How Addiction Casts A Dark Cloud Over Vancouver, And It’s Not Rain Clouds!

When many tourists come to Vancouver, they all say the same thing. What a beautiful city, what a friendly city, but your homeless and drug problem is out of control.

They must have accidentally meandered past our infamous Main and Hastings, where addicts openly use in the streets, and in back alleys.

It doesn’t take Detective Class training to see what’s going on. All you need to do is drive by at 50km an hour and in one brief glimpse, out of the corner of your eye, catch three or four drug deals go down.

But this isn’t breaking news. We aren’t cracking some kind of front page news story here.

This topic, especially with the Olympics looming, is on the top of many local politicians, things to do list – struggling to find a solution.

The Vancouver Province newspaper has been covering these issues expertly for months.

So why are we readdressing an issue that seems to have been beaten into a diluted over discussed mess?

For two reasons. We have hope, a vision, and to make it clear that these addiction problems not only reside in Vancouver.

If you live in suburbia, you don’t have to look deep into the seedy underbelly of a community to find these problems, look in your back-yard.

Surrey has 108^th Ave and King George Highway. Langley has 202 Street and 56^th Ave. Abbotsford has McCallum and McDougall.

The only difference from Vancouver’s drug problem and these communities is population, which determines the volume of troubled souls.

Every community in B.C. is struggling with this problem. The drug problem is rampant.

So what do we do about it? Everyone is looking for an immediate solution today. We believe that this issue needs to be addressed over the long haul.

Forget popular opinion. Addicts are worth saving, and if you have met any yourself, or spent the time with a group of addicts, and took the time to understand their dynamics, you would come to one conclusion.

The conclusion being that addicts are some of the most gifted, talented, intelligent, resourceful individuals you will ever meet. These are sons and daughters, mothers, and fathers. They could be contributing member of society and our local communities in a positive way.

So this goes back to treatment and care. There is a solution to heal every addict alive today! Let me repeat; ‘There is a solution to heal every addict alive today!’

But this is a complex issue, and not all treatment approaches work for every person. Herein lies the problem.

This is not a broken leg. You cannot simply add a cast, wait six weeks and presto it’s healed.

Comprehensive assessment needs to be done beforehand, including adopting various modalities of care. Forget these cookie cutter, everybody gets the same curriculum, factories.

You must start treating the addict not only psychologically, but also physiologically. What?

Rather that simple diagnostic guesswork, actual testing.

Brain-scans, blood testing, comprehensive detoxification, nutrition therapy, chelation challenge for metal testing, allergy tests, CBC with differential, complete Metabolic and Hormone review.

The facts are simple. Whatever the catalysts were that drove the addict down this path is psychological. But then they administered a very powerful substance which altered brain and body chemistry, and now it’s physiological. The problem has compounded.

A new level of lab testing is available, which is proven to have a significant impact on healing an individual addicted to drugs and alcohol.

We are a little leery about making such bold claims, especially when most will shout exaggerated claims and so on, but the fact remains…

Every addict’s condition is treatable, healable, and manageable, and they can become contributing members of society.

Drug Rehabs in Vancouver, and Drug Rehabs in our surrounding communities like Surrey, Langley, and Abbotsford, need to spread their wings and adopt a more open minded approach to treatment.

By properly, holistically, healing our addicted and focusing on creating healing communities as opposed to stand along drug rehab factories, we are now able to forecast a brighter future.

Heal our addicted, and the condition will go away. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but for the sake of our future, drug and alcohol rehabilitation on a large scale needs to be overhauled.

Our addicted are now healing, our communities are now healing, and blue skies are on the horizon.