THE WHOLE PROBLEM IN A NUTSHELL

So many ordinary sensible citizens keep wondering and asking why there are so few treatment beds for addicts and in particular for young addicts.

The entire explanation was revealed yesterday.

A senior bureaucrat at Vancouver Coastal Health said it and it was reported in Metro Newspaper.

Here it is.

Wait for it, cause it's a doozy.

Now:

"ADDICTION IS NOT A CHOICE."

Uh-huh.

Addiction is not a choice.

Yes, when you pick up your glass of gin or wine at 8:05 a.m., there is actually a secret mysterious devil creature forcing your elbow to bend.

When you turn into the liquor store parking lot instead of picking up the girls after school, it's the fault of those new Nissan SUV's that are pre-programmed to always go to the booze outlet.

Right.

You see, it's beyond your control and therefore, because you cannot help yourself, self-help, like A.A. and N.A. and C.A, are all out of the question. They don't work. Fuggetit!

What you really need, you poor out of control slob, is a doctor and a pharmacist to keep you in clover.

In other words, you need the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to manage your unmanageable life. And we will do that by legalizing all substances and giving you free doses as you like to keep you quiet.

*********************************************************************************

Nice philosophy. And helpful.

Well, pardon us if some of us still cling to the peculair belief that human values, thinking and actions are choices.

We recognize full well that there are powerful psychological and emotional mechanisms driving us towwards certain choices.

But as we have now witnessed many thousands (and heard of many millions) of people who learned about themselves and then MADE THE CHOICE to not pick up their poison ever again, often in spite of bad history, well we have come to believe that

RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE, and

CHOICE IS THE KEY.

The Health Authorities are starting from the entirely wrong place.