Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Kerry L. Jang MAYOR'S SCHEME HAS HALLMARKS OF A SCAM Re: Mayor proposes 'revolutionary' plan for addicts, Jan. 22 When telemarketers call or television shopping hosts promote their "revolutionary" new product to cure one's ills, we are often warned by consumer advocates to remind ourselves "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Sam Sullivan refers to his new plan to address drug addiction and mental illness as "revolutionary" and that it will ". . . eliminate most of Vancouver's problems with homelessness, panhandling and drug-dealing". His plan has all of the hallmarks of a telemarketing scam because, as reported in the Sun, he has shied away from giving specific details of how this plan is to work, but we are expected to trust his promises of what it can do. There are no details on which legal alternatives to street drugs are to be prescribed to addicts or how these residents are to be reliably monitored or followed up. Sullivan has no expertise, training or experience working with the mentally ill or substance abusers, so it pushes the limits of credulity that he can devise a plan in eight months, release few details so experts can determine what the plan actually does, and then forge straight ahead to ask the federal government for exemptions for dangerous drugs so he can implement it without due care. This is simply irresponsible. I wonder if this plan is a genuine attempt to actually help substance abusers and the mentally ill or is a means to provide a "medical" excuse to simply sweep them off the street into institutions far away from Olympic venues. Caveat emptor. Kerry L. Jang Professor Department of Psychiatry University of B.C. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman