Pubdate: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 Source: Maple Ridge News (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 Maple Ridge News Contact: http://www.mapleridgenews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1328 Author: Loring Anderson WE NEED MORE DRUG TREATMENT CENTRES Editor, the News: I'm writing in regard to drug addiction in our community and country. Being a former addict for more than 30 years, I know the horrible consequences and harm caused by addiction. I am, however, shocked and angered by one of the pillars of the so-called Harm Reduction Initiative. I am shocked that the provincial, federal and some community governments are supporting the continued addiction of addicts by supplying them with needles and places to shoot their drugs. Add to that a federally funded initiative called NAOMI (North American Opiate Medication Initiative). It consists of supplying 470 heroin addicts in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal with heroin and methadone at a cost of more than $8 million. How can supplying drugs, needles and government-sponsored shooting galleries help addicts quit the drugs that are killing them? Imagine there's a fire and the fire department arrives to put out the fire and pours gasoline on it. That is the same rational as trying to help addicts quit drugs by giving them drugs, needles and places to shoot their drugs. T. Dalyrimple of the Associated Press wrote in 1997: "There is a progression in the minds of people; first the unthinkable becomes thinkable, and then it becomes an orthodoxy whose truth seems so obvious that no one remembers that anyone thought differently." I can't help wondering how many addicts could be helped out of their addictions if the $8 million currently being used to supply drugs, needles and government-sponsored shooting galleries was instead used to fund treatment centres. Loring Anderson Maple Ridge - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin