Addicts and social issues

Addicts and social issues
By Deryk McGrath, Ottawa Citizen

Whether the mayor and police chief realize it, the casino is really just a safe injection site, the only difference is that at one the addict injects drugs in a safe haven while at the casino one injects money to get high. As for the chief's quote about safe injection sites "As long as the criminal element is there, we will have issues around the current form of safe injection sites," this applies to both casinos and safe injection sites. People will do anything to feed their drug or gambling habit.

In this quote from the chief as well - "As long as addicts are forced to commit crimes to supply themselves with the drugs and the money to buy their drugs, that is a problem, that is a public safety concern" - gambling could be substituted for drug use very easily.

The only difference is that the casino will augment the city's appetite for money, without looking at the social issues generated by increased gambling.

I am not against gambling, I buy one lottery ticket per draw and I take $20 to the slots every two months, but I realize there are social issues involved with excess gambling.

Deryk McGrath, Manotick


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