Real evidence doesn’t support SCS model

By Letter to the Editor on August 6, 2020.

Re: “Harm reduction still an effective strategy,” July 22 letter to the editor.

The empirical evidence to which the author refers is clouded in a report that adds in alcohol, drugs and other addictive substances to hide the reality. What the evidence actually shows is very few addicts rehab based on the four pillars and fewer yet remain sober after two years. So the “empirical evidence” is only supported in one aspect and that is if someone is around an addict that is taking the illegal substance and that substance is strafed with something that may kill her or him, then the evidence shows you have a better chance of saving them.

The empirical evidence also shows that as a result of “being saved,” addicts will experiment with stronger drugs and more of them because death has been removed as a deterrent. SCSs for 50 years have manipulated the “empirical evidence” and for simple reason. The four pillars is the largest consumer of taxpayer money with the least measureable of results. It employs numerous professionals in a guaranteed job for life and as long as you can use bullying, berating and fake “empirical evidence” you can continue with the cash cow that the four pillars generates at all levels. No one wants to actually show the public the real numbers of recovered addicts because it pales against the numbers of new addicts.

So any city stupid enough to get involved in the four pillars is guaranteed to be riddled with crime for the next 40 years. The only people that suffer through the four pillars are the residents of the city stupid enough to get involved. Addicts don’t suffer because they quit as soon as the rehab gets tough. Very few meet the milestone of two years clean; the entire process is a joke and has been a joke since “the professionals” thought it up. You will always find numbers of referrals to the next pillar, and “lives saved,” but the end-game numbers disappear faster than the taxpayer funding!

Dennis Bremner

Lethbridge