Between 1 and 2 June the city of Vilnius in Lithuania hosted the 13th mayors’ conference organised by ECAD (European cities against drugs). ECAD is a non-profit making organisation promoting a common strategy for a world without drugs. People from 140 countries were present. Malta had two representatives: Mayor Joseph Zammit from Pembroke and yours truly from Valletta.

I had the opportunity to address the conference and this is the gist of my speech:

“My name is Valerie Borg and I come from Malta, precisely from Valletta where I am a councillor. For seven years I have attended these ECAD conferences and for seven years I preferred to listen, rather than speak, in the knowledge that I would be taking certain information that would be beneficial to the Maltese since I am a writer in various newspapers.

“Today is different: today I must speak. All of you speakers are excellent in your field but I guess there is no experience that equals that of first hand experience – in a nutshell that of being the victim of drug addiction in your family.

“Malta boasts a population of 400,000 people and our major problems are two – a) many of our youths have tried drugs, some stopped at cannabis, others went on to cocaine and then heroin, b) the drug issue is a political thing but our government seems to be in denial over this problem.

“Now let’s get real. Who is an addict? Most of them do not have to think twice about that question. They know. Their whole life and thinking is centred around drugs in one form or another. The getting and using and finding ways and means to get more. They live to use and use to live.

“Very simply, an addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs. They are people in the grip of a continuing and progressing illness whose end is always the same. Jails, institutions and death.

“Now let’s shelve the drug addict for a while and talk about a mental patient. A mental patient is a threat to himself, his family and society in general; but do you send a mental patient to jail? No, he gets ‘locked up’ in a place surrounded by TLC (Tender Loving Care).

“Now for the drug addict again. Are they not a threat to themselves, their family and society in general? Are they not powerless over their addiction and their lives unmanageable? Doesn’t anybody then come to the conclusion that drug addicts should be in rehabilitation whether they want to or not?

“Let me specify. If drug addicts are so ill that they behave irrationally how can they know what’s good for them or not? I feel that the approach to addiction should be that they should be put away in a special place. They should be given no choice. Their addiction means that they are slowly committing suicide but addiction is such a cunning enemy of life that they have lost the power to do anything about it.

“I cannot see any other option to lessen the death toll concerning drugs but this. Can you?”

I sincerely want to thank Arturas Zuokas, mayor of Vitrius for his hospitality. Anybody wanting to know more about ECAD on internet should contact [email protected]

Valerie Borg

Valletta