Pubdate: Fri, 27 Mar 2009
Source: North Shore News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 North Shore News
Contact:  http://www.nsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/311
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

STATUS QUO ADDICTS

IT'S hard to understand why our provincial government, as fiscally 
conservative as it is, is willing to pay so much for addiction.

A report from the British Columbia Medical Association, released 
Thursday, suggests the costs to our health care, law enforcement and 
economy as a whole run close to $6 billion annually. As many as one 
in 10 visits to Vancouver General Hospital's ER relate to substance 
abuse, according to the association. Across the province, enough bed 
space is taken up by addicts to fill Kelowna General Hospital to the 
brim for a year.

As alarming as this is, it is hardly news. Few would argue that 
addiction to drugs, alcohol and other poisons costs our system 
dearly, but our government steadfastly refuses to do what's needed to 
address it. Instead, our leaders give us more of the same, trying to 
arrest their way out of the problem.

The majority of the expense could be avoided if we simply changed our 
approach. Addiction should be recognized for what it is: A disease. 
Those who fall prey to it are willing to forfeit their possessions, 
steal from others, risk their freedom and even sell their own bodies 
to feed their habit. No amount of enforcement will change that. But 
medical treatment just might.

The solution won't be cheap, to be sure. The BCMA estimates 600 
treatment beds and 240 detox spaces will be necessary. But as much as 
those will cost us, surely the tab will be lower than the one we're paying now.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom