People still dying despite efforts to address addictions problems

By Lethbridge Herald on July 1, 2023.

Editor:

As we continue to argue over which approach is the politically correct one, we continue to see that none are working. NDP scream UCP wrong, yet the NDP program in B.C. is a disaster. The UCP believes that everyone will rehab if given an opportunity but that’s also a dud that failed in Europe. So what we do is we argue, or better yet, we get to watch the eye-rolling of the higher learning of Lethbridge.

We get people using terms like “evidence” as if it is a “proof.” We make comments like SCSs save lives! Anytime you can supervise an addict is one less time he/she can die. We use this as “evidence” that SCSs save lives!  

Let us suppose we could train a monkey to stay with an addict 24/7/365 and could recognize an overdose, and administer naloxone and call 911. We then could say “monkeys save lives.” In both cases anytime you are with an addict, you are reducing his/her odds of dying.

So unless we come up with the ability of producing a cold weather monkey, then its easy to say that we are going to permanently need to assist addicts, permanent, is “forever”! 

All political parties treat this as if it’s a solvable thing! If only they were in power they could clean this mess up once and for all! The facts say otherwise, yet we treat our downtowns as if this is a done deal soon!

How does society co-exist with a group that, as a byproduct of their addiction, intentionally destroys that same society, and will do so, forever!

That is the question that no one wants to answer!  The political/religious answer is to sacrifice society, to fix addiction.  We create the “Savin Lives-Killing Livelihoods” dichotomy that no one wants to address. 

Why are addicts dying in Lethbridge? We shelter them with immediate access to dealers. We scour the streets nightly to find those OD’ing, so they can be saved!  We slap the wrists of dealers when caught, we slap the wrists of the addict when committing a crime, and we release those who did jail time into the same drug infested pit?

No one wants to make the hard decisions, just appearing with another old, new idea is obviously enough! The “highly educated socially acceptable eye rollers”? Well, they continue to unite, and 56 addicts die in Lethbridge!

Dennis Bremner

Lethbridge