Rehabilitation Isn’t a Cure

Illegal drugs have proven themselves as issues in cities large and small for centuries, and there is seemingly no way to rid the streets of their presence.  Numerous issues have arisen on their behalf, from gang violence to black market trading. For a city, this is never a good thing, for tourism and property value alike. Vancouver has sought many solutions to their drug problem, heroin specifically, and has come up with a rather unorthodox solution. Instead of setting up traditional rehabilitation centers with goals of curing heroin addicts of their addiction, they are installing heroin clinics, where addicts can sign up and go to get a supply of their fix. The hope of this program is to eliminate drug-related crime and violence entirely by providing the drugs to the addicts directly. With this in place, it is also predictable that addicts will then be able to divert their focus to other things, possibly leading to a better standard of life for them and those around them.

Violence over drugs is a result of the drugs being hard to obtain; they are illegal so smuggling and hiding the substances is common practice for those who wish to use them in some way. If centers are installed that hand out heroin like candy, surely violence then becomes a non-issue. No longer are addicts forced to find third party vendors for their fix. It is essentially down the street from them with little to no hassle in obtaining them.

An addict’s life is ruled by his addiction. Focus is always on when they can get their next fix, or if they can at all. Some will go through horrific measures just to get their high, despite it costing them. That is, if it’s difficult to get it in the first place. With heroin centers distributing the drug, it becomes no problem at all and is suddenly no longer a worry. People can resume with their daily lives and focus on matters more beneficial, such as holding a job or spending time with family.

Work Cited:

NEW SOURCE: “Trends & Statistics.” National Institute on Drug Abuse. National Institute of Health, 20 Aug. 2015. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.

NEW SOURCE: Campbell, Bradley. “Vancouver Combats Heroin by Giving Its Addicts the Best Smack in the World.” Public Radio International. PRI’s The World, 9 Feb. 2015. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.