Though I no longer live in the Comox Valley I still have many people there that I care about. As our politicians dither in forming a government, taking the lead, in my new hometown of Victoria, four of our sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, moms and dads鈥� are dying of overdose deaths every day.
At the height of this human crisis our provincial government is as comatose as an addict in need of a shot of an anti-narcotic. Perhaps the addiction to power is almost as potent as the age old lure of opiates?
As you report, the 鈥榯heft from vehicles skyrocket in the valley.鈥� Perhaps the underlying cause may be the same thing that is destroying communities in Ohio and Virginia, Kentucky and in British Columbia too: opiate over prescription.
As we have no direction, Governor John Kasich and countless mayors are moving forward with legal action in a case that has the potential to dwarf the 1990s $40-plus billon tobacco legal liability case. After all, most smokers die over decades, opiate officiandos are much more likely to die young.
It鈥檚 ironic that our painkillers are causing us all so much pain. One in four people in Ohio know someone who has overdosed. For every two-month opiate prescription in that great state, you can count on almost one OD death. Are we there yet? I hope with all my heart that the skyrocketing rates of vehicle break-ins are not the precursor of that.
Steve W Hodge
Victoria
