Cause and effect

By Letter to the Editor on October 2, 2018.

The current drug overdose epidemic is appalling and crushing, especially to those who have lost a loved one to this scourge. Our hearts go out to you.

Seems for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Media reports from cities that have opened free drug injection sites indicate that the number of overdose cases rise parallel to the operation of these free sites. Although this seems counterproductive, those addicted who want to get clean deserve our help.

Having said that, ongoing recreational drug users are a totally different story. You play with the bull, you might get the horn.

However, very little attention has been paid to addressing the cause of the overdose epidemic. It has been reported that the drug companies that produce opioids that hook people deliberately downplayed the addictive nature of these pain killers to doctors. Drug companies are making billions of dollars peddling these drugs.

If this is in fact true, then the federal governments worldwide should demand these powerful drug companies who have apparently caused much of the problem should be made to pay for the drug treatment centres.

We are going to great lengths to treat the effects but it will be to no avail unless we eliminate the cause. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

John MacLaren

Medicine Hat