'JUNKIES' AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE

Editor, The NEWS:

Costs of drug epidemic enormous (Letters, March 20).

I am disheartened about your reply to Kerry Thompson. I found your reply
rude and ignorant. I understand who the victim is of the destruction, Mr.
Walls. The real victim(s) now since your reply to Kerry is to everybody who
is and who were seen as "junkies". I like to call them "human beings with
an addiction".

We have to remember that we do have limited outlets for addicts, but
everybody is unique and that some things don't work everybody.I believe
that not only does our social service system fail these people, but we as a
society fail them.How does our society fail "junkies"? We as a society turn
our heads so we don't have to look at them, in case they ask for change,
while turning our heads we start criticizing them about their lifestyle and
we may call them dehumanizing names under our breath or when we are at a
party talking about these "junkies". We all have answers for how
these"junkies" should live their life, we just never share them to the
person who is suffering in the addiction in a civilized manner.

Now I challenge you Mr. Fletcher. Hopefully, you could find some time in
your life to educate yourself on addiction. I think you will be surprise to
find that addicts come from all areas of our society, for example,
lawyers,doctors, judges, movie stars,music artists, mothers, fathers,
grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, etc.

Fucia Ume, Maple Ridge