We need to make illegal drugs socially unacceptable

By Lethbridge Herald on April 11, 2023.

Editor:

Drinking and driving have become socially unacceptable, and if you are intoxicated and injure or kill someone while driving, you are going to jail, plus more. You will still face stiff consequences if you are caught before you hurt or kill somebody.

Smoking is socially unacceptable by the public, and when someone is smoking in public, they are considered lower than a cockroach.

Drug addicts? It’s not their fault so let them do their drugs, litter our streets, defecate and urinate wherever they please, and set a few fires here and there. 

When they set up an encampment, we have people clean up their garbage, including used needles.

Now, the do-gooders claim they are saving lives by offering clean needles, clothes, food, shelter, and a supervised site to inject, smoke, or snort the drug they choose. Really?

When I read the Lethbridge Herald, I see a lot of obituaries with young people in their 20s and 30s.

If the approach we are using now is so excellent, why are there so many deaths from drug overdoses?

If you think you are saving lives, let’s look at some harsh realities. I’m going to use methamphetamine as an example.

Methamphetamine is a lot of toxic chemicals that are mixed. There are a lot of people addicted to it in British Columbia. 

Although there are various opinions on the subject, it is believed that between 80 and 90 per cent of all who try methamphetamine once or twice will become addicted to it from that moment. Because of how it is manufactured, the average lifespan of a methamphetamine addict depends on how much meth the person takes and the concentration and integrity of the meth they are taking. It is said that the average lifespan of a person who is a full-time, hardcore meth user is about five to 10 years. 

What can we do differently? If we continue with the same approach, the future doesn’t look too bright. 

I agree we can’t arrest our way out of the problem. We can’t stop the supply of drugs from getting to their customers. The war on drugs is a lost cause.

We can’t help many drug addicts on our streets as they are too far away to return. So what can we do? Here are a few of my thoughts.

I believe our No. 1 job is to stop the young from doing drugs in the first place. With all the deaths from drug overdoses in the past years, there appear to be more drug addicts now than in the past. Therefore, more people are heading down that path, and I believe it is probably the 12 to 20-year-olds who we should concentrate on. Could we be more proactive in the schools, perhaps?

Stop calling drug addiction a disease. If it is a disease, then why aren’t you helping these people cure their disease? Do you fight a disease by exposing the sick to the very thing that is killing them? It’s like handing a suicidal person a gun because they aren’t ready yet to get help with their mental issues.

Stop calling the drug addicts our most vulnerable. I feel that the citizens that don’t do drugs, pay their taxes but are afraid to walk the streets of Lethbridge go for a picnic at Galt Gardens, or pick up a book at the library, are the most vulnerable.

Stop calling the drug addicts the homeless population. Yes, they may be homeless, but they might get their lives in order if they didn’t do drugs.

Just like alcohol and nicotine, we need to make illegal drugs socially unacceptable. 

Having said all this, we must stop the damage to our city and its citizens before it is too late. Our present premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, brought forward the Sovereignty Act.

 In theory, if we don’t like some law the federal government has in place because it would harm Alberta’s self-interest, we can ignore it. 

Why not bring out the Lethbridge Sovereignty Act so if we don’t like specific laws by either the federal or providential government that would be against our city’s interest, we could ignore those.

For example, we could talk to each drug addict on the street and offer them a free ticket to rehab, where they would be provided the services to get clean and sober, have a warm bed, and have healthy food. 

As they progress, they could be provided with life skills, including education and job placement.

There needs to be more than just offering this. This has been tried, and the percentage that takes up that offer is tiny. There must be a consequence if they are not willing to accept the gift of life.

It could be explained to the individual that if they are not ready to go for treatment, they are not welcome here in our city and have 24 hours to leave. 

It (transportation) could be provided if they need transportation to the area of their choice. If they don’t go, they will be arrested.

You can’t do that, some will scream! That’s the reason I added the Lethbridge Sovereignty Act. By the time the act is challenged in court, we may have solved much of our problem. We might also actually have saved some lives.

Wow, others will scream. How much would that cost? It’s always about money, isn’t it?. How much? My answer is much less than letting our downtown become a ghetto filled with drugs, guns and prostitution. 

We know what we are doing now is a complete failure, so let’s try something different. Let’s compare it to our climate change problem.

All the talking heads yak about how we have to do something quickly. The problem is that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Greta Thunberg was right when addressing world leaders in Milan, Italy, with her speech.

Let’s not be the talking heads. We moved from Nova Scotia to Lethbridge 25 years ago. I have always said that the people of Lethbridge think differently than any other people I have encountered throughout the world, including the rest of Alberta. Let’s use this to our advantage.

Doug Cameron 

Lethbridge