Pubdate: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 Source: Medicine Hat News (CN AB) Copyright: 2009 Alberta Newspaper Group, Inc. Contact: http://www.medicinehatnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1833 Author: Alex McCuaig, News Reporter DEALING WITH DRUG ABUSE ISSUE WOULD REDUCE CRIME A serious drug addiction to crack cocaine or heroin is never a pretty thing. It is a sickness and one which needs treatment of one sort or another. But what if you can't access the medicine which will treat this illness? With the situation of the Second Chance Methadone Clinic in Calgary and its litany of problems trying to find a suitable location to operate, we face this exact problem. Residents of Calgary's Braeside neighbourhood said without reservation this week the clinic is not going into its neck of the woods. The idea of recovering drug addicts walking the streets of a suburban neighbourhood is a tough act to spin with concerned parents. But such a neighbourhood might be like the streets a recovering addict grew up on or where they had their first kiss at the playground down the way. There is not a central well from which all hard drug users come, nor one neighbourhood from which they spring. Once addicted to a hard drug, committing crime to pay for heroin or crack is an easier pill for the addict to swallow than the withdrawal. Politicians and study groups go around the province asking the public to voice their opinions on how can Albertans deal with crime issues. "Deal with the drug issue and the property crime will drop," is what experts usually say at these meetings of minds. Which leads us back to the issue of Calgary's Second Chance methadone clinic and its attempts to "deal" with drugs through treatment. But it can't because nobody wants it in their neighbourhood. A paradox if there ever was one. Sayings often repeated in legal and law enforcement circles is that 20 per cent of criminals commit 80 per cent of crime while the majority of all crime stems from drugs and alcohol. Medicine Hat doesn't have this issue with our methadone clinic, but what if we were approved to get the drug treatment facility which community groups have been asking for? Will we be faced with the same issue of nobody wanting it next to their land? Based on Second Chance's experience, we should be asking ourselves now: Are we willing to deal with drug abuse or is it easier to deal with our homes being broken into? - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr