ATTACK HEROIN ADDICTION THROUGH COMPULSORY DETOX

Some years ago, Justice Wally Oppal teamed up with the provincial
coroner to author a report on drug abuse in B.C. The report
essentially recommended the legalization of certain street drugs.
Now, a change of perspective may have altered his point of view

Recently, Attorney General Oppal expressed his concern for the high
rate of property crime. This gives me reason to be optimistic that he
may actually do something worthwhile to deal with what he has
acknowledged is the major influence upon property crime: Drug
addiction and, in particular, heroin addiction.

Many promote the legalization of street drugs, arguing that
authorities have lost the war on drugs. But giving legal access to
heroin in other countries has failed to eliminate illegal heroin
trafficking in those countries and has not improved the rate of
property crime: In fact, quite the contrary.

The United Kingdom began to provide legal heroin during the early
1960s when their addict population was less than 100. Today their
addict population is in the tens of thousands.

Moreover, the progressive dependency and vicious addiction produced
by heroin spawned a huge black market in response to vastly increased
demand. Similar experiments in Switzerland and the Netherlands were
evaluated by the World Health Organization and declared failures.

It has been said that a definition of stupidity is "repeating a
process which has always failed, expecting a different result." Our
local and federal politicians are planning to repeat these failed
policies by providing heroin (ostensibly on a trial basis) to
selected addicts in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

In seeking a solution to Canadian heroin addiction we insist upon
adopting policies that have not worked elsewhere rather than
examining a policy that has proven successful. Japan claims to have
humanely and effectively dealt with heroin addiction.

During the 1960s, at a time when other nations were experiencing an
exponential explosion in addict populations, Japan claimed that a
heroin addict was as hard to find as a smallpox victim. The reason:
Compulsory detoxification for those addicted to heroin.

Detox facilities were established in more than 900 hospitals. In
cases where withdrawal was not life-threatening, addicts faced
withdrawal without chemical comforts to ease them through the painful
withdrawal symptoms. Most addicts relapse after withdrawal but once
identified and registered, addicts were subject to repeated
detoxification when they became re-addicted. It would seem that in
Japan most eventually abandoned heroin or went elsewhere.

In 1978 the B.C. Social Credit government started a compulsory heroin
treatment program under the auspices of the B.C. Alcohol and Drug
Commission with the passage of Bill 18, The Heroin Treatment Act.

In October, 1979 a challenge to the constitutionality of the bill by
a methadone-dependent woman resulted in a decision by the Supreme
Court of B.C., which ruled the act unconstitutional because she
argued the police would have the power to remove her from her husband
and children.

A timorous health minister and the ambivalent government of that day
would not support an appeal of the decision, opting instead for a
policy of "benign neglect."

Today, Victoria is home to some 2,000 heroin addicts. Virtually every
one of these addicts has had a criminal record or was a criminal
associate before becoming addicted. With few exceptions, addicts will
directly or indirectly be responsible for most of the property crime
in this city and this province.

Moreover, nearly every one of them will eventually introduce a new
addict to a life of addiction. Addict numbers continue to increase
because heroin addiction is like a communicable disease. It should be
treated similarly to infectious and contagious diseases such as SARS
and tuberculosis with compulsory short-term quarantine.

Doctors who are familiar with narcotic addiction estimate that
withdrawal symptoms diminish and disappear after about five days.
Addicts, of course, are left with a serious psychological addiction,
but many will respond to the aversion strategy provided by repeated
cold-turkey withdrawal.

Our tax dollars should be used to provide more detox facilities. Many
wards in acute care hospitals sit empty.

We should not be aiding and encouraging the criminal use of illegal
drugs by providing supervised shooting galleries, free needles that
foul our parks and playgrounds, or free drugs to those who will
continue to rob us blind.