Re: “Drug overdose separates twins — forever”, (Citizen, Dec. 23)
I read with horror the experience of Mr. Hughes-Toal in your Dec. 23 edition, and several things come to mind.
Our government is considering allowing a much freer approach to cannabis use, and clearly this was a gateway drug for Mr. Hughes-Toal as I am sure it is for many others; consequently I deplore any relaxation of the criminalization of any non-prescription drug use.
I certainly do not want to see drug using folks driving school buses or many other jobs in our society.
Drug use is not a public health emergency, such as Zika or Ebola would be, but, it is a self-inflicted injury, like sunburn, but more serious. It is not a societal responsibility but a personal/law enforcement responsibility. Why do our bureaucrats always bark up the wrong tree?
Clearly there are active ingredients in cannabis which have therapeutic value and these should be isolated, refined and used as a prescribed medicine for those who need it.
I had an acquaintance once who spend a couple of weeks in the Services Corrective Establishment in the UK and all he could say afterwards was, “I never want to go back there”.
We need very tough love for these folks to get them clean, in a very tough non-medicated “boot camp” such that when they come out they do not want to ever go back.
Let’s get real with this problem or we will continue to witness horrible “natural selection.”
John Shipp
Ladysmith