A FAMILY MEMBER OF A JUNKIE RESPONDS

Re: The Mean Streets Of Victoria, Letters To The Editor, Sept. 5.

Letter-writer Benedikt Fischer offers a rather romantic portrayal of
Victoria's street people, which is perhaps not surprising, as those
people form the raison d'etre for his employment as director of the
Centre for Addictions Research at the University of Victoria. As a
victim of a junkie, however, rather than a beneficiary, I subscribe
wholeheartedly to the alternative view.

As a family member of one of Victoria's junkie population, I do not
agree that "most wish their main remedy did not have to be a dose of
crack or heroin injected in an alleyway." As many a family member of a
junkie will tell you, until the day they actually reject a dose in
favour of detox, addicts wish for little besides more and more doses
of crack or heroin, and the fewest possible distractions from getting
on with them. The feelings, needs and rights of other people are
distractions that junkies very readily dispense with.

Junkies are pretty ruthless about acquiring the means to get more
drugs, and one of the means they need is territory. They need a place
to hang out with their cronies, a place to connect with dealers and a
place to shoot up. They don't care if it's an alley, as long as no one
hassles them. As both Vancouver and Victoria have shown, any territory
not aggressively defended by civilized society will be lost to the
drug scene.

It is very convenient, but not at all believable, to assert that
mental illness is behind the majority of drug use, panhandling and
street life. If drug use were not so generously supported by society,
via the generous supply of free food and shelter that allows junkies
to concentrate better on their drug-seeking rather than on self-care,
I think a lot of purportedly mentally ill people would recover their
sanity quite quickly (leaving services available for the truly
mentally ill).

It is also convenient, but, again, not believable, to assert that drug
users are victims of urban society. If lack of services caused drug
addiction, then there would be a lot more addicts. To see addicts as
hapless victims forces the conclusion that they are powerless over
their actions, in which case they should not be autonomous. If we
consider them as autonomous as other citizens, free to use the
streets, then they need to be accountable for how they use them.

Drug use isn't easy to beat by any means. But making excuses for drug
users and supporting their drug use doesn't make it any easier. In
fact, it makes it nearly impossible.

Karin Litzcke, Vancouver.