Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2014 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Clark Katona Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n034/a12.html COSTLY CRIMINAL ADDICTS NEED TO QUIT DRUGS Re: Lifelong addict, criminal needs more than another stay in prison, Column, Jan. 10 It is virtually impossible to find an addict of heroin, crack cocaine or crystal meth who is not a criminal. Addicts can easily have a $ 100- to $ 200- daily habit. To support this requires multiple daily thefts from stores, cars, homes and people, totalling about $ 1,000 to $ 2,000 every day. Added public costs include police and hospital services. The cost to have criminal addicts in prison is a lot less expensive than the cost of their freedom in the public domain. More than prison is required. For example, a controlled environment for criminal addicts, like remote work and skills development sites could be tried, with treatment of the addiction as the top priority. Our best hope is to help remove the addict from the criminal, and admit that we will never be able to take the criminal out of the addict. Politicians and civil rights groups need to stop enabling addicts to remain addicts. We should only support harm elimination for addicts. Increase support for former criminals who are no longer addicts. Clark Katona Vancouver - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D