FIGHTING DRUG ABUSE IS FUTILE WITHOUT MOST IMPORTANT PILLAR

Re: Crackdown hasn't cut drug use in Downtown Eastside: report, May 11; and
Police: Drug market down dramatically, May 12

These articles made it clear that the addition of 40 police officers
in the Downtown Eastside was not meant to clean up the drug problem,
but "to restore order to a community in crisis."

On television, Mayor Larry Campbell clarified that the extra officers
and enforcement of the laws was only one of the four-pillars approach
to the drug problem.

It seems to me that the most important pillar is treatment. Thousands
of people, including the police and the addicts, have been calling for
detox centres. When will they be opened?

Without offering help to those wanting to get off drugs or alcohol,
lives will continue to be lost.

Sister Elizabeth Kelliher

Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement

Vancouver