HELPING DRUG ADDICTS MAKE THE WRONG CHOICES

The recent special report on the effects of methamphetamine, along with
other stories of aggressive panhandlers, vacant buildings wrecked by junkie
squatters and violence at emergency shelters, are parts of a larger picture.

Researchers tell us that "crystal meth" - the latest thing in street drugs
- - is so destructive it actually induces mental illness, altering brain
chemistry and creating debilitating effects that persist long after the
user stops.

It is cheap, relatively easy to manufacture, and worst of all, induces a
false sense of well-being in the user that can lead to severe psychological
addiction. Meth users aren't the only ones suffering from a false sense of
well-being.

An industry has sprung up in towns around the province to manage the
effects of what is euphemistically called "homelessness."

Yes, people who trade their homes, their families, their earning capacity
and their self-respect for dope are "homeless," but that's like calling a
burning house "paintless."

It's technically true, but not exactly a useful observation.

These days in many communities there's a food bank, a soup kitchen, and an
emergency shelter.

Provincial taxpayers support a "free" health care and welfare system, and
the federal government offers a disability pension for life for those with
enough damage, self-inflicted or not.

Naive "harm reduction" programs that spend taxpayers' money on needles or
crack pipes haven't yet found a Band-aid approach for this lethal stuff,
but give them time.

It's a truism of the addiction recovery movement that "enabling" an addict
to continue abusing himself and his loved ones, and making excuses for him,
are grave errors.

But somehow common sense gets lost at the political level, and a growing
bureaucracy is built and funded to give addicts ways to keep making the
wrong choices.

Municipal councillors talk earnestly about the wonders of "smart growth" to
revitalize downtown trouble spots, while the police are fighting a losing
battle to protect property from chronic theft and vandalism.

All the "smart growth" plans in the world aren't going to help if they
aren't supported by social and criminal justice policies that actually work.