RECOVERING ADDICT ADDS VOICE TO DEBATE

To the editor:

After reading the article, "Injection sites a hot topic for
councillors," April 21, I am alarmed at provincial health officer Dr.
Perry Kendall's statement that "focusing on treatment before safe
injection sites are established is not practical because there's
always a percentage of addicts who don't want treatment, or for whom
traditional treatment programs don't work."

I appreciate that he wants to have safe injection sites on a
health-related level, such as for prevention of HIV/AIDS and Hep C,
but I would hope he would consider the vast need for a continuing
care program in order for harm reduction to really be a success.

I am a recovering heroin addict who spent 20 years in the Downtown
Eastside, the last five on methadone maintenance. My methadone doctor
encouraged me to see a counsellor through the methadone clinic, and I
have now been living in recovery houses for 18 months, and totally
abstinent for more than 13 months, (the longest period in 25 years).

I've had to go through different levels in my recovery-from seeing a
doctor and a counsellor, to a methadone recovery house, residential
treatment, and a totally abstinent recovery house. I have now gone
back to school. It has all been a process of becoming a functioning
responsible member of society. I would encourage Dr. Kendall to
implement more treatment programs, as well as work programs and
housing programs to help facilitate people back into society. Drug
addiction is so much more than a drug problem. It is poverty, bad
housing, lack of education-a societal problem that needs so much more
than safe injection sites, heroin maintenance, or methadone programs.
It is just my opinion, but I have been in the trenches, and I know
what worked for me.

There is always the possibility that some addicts who access these
harm reduction programs will not utilize the assistance of treatment
programs, but please, have them in place for those who want recovery,
who want to live.

Lisa Lebed, Vancouver