DRUG ADDICTION NO VACATION

Editor,

I am glad that I live in a country where opinions may be freely expressed,
even opinions that are as ill-informed and devoid of actual research as
those to which Denny Boyd sees fit to subject us ("A Druggies Dream," Dec.
12 issue).

Is Mr. Boyd completely unaware of the runaway HIV problem amongst addicts
in Vancouver? Safe injection sites will be instrumental in reducing the
exponential spread of HIV and Hepatitis, thus greatly lessening human
misery and significantly lowering the burden on our already strained health
system. Ultimately, this strategy saves us all tax dollars. It costs far
less to provide a safe consumption site than it does to provide palliative
care.

In his column, Mr. Boyd poses questions that are absolutely preposterous.
He asks, "How many nurses and doctors will want to make a career out of
tending diseased crack addicts?" Quite a lot, actually.

Addiction is fundamentally a health issue, and last I heard that was pretty
much what doctors and nurses were about. There are many dedicated health
pros working the streets today who would rejoice in the advent of safe
injection sites, since they would greatly lessen the misery that they treat
on a daily basis. Letting people shoot up in an alley with shared needles
and water from a mud puddle is "enabling" the spread of HIV. Safe injection
sites are the complete antithesis of that.

Mr Boyd might also care to do a little research. Crack addicts don't
actually shoot up 15 or 20 times a day at all; crack is smoked, not injected.

He did get one thing right though -- addiction is a disease.

And finally, Mr. Boyd smugly suggests that drug addiction is something akin
to a vacation! I can't think of anyone who would willingly take that kind
of a vacation. Maybe, just maybe, the reason why Mr. Boyd is so puzzled by
the fact that Larry Campbell and Philip Owen see eye to eye on this issue
is, that unlike him, they have both seen the problem first-hand and know
from experience that enforcement and incarceration are not workable
approaches to the problem.

Their approach is actually very rational and well thought out. Perhaps this
is why Mr. Boyd seems unable to comprehend it.

Robert Bailey

Bowen Island