Pubdate: Sat, 16 Aug 2008
Source: Daily Gleaner (CN NK)
Copyright: 2008 Brunswick News Inc.
Contact:  http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3857
Note: Cartoon: http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/gallery/386529,171277

WAIT TIMES AND CRIME GO HAND-IN-HAND

In our view: Combat the lack of addiction help with an  attitude
change

Imagine the enormous decision to finally seek help for  your drug
addiction.

After years of abuse, crime, family estrangement,  health problems,
poverty and all the other vices that  accompany addiction, you take
that first floundering  step toward recovery.

You summon to courage, make that call, spill your heart  out, and are
told you could wait seven months before  getting into a rehab program.

That news is enough to send you spiraling back down  into the black
hole of addiction and crime just because  of the sheer enormity of the
long road ahead.

That's the reality facing drug addicts in Fredericton.  Depending on
their circumstances, seven months can be  the wait time to get into a
methadone program here.

It's not that addiction workers aren't doing their best  - they are -
but they can only do so much with the  resources at their disposal. A
lack of beds, staff and  money limits their ability to treat everyone
who wants  to be treated in a timely fashion.

We all have to live with medical wait times. They are  an unfortunate
fact of life in New Brunswick. But  unlike the person on a waiting
list for a hip  replacement, there is a hefty price to pay when an 
addict has to wait.

Judge Graydon Nicholas sees this price in his court on  a regular
basis. He's lost count of the number of  shoplifting cases linked to
drug abuse. He says  robberies have increased in recent years, all
linked to  drugs. And pharmacists are at risk of being held up by 
those seeking the most direct route to their fix.

This is a desperate cry for help from the addicted, but  the cry is
being put on hold.

In the meantime, break-ins, thefts, fraud and robberies  will
continue. Our community is bound to be impacted as  victims of those
crimes, while the same old attitude  that this is a correctional issue
continues.

What needs to change before anything else will change  is the attitude
surrounding the issue: it's a health  problem, not a crime problem.
The crime that  accompanies drug addiction is merely a symptom of the 
disease.

Once we recognize it for what it is, then we can focus  on cutting
wait times with more resources, and adding  more prevention programs
to our education system.

Until then, hold onto your purses and lock your doors,  because it
isn't going to get any better.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin