NO COMPASSION

Having spent a lifetime prosecuting people, and paying scant attention
to understanding them, Brian Purdy addresses the complexities of
addiction with misinformed, simplistic and dead-end solutions.
Further, he confuses addiction (compulsion) with drug use (choice,
escape).

The rehabilitation failures he cites are the result of where he put
people. Prisons are not humane or uplifting, and are rarely
therapeutic. In my experience, in both street-based and more
professional settings, successes do happen.

As for forced treatment in work camps, it's already happening in
countries where human rights are not an issue. Gross neglect, abuse,
illness and death are routine, as is failure.

Walter Cavalieri,

Toronto