VLES PRODUCES PRODUCTIVE CITIZENS

Re: Jody Paterson's July 31 column "Valuable addiction program bites dust,"
about the closing of the Victoria Life Enrichment Society.

I too have been through their drug and alcohol program and am saddened by
their closure due to government cutbacks. I'm quite upset that Premier
Gordon Campbell's cronies didn't think this one through.

By the comments in Paterson's article, the people who went through the
program are now productive members of our society, instead of being a
burden to it. I know from personal experience how going through VLES can
turn someone's life around.

Instead of lying, cheating and manipulating my way through life and being a
burden to all people around me, I'm an asset not a liability. I'm now
helping any way I can to be there for others who are going through the
pains of addiction as I did.

I had lost my pulp mill job due to my addictions and if I had gone to a day
program I don't think I could have gone through the year and a half it took
to get my job back through arbitration.

Mainly because of the life skills that VLES taught me, I was able to do the
things I had to, not only to stay clean and sober, but also to cope with
not having any steady income for that period.

I hope others will write letters and comments so our voices can be heard.

Doug Schaede, Chemainus.