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. 
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MAP posted-by: Steve Heath