To the editor:

In response to Dr. Corneil91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s article on the drug crisis in Kelowna and actually all of North America, I would like to clearly state that I do not approve of my tax dollars being used to enable and assist in self-destructive behaviour. Dr. Corneil says that in addition to the funding for the safe injection sites, IH needs more money for recovery treatment. The money spent on these sites could be much better spent on quicker and easier access to mental health and rehab programs91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ”that91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s where the money should have gone in the first place.

Please advise me and anyone else who wonders, how providing a nice ,clean, safe, place to get their high on, free supplies, advice on the proper way to shoot up and no worries about OD91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™ing because help is only a step away, gives an addict any incentive to get clean and sober?

Once the addict gets their high on, their next big concern is their next high. Now there is a mobile RV being used to prevent OD91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™s91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ”how long before it also becomes a mobile safe injection site. Then the addicts don91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™t even have to search it out, it will come to them91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ¦ridiculous.

Dr. Corneil says we should realize these are people. Indeed they are people, but the great majority of them are selfish, self-centered people who do not care about anyone but themselves, as plainly evidenced by the discarded needles they just drop wherever they happen to finish shooting up. How many families suffer untold financial, physical and mental anguish because of addiction in the family?

Finally, if a person has OD91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™d more than once and still insists on using, then it is not if they will die, it is when, and I personally have sympathy only for the people who suffered because of the addicts91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ™ behaviour.

V. Napora, Westbank