Pubdate: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2008 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n425/a02.html Author: Geraint Lewis SIMPLISTIC SOLUTIONS Re: Addicted to the simple idea, April 25. Thanks to columnist Ken Gray for telling the other side of the story on Ottawa and drug addiction. Politicians of all stripes like to have simple targets with simple solutions. Dr. David Salisbury rightly points out the failures of U.S.-style interdiction -- from Prohibition to the "War on Drugs." The latter has been monumentally expensive, poisoned the habitats of many countries in Central and South America, and poured billions of dollars into the U.S. military-industrial complex, while the problem of drug addiction really has its roots in mental illness and socio-economic deprivation. Wait times for emergency rooms and elective surgery are intimately linked, not just to inadequate human resources, but also to our inability to get patients out of hospitals because there is limited extended care in the community. The mayor has latched on to our drug problem as a distractor from his political woes, and his posturing reveals a distinct lack of understanding of the complexities that face us. Let's see now, what happened to the promised municipal tax freeze? Dr. Geraint Lewis, Ottawa - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake