Ounce of addiction prevention is worth a pound of cure
Re: Opioid rouletter, Dec. 19 Research has shown that almost all addiction, as well many incidents of depression and anxiety, is trauma-based. Between the ages of 15 and 25, youth begin to react to this trauma through acting out, depression, anxiety, and self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. This behaviour is a dysfunctional attempt to mask their pain from the trauma. They are then further stigmatized by society, which labels them as weak, immoral, or worst of all, criminal.
Harm reduction is one pillar, but we need to pay equal, if not more, attention to prevention. Therapy is key for these youth to gain insight and to be empowered to leave dysfunctional behaviours behind. Most youth will end dysfunctional coping strategies when they address the root causes of their personal issues. Abstinence is the ultimate goal.
There is a critical need for community and government involvement and funding for prevention strategies. It costs a few thousand dollars to help divert a youth before they become entrenched in addiction, whereas the cost to society after the fact (burdens on the health care, legal and penal systems) is in the millions.
It’s time we provide intervention programs for youth when change is not only possible and affordable but avoids the damage of addiction experienced by the individuals, their families and communities.
Tom Littlewood, program director, and Barbara Coates, executive director, Dan’s Legacy
Costs more doing nothing
Re: Getting tough with addicts would help them in the end, Letters, Dec. 19
Get tough with addicts — good for you, Fred Stark, for saying what I was about to say. If the cost of institutionalizing these lost souls is a problem, just think of the costs now being incurred.
The cost of keeping them in limbo, as they are, is incredible. The costs for welfare, police, ambulance, firemen, hospitals, etc. would well take care of funding for an institution. They can all afford drugs, cigarettes etc. We all know very well where that comes from.
Lastly, if one of your family was one of these poor lost souls, wouldn’t you want to see a form of intervention taken? And to all the naysayers, I would ask, “So, how’s it working for you so far?”
Gerry Waddington, Cloverdale
Diabetics need saving, too
It is interesting that transit police will now be carrying Naloxone to help save the life of a drug user. I sincerely hope they will also be carrying an emergency kit of Glucagon to aid in the life-saving emergency involving a diabetic. It is comforting to know our government cares about diabetics’ well-being also.
Brian Barnes, Steveston
O’Leary just what we need
Re: O’Leary likely to make splash, Dec. 18 It might be very enlightening and refreshing to have a “new broom” in Ottawa in the person of Kevin O’Leary, who is not afraid to speak out on things that need to be spoken about. He is a pretty astute businessman, and although blunt (almost “Trumpish”), he often gives sound advice and knows how to run a “tight ship” as he does in his own business. He is both accountable and forthright.
He may not speak French, but a lot of French-speaking Canadians understand English. An interpreter would be another solution. This seems to work on TV and at places like the UN.
The Conservatives should really consider him as a candidate to pull their party out of the doldrums.