Excuse me! As a 64-year-old registered nurse from an RCMP family, if a Canadian citizen is considered old enough to legally put their lives on the line to sign up for military service at the age of 18, then they are plenty mature enough to decide whether or not to consume commonly used drugs such as alcohol or marijuana. To legislators: quit being so hypocritically nanny state and, realistically, get with the program! Liz Stonard Port Alberni, B.C. [end]
Re: "RCMP's approach to grow ops 'appalling'" ( Alberni Valley Times, Feb. 6) Attending a community meeting discussing a proposed new homeless shelter, Inspector Mac Richards was peppered with questions based on citizens' obvious hyper-vigilance of everything going on in and around the present shelter, to the point where I later joked that the inspector ought to sign citizens up as a 'surveillance patrol.' So what do you want, Port Alberni? "Snitching" on poor, homeless, drug-addicted people is OK, but it's not okay to report residential grow-ops which could pose a serious fire threat to neighbours' lives and homes? [continues 133 words]
Re: Marijuana grower forfeits mortgage-free $600,000 home, Aug. 15 What will happen to Roy Sundstrom and his wife now that Judge Carol Baird Ellan has ruled they must forfeit their home for growing marijuana? With his prostate cancer and her fibromyalgia, I'm guessing they probably aren't eligible for regular employment. Do they have anywhere to live now or any other source of income or are they going to have to apply for welfare so the B.C. taxpayer can support them? [continues 93 words]
Re: "Poppy crop puts Canadian troops at risk," Aug. 3. Don Martin's column got me thinking: Who are the people dependent upon heroin? Answer: People who need rehab and who are usually poor and/or homeless. Perfect targets, whose addictions are taken advantage of by criminals like the Taliban. The "drug problem" isn't the only thing "shrugged off" by Defence Minister Peter MacKay's department and the Canadian government. Heroin addicts desperately need government to comprehensively address their needs for adequate income and rehabilitation services. But the government has to have a will to do that and spend the necessary funds. [continues 53 words]
Re: "Society pays a high price for the bad choices of a few," May 31. To help the addicted and address the concerns of the public there is a dire need for public education as to the real nature of addiction rather than knee-jerk Calvinism. Iain Hunter's column reflects a public opinion that's an impediment to progress in treating the addicted when many seem under the mistaken impression that addiction is a "choice." It isn't. And physical addiction is a medical condition for which the initial treatment is not a dose of "willpower." [continues 136 words]
How many of us -- due to our own ignorance and prejudices -- can't get past the word "homeless" without applying descriptions like mentally ill, drug addicted or n'er-do-well? The fact they are people is an afterthought. If we are so fearful of their medical issues such as mental illness or drug addiction, why aren't there immediately accessible treatment facilities available? Many of the apparent "n'er-do-wells" have health issues resulting in criminal behaviour, so why aren't the justice and health-care systems working in tandem with solutions such as "drug courts" where offenders are offered the choice between treatment or jail time? [continues 72 words]
The busting of Mark Russell and the Mid-Island Compassion Club reminds me of Charles Dickens' apt quote: "The law is an ass." At the same time, it draws attention to a community-need. I hate to say it, and I know they are only doing their job, but as a proud multi-generation RCMP brat I'm sorry to see them tasked with chasing people whose only choice to live comfortably with their various diagnosed ailments is to use medicinal marijuana. What a waste of their already stretched resources. [continues 248 words]
While I applaud the intention, there is something disingenuous about singling out marijuana users for drug-impaired driving censorship without also including prescription drug users. Bedtime sedatives, anti-anxiety agents, or non-prescription cold and flu medications with anti-histamines should be included with marijuana in any impaired driving initiative. Marijuana users are certainly no more impaired than the so-called white-collar addicts, who abuse drugs like Tylenol with Codeine, Valium, Ativan. Less politics and more science please. Liz Stonard Coombs [end]
I am a nurse who cares for the mentally ill and drug-addicted people, and it's apparent to me that hurricane Katrina has emphasized (whether it be the U.S. or Canada) our dependence on drugs, prescribed or otherwise. Besides those refugees of the storm in need of diabetic or epileptic medication etc., there are those without their usual sedatives or pain killers or psychotropic medications that help keep their health (including their behaviour) balanced. As well, addicts unable to access their usual illicit drug supply will be going through withdrawl which can produce some maniacal behavior when going "cold turkey" without support! [continues 59 words]
Re: "Heroin for junkies, no medicine for ill," letters, April 2. In answer to the query whether hospital wards would "be under more stress, with an influx of addicts coming for the freebies" due to the free heroin program -- no, that's what the safe injections sites are for. After all, heroin addicts are "genuine needy folks" who (until they can get off it) need heroin "to stay alive." Unfortunately, many seem content to harbour outdated notions that heroin addiction is a moral failing, perpetuating ignorance of the scientific fact that it is as much an illness as anything else being treated by the PharmaCare program. We'll never get-with-the-program regarding heroin addiction unless myths regarding the nature of addiction are dispelled to prevent ignorance being the basis for public resistance to sound drug rehabilitation policy. Liz Stonard, Coombs [end]
As the daughter, grand-daughter, niece and cousin of RCMP members, my heart goes out to the families of the recently slain Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers in Alberta. As a Registered Nurse, who has been a member of the B.C Compassion Club Society since it's founding, this recent incident also begs some serious questions. In the days of alcohol prohibition, how many law enforcement officers were sacrificed in the line of duty until alcohol was decriminalized so decent law-abiding folk could relax with a shot of Scotch at the end of the day or take the odd brandy for (as Granny used to say) "medicinal purposes"? [continues 93 words]
To the editor: Michael Maniotis may indeed be correct to accuse city police of having a double standard when it comes to alcohol and pot ("Pot seller accuses police of double standard," June 12). Alcohol, a drug that causes infinitely more harm than the use of marijuana ever could, is legal. Though marijuana has been repeatedly proven to alleviate pain and suffering it is illegal. That's the double standard, which needs to be seriously addressed by everyone. Liz Stonard Vancouver [end]
To the editor: As a registered nurse who did my public-health nursing in the Downtown Eastside now living on welfare disability, I'm familiar with what Coun. Jennifer Clarke refers to as the "desperate cycle of addiction" ("Coun. Clarke responds to drug issue criticism," Letters, May 5). I am gratified that she clarified her position regarding the four-pillar approach to Vancouver's drug issue. While she's right that "the addict, after fixing in the clean site, still has to go back out into the street," she fails to mention that the addict is probably also one of thousands living with the legislated poverty of welfare. It's just as important to include adequate resources for food and shelter as treatment and law enforcement in "the mix" Ms. Clarke envisions. [continues 80 words]
To the editor: Re: "Bentall money going to fight drug liberalization," Nov. 28. As an acute-care and public-health nurse, I challenge Lynda Bentall to face not only the thousands of patients who benefit from the medicinal affects of marijuana, but also their physicians. By virture of her crusade, she is basically saying that hundreds of qualified physicians,who have signed statements confirming that in their professional opinions their patients would benefit from using marijuana are practising "politically motivated pseudoscience." How ironic that she accuse others of doing precisely what she advertises for her May "IDEAS" conference in Vancouver! Liz Stonard, Vancouver [end]
To the editor: Re: "Garr wrong to knock Alliance," Oct. 31. It's all very well for the Community Alliance to criticize the consensus reached by all levels of government and the majority of the community for a comprehensive plan to deal with drug problems in Vancouver. After all, in Canada everyone has a "moral right" (wrong or not) to "comment on any subject," despite what Charles Lee thinks. But for Mr. Lee to accuse others (such as Allen Garr) of "hypocrisy" is like the pot calling the kettle black. The Community Alliance says it has the community's best interests at heart while actively lobbying against co-ordinated plans to solve some of the community's worst problems. [continues 59 words]
To the editor: With all the hullaballoo lately about how we need to make Vancouver a more "fun" city, I'm fed up with naysayers like city councillors Lynne Kennedy and Don Lee who object to setting up safe injection sites for drug addicts in Vancouver! As long as this city retains the pain of being the drug addiction capital of Canada it's never going to be as "fun" as it could be. So, councillors, what have we got to lose except more lives as addicts continue to shoot up and die on the streets? [continues 130 words]
