RE: Editorial – Opioid Fight Needs New Weapons, (The NEWS, May 29).
Your editorial is correct in stating that our drug strategies are not working. They are not working because our government’s planning horizon is focused primarily on the next election and addressing symptoms rather than root causes.
These root causes include failure to recognize the addicts’ personal responsibility and accountability for choosing uncontrolled street drugs, and government’s inability and unwillingness to provide timely access to health care for people who are suffering severe pain while on a waiting list for non-emergency surgery.
On January 3, 2017, the PQB News printed my letter in which I highlighted the problem of the repetitive revolving door service provided by first responders to users of street drugs. In the meantime, poor ambulance response times in the B.C. lower mainland for other critical events have raised a major moral dilemma. As ambulance resources are limited, are the needs of a revolving door street drug addict more important than those of a husband and father of three young children with a serious medical emergency?
The drug problem can only be solved by the addict. If the addict is unwilling to enter a voluntary program to be geographically fully isolated from the supply of drugs as outlined in my earlier letter, the problem will persist and can only get worse. In that case, our society will be faced with a moral choice: whose life is more important?
Anthonie den Boef
Nanoose Bay