Society needs to start showing tough love to addicts
By Lethbridge Herald on October 2, 2024.
Editor:
In our new namby pamby society, it seems that everyone including politicians of every stripe are afraid to express their true beliefs for fear of being called out.
I’ve decided to exercise my freedom of speech that seems to be only available to certain groups at times.
I’m sure that I’m not the only one in Lethbridge and the surrounding community that thinks the same as me but perhaps are afraid to speak up.
Most of us have heard the saying, in one form or another: “If you are not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem,” so I want to go on record as someone who puts forward a solution.
I’m talking about the ongoing and growing addiction problems that have plagued our fair city and country for years now. We have watched as various areas of the world have tried different approaches from “Let’s decriminalize all drugs and even handout free hard drugs” to “You get caught with drugs, you will be executed.”
Perhaps a more middle of the road approach might be in order. Here is how I see it. I I have also been touched by this crisis including deaths, so I’m not here as some higher-than-thou- participant.
My first step is to toughen our language.
Homelessness and drug addiction are not the same. If you are homeless through no fault of your own, I want you to be helped.
If you are homeless because you have a drug addiction problem, I also want you to be helped but only if you are willing to help yourself.
Drug addiction in my opinion is not a disease. It is a self-inflicted wound. Therefore call it what it is, drug addiction. Do you have past traumas? Most of us have had lots of trauma in our lives. It’s how you handle it.
Can’t do it on your own? Get help! So, stop the “It’s not your fault” syndrome. A simple way to look at this is; Would your life be better off if you got clean and sober, or if you keep doing hard drugs and overdose over and over again?
So, here is how I would like to see things handled. Every single drug addict, starting with those that are harming others by stealing, defecating, damaging property and doing other unlawful acts, are taken to a room with the appropriate experts available, and they would be given a choice.
We are here to help you get your life in order. We are going to get you in a long term program to get clean and sober, address any demons you have and help you find meaningful and appropriate employment and housing. We will be with you every step of the way but also will hold you accountable. If you refuse to accept our proposal, you are banned from the city of Lethbridge. This would be then enforced. Second chances? Perhaps.
OMG Doug, what kind of Nazi are you? Let me ask you a couple of questions, non-believers. Is what we are doing now working? Would these people be better off if we just let them keep doing what they are doing now and one by one kill themselves or do irreversible brain damage?
We used to call my type of approach “tough love.” The reason for that is we use tough measures because we care, not because we mean to do harm.
The law-abiding citizens of Lethbridge, deserve better. The drug addicts deserve better. Watching people in a zombie condition, freezing, overdosing and dying is not the answer.
It’s sad to drive in various areas of the city and observe this human condition. We need to make more noise. In the past, I wouldn’t even dare write a letter like this but with our present UCP government in place, at least they are choosing the path of drug addiction recovery and not enabling. They just need to step up their game.
Doug Cameron
Lethbridge
21-20
A big part of the problem is that people think/expect addicts can process thought and reason in a normal way. The reality is their capability to do this is equal to a young child whose brain is still developing, or an older person who has dementia.
While society wants to give them the freedom to make their own decisions, which is great in theory and should promote accountability if they actually do, the truth is their cognition has been so badly affected, plus their addiction rules them, it is just not possible.
If this was realized I think society and communities would approach things in the same way as you would if a child or person with dementia were found wandering the streets and acting bizarrely. Would you ask either of them about life choices and expect coherent, logical responses and a commitment to follow through? No, you would take them somewhere where they would be looked after by someone qualified to make the decisions for them in their best interest.
To expect more of them than they are capable of in the name of their respecting their rights and freedom of choice Is setting them up for failure and perpetuating the epidemic.
Sage words, Doug
Oh good, it’s this letter again. Sure the “war on drugs” has failed for the past 50 years, but what if we did the war on drugs harder? Surely this time it would work!
“OMG Doug, what kind of Nazi are you? Let me ask you a couple of questions, non-believers. Is what we are doing now working?”
This is the line that stood out to me. “I’m all out of ideas” is not an excuse for fascism. Ever. If you have ever said to yourself “Sure I sound like a fascist, but I mean, homeless people are really inconvenient so what can you do?”, it’s time to stop writing letters to the paper and go look in the mirror.
You gotta wonder how Doug hopes to impose his ban? Would he use the LPS, or the RCMP? Why not call in the Canadian Armed Forces? Or maybe he hopes that a militia group will do his bidding? I wonder if he has a shipment of brown shirts on order? Or maybe he prefers black, which was Mussolini’s colour choice?
And why stop with people on the street? Why not target people with addictions in their own homes too?
while well stated, perhaps you overlooked an alberta provincial police to come, and, of course, the sheriffs, whose role continues to morph from their original highway enforcement into all things justice. perhaps they are just a speck away from being proclaimed our new provincial police force.
i do not think we can ban people from city limits…or, can we? i am pretty sure this is not the fabled town of dodge.
we cannot force treatment on anyone – but, yes, we can offer it to those willing. this is not about enabling – it is about rights and freedoms.
if people are breaking the law, at least those laws that impact the rights to peace health, safety, property and privacy of others, we can offer treatment as an alternative to, or, alongside other penalties for breaking the law where addictions are a part of the circumstance. otherwise, i guess there is little option but to incarcerate with deterrence, prevention, and a fair sense of justice for all.
addictions, mental health, homelessness, poverty, fasd…these are not municipal burdens – they are provincial: the province needs to be paying and establishing supports. towns do not have the resources and they cannot be expected to shoulder such pressing issues.
every town needs to be speaking up and demanding appropriate action and funding from the province to address what has become a rather massive social problem. where is our humanity?
A much more reasonable take than the original letter. We can’t just ban inconvenient people from our cities, that part is nonsense. We obviously can hold people against their wills, that’s what a prison is, but it has the requirement of a court conviction and fair trial. I see no reason that same process couldn’t be used, but with treatment being part of the sentence as well.
As the letter writer suggests, a long term program to get people sober, help them address their trauma, and help them find work and housing could certainly be successful. It’s also extremely expensive, which is why we don’t even have enough room for people who voluntarily want to be part of such programs. Does our desire to “clean up the streets” extend to the tax increases that will be required? Will our zoning codes allow for supportive housing to be built? Will we make the changes needed to attract medical staff and bolster post-secondary education to train new ones?
If there was a way to “just clean up the streets”, you can rest assured we’d have done it by now. Life is complex, the solutions are complex, and we Albertans, as usual, want to have our cake and eat it too.
well laid out – thank you for sharing what reads as on the mark.
If you have the time to write this then I am sure you have 15 mins to watch a great Ted Talk titled ” Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong” you can find it on You Tube.
Maybe also research Portugals approach to the opioid crisis and the amazing results they have had.
Decriminalizing is NOT enough, We are missing the most important and vital step after decriminalizing.
excellent suggestion. based on the theory expressed, which comes with recent study as opposed to studies from generations past, we are compelled to consider that connections are the flip side to addictions. given there is much expressed in this forum about how first nations comprise the brunt of our street addicts, it is no surprise then that the disconnect forced upon first nations in our country via culture, family, social, and land disruption/shredding has resulted in what appears to be a much higher incidence of addictions. as the speaker also notes, there is evidence to support looking at addictions no longer as being physical hooks, but instead as a bonding (the rat park v rat isolation experiments).