GERI STEWART: ‘Open up more drug + alcohol residential treatment centres that are free’

ADDICTION, MENTAL ILLNESS NEED DIFFERENT APPROACH

Let’s stop all this craziness.

 

The homeless are sleeping in our parks, we have free crack pipes, needle exchanges and fancy urinals – safety concerns for anyone wanting to go downtown.

Addicts need help, but we’re not doing it the right way.

People with mental illness need a safe place to live.

So open up the residential health facilities again.  

I’m sure the mentally ill would love to be in a safe environment.

Open up more drug and alcohol residential treatment centres that are free.

Change the laws to allow the courts to force people to stay for a minimum of six months for a better chance of kicking their habits and becoming law-abiding.

I wish my sister had a place that forced her to heal.

She has been missing for more than than 14 years and is assumed to be one of Willy Pickton’s disposal items.

 

Geri Stewart

Esquimalt 

 

[CCC reprint: Victoria Times Colonist, Thursday, July 16, 2009, page A13]