We talk about drug addicts who follow rehabilitation programmes, but we hardly ever talk about those who are too sick to care whether they are rehabilitated or not. We can’t make them go if they don’t want to. If they are ruining their lives, it’s their choice.
Why should it be their choice? If drug addicts are ill people who may commit a crime, are we still going to let them mingle with society as if nothing is happening? If drug addicts are harmful to themselves and society in general, when are we going to devote our energies to introducing legislation obliging drug addicts to be hospitalised once it is confirmed they are on drugs? We cannot leave them roaming the streets any more, willing to do anything to get their drug of choice.
Why are their choices prison or death, if they do not want to undergo a rehabilitation programme? Is it not a fact that mental patients have no clue as to what is right for them and what is not, and therefore we have an obligation to decide for them?
The European Cities Against Drugs conference held in Istanbul, Turkey between 9 and 14 May was all about prevention and having suitable people to help drug addicts “get over” their illness, etc., etc.
Fine words, but the conclusion we reached was that all the EU’s social policies towards drug abuse have failed, including in Malta. We have reached the stage where we have not just lost the battle against drugs, but we have lost the war.
Even at drug conferences as competent as ECAD, I actually had the courage to stand on a podium and tactfully state that rambling on and on for years about prevention and awareness has not helped curb our present problem but it has actually become worse. At present we have to accept that, with all our strategies, we have lost the war against drugs.
What concerns me most is whether we can build something out of the debris. What we should concern ourselves with is whether the time has come to resort to other tactics and stop being so complacent, as if accepting that drug abuse is normal.
I am afraid that since this scourge has not been curbed worldwide, then it is a fact that we are using the wrong tactics in dealing with one of the most pressing challenges of our times, that of protecting the young from the constant flow of drugs into our society.
The “salesman of death” does not miss a chance to take advantage of the vulnerability of our adolescents. We have to take serious steps where the drug addict is concerned, if hospitalisation is too drastic for some. We have to leave the drug addict with no option but to reform himself.
Strict measures, such as taking away driving licences and the right to shelter when one is homeless, warnings of kicking out a drug addict if he is working when he is on drugs, removing the right to care for children in their present state of mind, etc., are needed.
We must join forces to help addicts reach the stage where their backs are against the wall and their only chance of surviving is to cure themselves of their habit. We have reached a stage where we must start being cruel in order to be kind. It is time we admitted that however much is being done by able and competent people who deal with drug addicts, it is still not enough to stop one using drugs.
It’s time to “have it out” with the addict, not for a lack of mercy, not out of spite, but for him or her to be aware of the amazing gift of life. If we cannot reach the trafficker, we must resort to saving the addict by other methods.
People are like boomerangs. Somehow they always “come back.” The dead never do. Isn’t it about time we did more to stop addicts from dying?
Valerie Borg
MLP Councillor