USE WOODWARD'S BUILDING TO SOLVE TWO MAJOR PROBLEMS

Why not use the Woodward's building for a safe injection site, as well as a
treatment centre (Woodward's deal dead after new bid rejected, Nov. 22)? It
seems to me the building could be turned into a treatment centre that
offered addicts a haven for safe injection while they undergo live-in
treatment. It would cost a great deal of money to turn the building into a
facility capable of housing all these addicts, but right now it is costing
money to keep them alive.

Only addicts willing to be confined to "Woodward House" for six months to a
year for treatment would be allowed to use the safe-injection room, while
being weaned off the drugs. There is no point in having addicts get their
injection then go back out into the world in which they are lost without
treatment. Addicts not committing to live-in treatment would be a policing
problem, with junkies jailed for using illegal drugs on the street.

Why should we fear sending our kids to college downtown or to TinselTown or
to clubs in the Downtown Eastside? We cannot continue to let addicts use
illegal drugs on the street without consequences. Else, why bother saying
drugs are illegal? Whoever decides what is to be done with Woodward's and
other buildings like it should consider the advantages of using these
vacant buildings in an effort to work toward cleaning up this city and its
addicted citizens.

Nancy Upton

West Vancouver