Street, and twice when the Salvation Army tried to create
a homeless shelter.

Both these facilities would actually serve either the addicts themselves or
those immediately affected - the families of what really amounts to a
medical problem.

The bigger drug problem is with crack houses and party houses which often
cause neighbourhood disturbances for weeks or even months before they can
be shut down.

When we work to block facilities intended to help those hurt by addiction,
we're denying a problem exists, and in the long run we're denying people
the right to improve themselves. That's not right.