NOT ENOUGH DETOX BEDS TO MEET NEEDS

In trying to locate a detox center for a drug addict who desperately wanted
help but had no telephone and no car, I came face to face with the
deplorable truth: services for these people are practically nonexistent.
There is a lot of talk about help, but when you try to access help, it is a
very different story.

Are you aware there are only two detox units for the whole City of
Vancouver? The two units in Vancouver have an access line where an addict
can phone in, get on a waiting list and then call every day to update his
continued desire to be on the list ... which is fair enough if you have a
phone, if you are not disabled in some way, and if you have a car to get to
a phone or the 25 cents to pay for the phone.

But what really hit me with a wallop was to find there is only one detox
unit for every addict who lives between Burnaby and Hope. Now this is bad
enough, but the one and only tells all addicts who try to get in that they
must call at 7:30 a.m. in order to get on the waiting list.

I spoke with the manager of the detox unit and was advised that was the
only system that worked. To which I replied, "Yes, it works for you, but it
certainly does not work for the addicts."

Can you imagine having a broken leg and being told to call the hospital at
7:30 each morning to get onto the waiting list? What a demeaning and
inhumane way to treat anyone.

If all the Lower Mainland addicts wanting to get into detox are on the
telephone, calling the same number at 7:30 in the morning, all the lines
are plugged. They are beat before they can even get a telephone call in.

They just give up, realizing that, again, the system doesn't give a damn
about them. And if they can't be the one to get through on that 7:30 phone
call, they are too late. If they try again later, they will be told they
will have to try again the next morning.

Our addiction services are now under the wing of the Fraser Health
Authority. I believe the new auspices recognize that addiction is a
psychological and/or physical problem, therefore it is to be addressed
medically, not criminally. Nevertheless, detox continues to treat the
addict as if he were a criminal, taking no cognizance of the fact that it's
as much a medical problem as schizophrenia, manic depression, attention
deficit disorder or, for that matter, cancer.

It is time the public is educated to the fact that addiction is not simply
a matter of lack of self-control and to recognize it is a medical problem
that needs public attention and public funding.

It's time our public officials put themselves in the shoes of the general
public and tried facing the utter frustration, the hopeless despair and the
agonizing cruelty that faces too many of our population today. And maybe,
in the process, they could try the steps they are expected to take, without
a car, without a telephone and perhaps being disabled.

Patricia Powick Port Coquitlam