When I left Ottawa there was almost constant radio coverage about a methadone clinic that was opening on Somerset Street. Residents came out in full force whining that they had been misled and that the recovering addicts were posing a threat to a nearby senior's home. Well, no problems so far it seems.

I was looking forward to more progressive attitudes in Vancouver but no such luck. For the past week or so I've had to listen to the hysterical rantings of local citizenry as they wail into CBC's Talkback Line about the dangers of such a centre in their residential neighbourhood. A local home for recovering addicts was recently closed down nearby.

The residents base their opposition to these homes on the fact that they pose a danger to people already in the neighbourhood, but so far I have heard absolutely no evidence that this is the case. What people don't seem to get is that addiction is a disease, an illness. These people have a right to a cure. Last time I checked, property values weren't a fundamental human right.

Banishing recovering addicts to industrial and commercial zones as proposed by some ignoramus (in the last article I linked to) will not help them in their recovery. They need to be integrated back into a regular life for treatment to work. Vancouver has one of the worst drug problems in North America - we should be doing everything we can to assist people; that benefits the while city. While I'm not convinced that there is any danger posed by these homes, even if there were the overall benefit to the city should trump that of a few square blocks off Fraser Street (or Somerset for that matter.)

Just had to get that off my chest. I actually called into the Talkback line yesterday morning to give this spiel there too, but I didn't manage to get up early enough this morning to hear if I had made it on.