It’s easy to critique proposed policies of mandatory drug treatment being imposed upon addicts from the comfort of a suburban home. When one hasn’t seen the disorder and misery spreading on the streets of every major city in Canada, one can convince oneself it really isn’t bad out there..A person can delude themselves and think policies of enablement will eventually lead addicts to liberation from their poison of choice. They can call efforts to intervene in the state of addicts inhumane and refer to it as something like “imprisoning Albertans against their will.”.In fact, that's the exact approach NDP Leader Rachel Notley is taking on the issue and those were her exact words..The UCP under Premier Danielle Smith dared to broach the issue of mandatory drug treatment and the usual, partisan suspects have gone wild..What privileged progressives like Notley refuse to understand is addicts are already imprisoned against their will. They are trapped in a cycle of substance abuse which drives them to seek larger and more frequent doses to the point of an almost inevitable overdose. As they stumble down that path of addiction, they lose their jobs, their homes and contact with their families. They live on the streets in fear, misery and desperation as it gets harder to find the means to get the drugs to keep them in a stupor allowing them to forget their life situation..The fate of an addict once they've hit the streets is bleak. Unless they somehow find their way into a recovery program, they likely will end up either in jail, in a hospital or dead..How on earth is it compassionate to say we should leave addicts in that condition to their own devices?.Sure, it's always preferred to let free will dictate a person’s path in life. That's working under the assumption a person is in their right mind, however. A heavily addicted person living on the streets is not in their right mind. Yes, it's best if an addict checks themselves into treatment voluntarily. Unfortunately, many won’t do that. For most, once they hit the street level, intervention is required..Last week, I wrote on how my family has had to deal with a member who needed to be committed to a mental health facility. It was a tough process, the facilities are limited and for now he's still residing there. It's terrible to have to force a loved one into a situation where they're held against their own will. In the condition he's in, though, we know he can’t take care of himself and he's beyond what we can offer with home care. We were forced to face the hard reality he needed to be committed for his own sake. We hope it's temporary..Society needs to face that tough reality with addicts. I can assure you, any family who has a loved one living on the streets in the throes of addiction will welcome a forced intervention with the intent of saving them..Success rates for addiction treatment aren’t the greatest. Particularly if the addict isn’t a willing participant. Still, the success rate is infinitely higher than having no treatment at all..Beating addiction is rarely a solitary journey. An addict needs support and guidance to stay clean. It took me several false starts and countless support meetings before I finally managed to permanently end my addictive and destructive relationship with alcohol. I never would have been able to do it alone and I can’t imagine how somebody at the point of living on the streets can get started on recovery, much less complete the process. Street addicts can't just up and quit cold-turkey. .To every person claiming it's inhumane to force drug rehabilitation upon addicts, I invite them to go out and see how it is for themselves. Spend a day riding city transit into the city cores. Walk the alleys and into the parks where you will find numerous addicts in a state of deterioration. Look at them curled up unconscious in bus shelters or behind dumpsters after they get their fix. Watch the ones shouting at the clouds as they shuffle down the street in a drug induced psychosis. Look at the sores covering their faces and their emaciated bodies as the addiction eats them alive..Spend a day doing that, and then come to me and claim we shouldn’t intervene. Tell me how the person on the park bench stoned out of their wits and soaking in their own feces must be left alone for the sake of their dignity..There is no dignity in death and that's the inevitable destination of street addicts if something doesn’t knock them off their path. .Intervention and mandatory treatment isn’t a perfect option and won’t work for them all..Still, it is a far better course of action than the failed policies of enablement and wishful thinking that led to the spread of addiction and disorder we see on the streets today.
It’s easy to critique proposed policies of mandatory drug treatment being imposed upon addicts from the comfort of a suburban home. When one hasn’t seen the disorder and misery spreading on the streets of every major city in Canada, one can convince oneself it really isn’t bad out there..A person can delude themselves and think policies of enablement will eventually lead addicts to liberation from their poison of choice. They can call efforts to intervene in the state of addicts inhumane and refer to it as something like “imprisoning Albertans against their will.”.In fact, that's the exact approach NDP Leader Rachel Notley is taking on the issue and those were her exact words..The UCP under Premier Danielle Smith dared to broach the issue of mandatory drug treatment and the usual, partisan suspects have gone wild..What privileged progressives like Notley refuse to understand is addicts are already imprisoned against their will. They are trapped in a cycle of substance abuse which drives them to seek larger and more frequent doses to the point of an almost inevitable overdose. As they stumble down that path of addiction, they lose their jobs, their homes and contact with their families. They live on the streets in fear, misery and desperation as it gets harder to find the means to get the drugs to keep them in a stupor allowing them to forget their life situation..The fate of an addict once they've hit the streets is bleak. Unless they somehow find their way into a recovery program, they likely will end up either in jail, in a hospital or dead..How on earth is it compassionate to say we should leave addicts in that condition to their own devices?.Sure, it's always preferred to let free will dictate a person’s path in life. That's working under the assumption a person is in their right mind, however. A heavily addicted person living on the streets is not in their right mind. Yes, it's best if an addict checks themselves into treatment voluntarily. Unfortunately, many won’t do that. For most, once they hit the street level, intervention is required..Last week, I wrote on how my family has had to deal with a member who needed to be committed to a mental health facility. It was a tough process, the facilities are limited and for now he's still residing there. It's terrible to have to force a loved one into a situation where they're held against their own will. In the condition he's in, though, we know he can’t take care of himself and he's beyond what we can offer with home care. We were forced to face the hard reality he needed to be committed for his own sake. We hope it's temporary..Society needs to face that tough reality with addicts. I can assure you, any family who has a loved one living on the streets in the throes of addiction will welcome a forced intervention with the intent of saving them..Success rates for addiction treatment aren’t the greatest. Particularly if the addict isn’t a willing participant. Still, the success rate is infinitely higher than having no treatment at all..Beating addiction is rarely a solitary journey. An addict needs support and guidance to stay clean. It took me several false starts and countless support meetings before I finally managed to permanently end my addictive and destructive relationship with alcohol. I never would have been able to do it alone and I can’t imagine how somebody at the point of living on the streets can get started on recovery, much less complete the process. Street addicts can't just up and quit cold-turkey. .To every person claiming it's inhumane to force drug rehabilitation upon addicts, I invite them to go out and see how it is for themselves. Spend a day riding city transit into the city cores. Walk the alleys and into the parks where you will find numerous addicts in a state of deterioration. Look at them curled up unconscious in bus shelters or behind dumpsters after they get their fix. Watch the ones shouting at the clouds as they shuffle down the street in a drug induced psychosis. Look at the sores covering their faces and their emaciated bodies as the addiction eats them alive..Spend a day doing that, and then come to me and claim we shouldn’t intervene. Tell me how the person on the park bench stoned out of their wits and soaking in their own feces must be left alone for the sake of their dignity..There is no dignity in death and that's the inevitable destination of street addicts if something doesn’t knock them off their path. .Intervention and mandatory treatment isn’t a perfect option and won’t work for them all..Still, it is a far better course of action than the failed policies of enablement and wishful thinking that led to the spread of addiction and disorder we see on the streets today.
