SCS saves lives and benefits city

I was disappointed to read the CBC report that Councillor Blaine Hyggen, of the City of Lethbridge, wants to defund the local Supervised Consumption Site. The SCS saves lives and saves us money on health and emergency services.

I don’t condone the local nickname, adopted by some, of “Euthanizin’ Hyggen.” However, I am surprised to see a councillor voting to stop saving lives and to spend more of his constituent’s money unnecessarily. He does say this would be temporary, until another study is added to the impressive body of science showing Supervised Consumption Sites work. At some point in the future, we may be able to resume saving lives.

Citizens of Lethbridge have been calling for more treatment options to help drug addicts, so we can move beyond just saving lives, to restoring people to society and to their families. People like our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers. Above and beyond bringing them back from the dead, we want to help them avoid those near-death experiences and the cycle of addiction in the first place. This goal was dealt a major blow in June, when the funding for the planned supportive housing services, for people struggling with substance

use and addiction, was clawed back by the province.

To make the community safer, heal families and restore lives, we’re calling on all city councillors to advocate for the funding so desperately needed for addiction treatment here in Lethbridge. When a small city has 17 deaths in six months and the city’s supervised consumption site has been the busiest in North America, ignoring the problem is not the way to go, at either the municipal or the provincial level. Tom Moffatt

Lethbridge