Pubdate: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 Times Colonist Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Bob Broughton Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) DON'T FEED AN ADDICT'S HABIT Why am I not surprised to read that politicians are touting free booze for alcoholics? Free heroin and cocaine for the addicted made it through the hoops. And the big selling point of course is harm reduction. Why don't we just publicly fund all addictions? After all these things place a cost on society. All sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it? Because it is. If your child was a drug addict or alcoholic, would you set up a little room in your house for him/her to imbibe and then supply it for them too? Of course not. You love them and don't want to feed their addiction. Why are nicotine addicts treated like pariahs and all other addictions are treated as diseases? What an insult to people with cancer, lupus, MS, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases. A disease is an involuntary condition and an addiction is a voluntary condition caused by obsession and lack of self-control. These programs have been proven not to work. If there other viable options being considered, I sure haven't heard about them. All I read about is the 'sweep them under the rug' option. And in my opinion that is what it is all about, cleaning up the city streets. Why do you think the idea of creating a red light district in Rock Bay outside of the downtown area was floated? To get it out of sight. On Nov. 25 the TC had an article headlined, "Saskatchewan opens door to involuntary detox for youth." But of course we could never consider that. That would be cruel. Denying someone of their addiction against their will? My parents taught me the concept of tough love. What it boils down to is this: Do we starve them of their addiction, or feed it? Bob Broughton, Victoria. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom