ADDICTS DISABLED? THAT'S A DOWNER

Ann Livingston insists that local drug users, addicts, should have full
access to Carnegie Centre facilities [Straight Talk, April 17-24]. To make
her case, she states that the courts (in their "wisdom") have defined
addiction as a disability.

Drug addicts need lots of cash to buy heroin, cocaine, or whatever. The
low-to-no-income ones will steal anything, anywhere, anytime, from anyone.
Now Carnegie is just one more venue for opportunistic theft and other
sordid activities. As a regular at Carnegie, I find this makes the centre a
much less comfortable place for me to read, listen to live music, et cetera.

My second concern is with the evolution of drug use: from "I'll try it" to
"I like it" to "I like it a lot!" to "I'm a disabled person." Wow! Now
anyone who develops an extreme affection for a particular food, or a kind
of a car, or a person, or soccer can, to obtain some private or social
benefit, label themselves a person with a disability. George Orwell's
Newspeak flourishes!

Mike Tropp

Vancouver