Just say “no” the first time

Dear Editor: Once again some people believe smart money is the antidote needed to help those struggling with addiction (Herald, Sept. 5, Sept. 6).

The article failed to say addiction to drugs, booze and alcohol is a crime chosen to wreck havoc or bring on death to one’s own body.

Money can’t cure the evils in the world but a simple big fat “NO” can work wonders while living the gift of life.

The best way to stay clean is not to get dirty in the first place by simply saying, “No, No, No!”

No living person can be trained to do the walk or feel the trauma in another person’s body.

Before someone flips their wig, I will explain where my expertise comes. I spent many years behind the fence interviewing, hiring, firing and counselling some of Canada’s notorious inmates. I had no diploma on the wall telling me how smart I had become.

I survived a child’s lifetime running many different paths, living in institutions, living with different families, going to many different schools and living all of this. I strayed from good to bad and back to good. In my lonely child’s heart, I knew my good side helped with tears which would win to wash away evil and not create my own destruction. I know the truth hurts. Be it a sick pet or human, young or old, no matter how it hurts your heart, prolonging the inevitable, dimming light of life that turns off the the pain, is free of charge

Here I thought money was the source of all evil. Silly me. Tom Isherwood Olalla