Pubdate: Tue, 05 Sep 2006 Source: Chilliwack Progress (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 The Chilliwack Progress Contact: http://www.theprogress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/562 Author: Mary Hartman Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) THERE'S A BETTER WAY TO TREAT ADDICTS THAN INJECTION SITES Chilliwack needs a safe injection site like a hole in the head. Surely the rhetorical nonsense with the Vancouver experiment, where millions of taxpayers' dollars have been spent to keep 100 chosen few addicts in a euphoric haze daily, pumping poison in to their systems, is already too much. Get real. The remaining addicts still foul the streets and ally ways of Vancouver and afar. The panhandlers continue to hassle and harass the local public and tourists, driving visitors away. Letters from as far away as New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and California have complained about the addicts and dirty streets of Victoria and Vancouver, saying that they will tell their friends not to come here. How does that message grab you? The latest headlines are quoted as saying that crime in Vancouver has increased. Of course it has -- addicts are stealing anything they can get their hands on. Copper piping, copper wire, plumbing fixtures and any metal available in order to get a fix. Would and injection site in Chilliwack stop the stealing here? Of course not, as there would be a chosen few addicts picked to go on the course, just like the one in Vancouver where only 100 could be fitted into the experiment. Why should the taxpayers continue to pay for addicts to pump their systems full of drugs? When should the experiment stop? It would be cheaper to use the money to buy them all a computer and teach them how to use it. Addiction is a sickness and should be treated as such, not pampered. They should register as addicts, go through full rehabilitation treatment until capable of taking their place in society, receive appropriate training befitting the person's capabilities, gaining self-respect and a better life than as a useless drug addict. Those addicts treated but still unable to join the workforce should be given suitable disability pension and subsidized housing and not left to wander the streets to be abused and used by others in similar circumstances. For scientists have stated that many long term pot smokers have developed schizophrenia. A worthwhile study on how the other half lives, handling mental illness humanely, can be found on the Internet from the Mental Health Department of Western Australia. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath