Root cause of drug addiction; Urban vs rural / right vs left | Letters to the Editor

Joey MacRae-Chiaralli on Somerset Street W. At 31, he has a long history of homelessness and drug use, but is still hoping to turn his life around. Photo by BRUCE DEACHMAN /POSTMEDIA

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Well researched column about addiction

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Deachman is quite right in his well researched column that there are many causes for the drug addiction crisis that is rampant in our major cities. Quite right also in pointing out that eliminating safe consumption sites and replacing them with addiction treatment hubs does not solve the problem because of the shear number of cases which have escalated over last few years.

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More research needs to be done on the treatment side but the root causes also need to be addressed. While Deachman mentions that many drug users start experimenting at an early age he fails to mention in my view an important contributor to this crisis, namely the changes in society norms that have slowly but inexorably devolved into new forms.

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Especially the emergence of the solo parent family. With single parent families accounting for some 15-20% of families in Canada the kids are left with less supervision, less life models, and less rules for life. No wonder that peer pressure, social media pressure and natural curiosity takes over to lead them astray.

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Finding ways to give kids meaningful attention and guidance when it’s missing in the family setting is sorely needed and applies of course to all families whether single or two parent. Getting serious involves setting up a government agency focussing on youth addiction. Your piece on Thursday about a youth outreach program called “It’s A Trap” funded by the Ontario Government is a step in right direction.

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Rafal Pomian, Ottawa

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Urban vs rural / right vs left

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I live in the rural area south of town and until I read about right vs left in the letters section of the Citizen I never gave amalgamation a thought in a political ROI.

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Let’s face it, yes the rural area dwarfs the urban one. at amalgamation the rural areas were in a positive cash flow and cost everything was running fine.

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Basically we as residents get roads, snow plowing, school buses, garbage pick up and some social investments.

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Since amalgamation our services have gone downhill. Road paving and repair is a joke. Our one coat of original asphalt is over 30 years old.

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Our rural contractors do driveway snow blowing and without them leaving the blower down going from home to home we would be locked in for days waiting for a city plow. The old contracted snow removal by Greely/ Metcalfe was great.

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Garbage pick up is running fine, no criticism there (hard-working contracted services)

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Rural policing is not up to par. I was told a number of years ago—when an alarm went off at a friend’s rural home and officers showed up two hours later—that alarms are a level two priority incident and police do not need to rush. I had an alarm go off at my house and was charged for the police visit.