[Vancouver Sun Editorial Introduction:
While many professionals endorse safe injection sites and clean needles for
drug addicts, other counsellors think a combination of jail and treatment
is the best answer]

ON PINS AND NEEDLES, 2 of 5

As a social worker working with the marginalized population, I am pleased
to see another professional colleague addressing the need for treatment
(the cure) as opposed to condoning and enabling addiction (the poison),
through needle exchanges and drug injection sites (Officer sees a
right-wing fix for drug mess, Oct. 26).

Recently, I was in the city shopping when I pulled over to use a pay phone
on East Hastings Street near the Carnegie Centre. I was shocked to see
individuals fixing in the lanes and openly engaging in what appeared to be
drug transactions on the main thoroughfare. It was like watching Through a
Blue Lens in my car windscreen.

The clients I work with are constantly searching for treatment options and
they identify their addiction as a criminogenic factor leading to their
criminality. These individuals need help pulling themselves out of "pit of
raw sewage," not holding them down under the guise of compassion (harm
reduction).

Thankfully, Constable Al Arsenault has the integrity to speak his mind and
speak for those incapacitated by their addiction.

April Miller

Victoria