WE DON'T BUILD MORE CASINOS TO HELP GAMBLERS

Thanks to Joey Thompson for her column on safe-injection
sites.

I've been adamant about expanding the so-called harm-reduction (HR)
strategies which got us into this mess in the first place, and
Thompson's piece was right on.

Forced rehabilitation in a confined facility is the only thing that
will work.

Though this sounds draconian and unfair, it is far less unfair than
perpetuating the endless cycle of misery these addicts are drawn into.

Previous HR strategies have only been Band-Aid solutions to try and
control the problems of addiction and the spread of disease.

The dismal results show HR has had just the opposite effect -- as
shown by the exponential increase in problems since the first
needle-exchange program opened in the late 1980s and the devastation
wreaked on the Downtown Eastside and in Surrey's King George area.

The same people who advocate these HR strategies would be the first to
tell you they wouldn't support free booze and beer mugs for
alcoholics, cigarettes and ashtrays for smokers or more casinos for
gambling addicts.

So why do they suggest a different approach for drug addicts?
Especially, as Thompson points out, injection-use is only a small
portion of the drug problem?

One other thing -- no one has even stopped to consider how unfair and
socially irresponsible it is for us to be handing out free injection
supplies and other support services for drug addicts when thousands of
insulin-using diabetics and those suffering from other chronic
illnesses requiring multiple daily injections must pay for their own
supplies just to live, not to enjoy themselves.

Where is the cry of support for them?

W.A. Thompson,

Quesnel