Drastic measures to deal with drugs

As far as the drug problem is concerned, we have hit rock bottom. When we hear that 12- and 13-year-olds are now into this drug habit, then surely it's high time that someone took the bull by the horns and did something about this fast-growing problem.

How long is Mgr Victor Grech going to keep reminding us that we are literally invaded by drugs? How many more deaths by overdose do we need before we act? How can we, if not entirely wipe out this drug problem, at least lessen it? What is the solution?

San Blas, Santa Marija, etc. are tops for those who want to follow a rehabilitation programme, but what about those who do not? What about the parents, who watching in anguish their children taking drugs and refusing to seek help?

The answer is simple if the government really wants to solve this problem, although one must admit that a massive amount of money will be needed.

We have a general hospital, a hospital for the elderly and a hospital for patients with mental problems, Mount Carmel.

Drug addicts are mentally unstable. What starts as an experience turns into an addiction beyond their control. The only way we could save our teenagers is to send drug users to a hospital which as yet we do not have. This is were the government comes in. A drug addict's place is not at Mount Carmel.

Lower Fort St Elmo has been left to rot and decay for many many years. It could be a place of hope for drug addicts if it were to be transformed into a hospital just for drug-users and they would be treated by a sound nursing staff.

I admit that this project is not easy, not when you are induling into putting young people "away" against their will. But then again if drug addiction may be harmful to the user (and there is no question about that) to his family and to society in general, why are we letting them loose on the streets?

I have yet to see a Mount Carmel patient allowed to roam freely while unstable, so why is a drug user, as harmful and aggressive as a certified patient does not even have the privilege to be treated with tender loving care like a mentally sick patient?

The problem is that we have not yet come to terms with drug addiction. We have not recognised this gigantic problem, still less have we recognised that a drug addict is a sick person.

Fort St Elmo is the ideal place to cure drug addicts, even against their will. This is a case of tough love, of having to be cruel to be kind. We just cannot, as parents, keep praying for our children to seek help if they do not want to. Somehow we must oblige them to undergo hospital care for their own sake, for we love them too much to let them die. We need to resort to drastic measures.