SAFE CRACK-INHALING ROOMS, PART II
The following comes from Jean, a dear friend.
It was sent in as a comment on yesterdays's posting, but it deserves wider exposure.
Jean has done more good and does more good every day in this field than all the local "experts" combined and then some. All she does is turn out clean and sober citizens.
"I have worked in addictions and mental health treatment for over 28 years and a move toward providing places to smoke crack is most disheartening. This would be "safe" and/or "supervised"? Smoking crack is never safe. What is to supervise? The general public should know that crack addicts smoke crack frequently throughout the day and night, not just once a day! To believe that they will hang out at the government funded facility to continue this habitual behaviour all day and night is naive. They go elsewhere and continue the behaviour. This has a negative effect not just on the addict, but on their families and the community in which they live. It is preposterous to believe that smoking up in a "supervised" setting will lead to treatment or even a reduction in use. I'm bothered that any government offical would try to sell that notion to the public. Sounds more like the government is mandating the slow suicide of persons who are willing to use that type of facility just so they can stay high. Does much else really matter to an addict until they receive a wake up call to straighten out for a while? Not really, because folks, their lives centre around the drug taking behaviour. Period. If we, if the government, really wants to do something about the drug problem in Vancouver or elsewhere, we would put money into treatment and provide motivation for addicts to want to go there."
6 comments:
I operated a business on the periphery of the DET for many years and the extreme damage crack cocaine has done was so evident.
I distinctly remember a very attractive girl, addicted to crack, grow from a teen to a lady, until they found her diseased body stiff with death in a dumpster.
And they want free inhalation sites to continue this? Lunatics, charlatans, evil doers, drug dealers, and profoundly stupid people all - who want to support this dreadful nonsense.
Evil Eye
David,
What disturbs me about this issue is that people who have spent years working in the addiction field are virtually ignored today, replaced by medical "authorities" who advocate free injection sites and now, crack sites.
I would suggest that a public forum to debate this matter is overdue. Find a retired judge to chair the debate.
Oh yes.... I listened to one of the fellows promoting this ridiculous idea on Boreing Bill's program the other day. In Bill's own words, "I've always been conflicted on this - providing drugs for addicts.........but on the other hand"........etc. A disservice is done when radio talk show hosts, who obviously know zilch about addictions, interview guests purporting such nonsense and do not know the pertinent, hard hitting, valid questions to ask. Wishy washy misinformation is what usually goes out over the airwaves.
Utter nonsense. Where the hell is the "fourth pillar"?.....TREATMENT - getting off of the addicting substance, NOT enabling, is what is needed for any addiction.
June
The trouble is Governments will spend more money on crack-pot (no pun intended) ideas that achieve no end than dollars for a solution for the problem. Just follow the money - who gets to do all the government funded studies that achieve nothing but more studies.
Ah isn't it great to fund "friends" with public dollars? Cynical but true as the many government scandals prove.
Provide the space for doing an illegal drug, fund it under the medical system...drive up the costs of MSP even more - say we're no longer able to fund our medical system at all - bring in privatized medicine. Of course medical folk will be behind this - it serves their ultimate purpose!
That these crack addicted folk are gonna die years ahead of their time is no concern - get rid of the riff raff...at least that appears to be the case to me.
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