Online Town Hall

“We need to end this insane war on our own people”
Walter Cronkite – ‘the most trusted man in America’ speaking on the war on drugs.

On Saturday, February 17th, I attended the Guelph Union of Tenants & Supporters (GUTS) panel discussion and community dialogue entitled “Harm Reduction: Alternatives to the War on Drugs.” The event featured speakers from Low Income Families Together (LIFT), the AIDS Committee of Guelph and Wellington County, the Safer Crack Use Coalition, as well as a harm reduction worker from Agincourt Community Services Association.

A self proclaimed ‘radical’ grassroots anti-poverty group, GUTS employs a wide range of tactics including civil disobedience, rallies, and protests, to forward their anti-poverty and anti-government agenda. As a newcomer at City Hall I will admit that attending this event felt a bit like walking into the lion’s den; however the issue was far more important than coddling my own anxiety.

The panel was extremely informative and emotionally riveting and I fully commend and appreciate GUTS for organising such a valuable public meeting. There were several very important issues that I took away from the discussion.

1. The City of Guelph is severely under serviced when it comes to front line resources and facilities to treat the disease of addiction as the major public health issue that is.

We have world class addiction treatment facilities such as the Homewood Health Centre and the Stonehenge Therapeutic Community, however we sorely lack in local intervention facilities such as detox centres and ‘recovery’ houses in Guelph. The wait time to access facilities such as Homewood under OHIP is often measured in months while graduates from these programs often have nowhere to go after treatment.

There is a very small window of opportunity between someone reaching the point of desperation and asking for help, and giving up all together and going back out. Without accessible treatment options we cannot effectively help members of our community at their most critical time of need

2. The problem of crack cocaine and other hard drugs is NOT limited to specific socio-economic groups or ages, this problem (directly and indirectly) affects all aspects of our community.

This issue is of vital importance to ALL members of our society and it is important to engage ALL members of society in the solution. Effectively dealing with this issue will require the participation and resolve of both local and provincial governments in a co-ordinated effort with public health groups, neighbourhood groups, community policing initiatives, and social services.

Effectively dealing with this issue will also require financial resources. GUTS were quick to point out that almost 25% of our city budget goes towards law enforcement. Policing is a lot like ‘community harm reduction’ it doesn’t solve the problem, it only mitigates the wreckage. The cost of waging a war on drugs in our community (crime and policing, health care, and the incredible human toll) is far greater and less effective than the cost of empowering our community with prevention and treatment options.

I have had some preliminary discussions with the mayor regarding a comprehensive community drug initiative and expect that this issue will take on significant importance over the next fours years of council.

Stay tuned for more developments and please… add YOUR feedback and comments below.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Community Development, Neigbourhood Groups. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.