Responses to Today's Province Column

Dear David,

I was happy to see your name and read your words as I still miss your afternoon show on CKNW. I write to them regularly to let them know this and hope my repeated suggestions that Ms. Clarke isn't particularly good at her job and you ought to be given that afternoon time slot will at some point be paid some attention.

I agree with you on the issue of addiction, I have always tended to agree with anyone who understands that harm-reduction is the exact opposite of what it purports to be. Painfully costly to the taxpayers and without discernable good outcomes, ever.

I wish I could do something so it's gratifying to see people like you speaking out. I hope you get another radio gig sometime because weekend afternoons were so vastly improved when you were on the air.

Regards,
Melissa MacKay

To the editor,I understand how David Berner got the impression that "Harm reductionmeasures ... hold sway in the official view," while "Enforcement,prevention and treatment are given short shrift." This false dichotomybetween harm reduction and the other "four pillars" is often madein the media.The "official view" is that Canada needs a "balanced approach," withequal emphasis on each pillar, however, about 75 per cent of our drugcontrol budget is allocated to the criminal justice system, 15 per centto treatment and only 4 per cent to harm reduction. In contrast toenforcement, harm reduction works synergistically with the other pillarsand more than pays for itself in downstream costs. I felt proud to see Libby Davies receive an award at an internationalconference on drug policy in New Orleans last week. Mayor Sam Sullivanalso addressed the conference, and compared addiction to his owndisability, but he did not propose providing addicts with clean drugsand syringes in perpetuity, rather, he likened such interventions toproviding crutches to injured athletes on the mend. Would wounded skiers be more motivated to recover if we took away theirwheelchairs, ramps and parking spaces and dumped them in urine soakedalleys to be preyed upon by violent criminals scalping lift tickets?Would that send the right message to kids to be more careful on theslopes? Maybe, but as a father of three daughters, when all else fails,(which it more often than not does), I would rather find them alive in abrothel or injection site than dead on a pig farm. Matthew M. Elrod4493-A Lindholm RoadVictoria, B.C.V9C-3Y1250-474-6956

Dear Mr. Burner,

The big difference between people like yourself and those you disparage in your editorial rant is that those others actually have plans and are taking steps to mitigate the lives of many unfortunate people, both of men and of women. Your ideological position might have merit if there was funding for detox and rehab, of which, as you know, there is virtually none. Therefore you advocate continuing doing nothing. If I was gambling man your column would persuade me that you probably vote Conservative federally and Liberal provincially, and resist any ideas of paying higher taxes. But guess what – solutions are going to cost big dollars and doing nothing will cost even more. So as they say “put up or shut up” – either provide your readers with concrete suggestions or restrict your ignorant comments to similarly inclined ideologists.

Raymond Graham

Victoria