Justice system out of step

Dear Editor:

“Should we put a fence at the top of the cliff or an ambulance down in the valley?”

The troubled townsmen of the anonymous poem opted for the ambulance option with predictable results.

Unfortunately our various levels of government, in particular that of B.C., have chosen a parallel toleration rather than prevention to confront the costly and rampant chemical addiction madness.

Kieran Amidon’s excellent letter (Feb. 23) describes only too well how the codelling language and milksop measures of the province equate to the “lipstick on the pig” analogy. The net result of their publicity awareness musings, such as their TV characterizations of apparently perfectly normal personalities who are also, surprise, hard drug users, leads one to the conclusion that injecting or swallowing drugs represents normal social behaviour.

Conversely, the many pleas to embark on a massive hard-nosed educational preventative program have had no impact. The Nancy Reagan “just say no” was too mild and the gangbuster criminalization effort an acknowledged failure.

What we must adopt is an intense and continuing education program starting in early school and continuing with stark media bark-on infomercials stressing personal responsibility. Those not provided as a public service could be funded as budget replacements for those sunny self-serving government accomplishment spots.

Time to put the past excessive prescriptions epoch blame to bed and face the new reality with plain talk. Call addiction for what it is, aid those now hooked, and let’s have some forceful public awareness prevention.

Jean Thomas Okanagan Falls