To the editor,
Re: People who are homeless are a lot like those with homes, Letters, May 15.
We have emotion, money and innocuous people who are the ones causing the mess on our streets: the increases in drug use, shoplifting, crime and violence.
What used to be common sense has turned into a never-ending cycle of continuation and abuse, which is affecting everyone: those on our streets, homeowners, law enforcement and social workers. Think and leave emotion out of the equation.
You would not let a three-year old child run down any street alone at midnight, therefore you should not let someone continually be left to do drugs or openly steal from a store or home because they have a bad habit. It’s no excuse. Care packages should not be handed out day after day, seeing no results. Homeless pawns have become big business for all those who champion they are doing something. We are told not to stigmatize drug use and the never-ending crime which stems from it. But it is really the emotional side repeating in some people’s guilty minds who are trying to justify they messed up, ‘we care,’ but more and more tax money is continuing this never-ending cycle. Common sense says stop the emotion and guilt. Some of you, it looks like, are blindly or knowingly continuing the out-of-control craziness and are really only thinking of the mistakes you made with others.
C.L. Cavanagh, Nanaimo
To the editor,
Re: Nanaimo stakeholders call for better inter-agency collaboration in drug crisis, June 5.
We’ve all got our own stories, our own hardships, our own vices. It is up to those on our streets to agree to the help, as it’s being offered to them every day. For those who are so out of it they don’t ask, don’t admit nor want help to pull out of their addiction, this is where mandatory care must be imposed. By not stigmatizing, you might as well load the needle and buy the tinfoil and lighter. The taxpayer-funded hydromorphone for addicts is being sold and now addicting our kids. And despite all the activists’ and government’s claims, people are still dying despite decriminalization and the so-called safer injection/inhalation sites. If you cannot lead friends to quitting, then involuntary complex care is the only path to survive their addictions.
Malcolm Manhas, Nanaimo
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