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Petition
Presented March 12, 2008
To establish a long-term drug and alcohol addictions
treatment facility in the Province of Newfoundland and
Labrador.
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| In the House | Petitions
The hon. the Leader of
the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I wanted to present a
petition on behalf of people in Newfoundland and
Labrador who are taking up the cause against drug and
alcohol addictions in our Province. Mr. Speaker, they
have identified the need for a long-term drug and
alcohol addictions treatment facility in the Province of
Newfoundland and Labrador.
As I said yesterday, we
have received petitions with thousands of names on them
from people throughout the Province, but a lot of people
in the capital city region, I must admit.
Mr. Speaker, these are
people who are identifying this need because they see
the evidence of it in their communities, in their
workplaces, in their social networks and, more
importantly, in their families.
Mr. Speaker, today, I
want to talk a little bit about what the impact of drug
and alcohol addiction is on families, how the
destructive behaviour of addicts can impact upon the
family unit, whether it be the parents, the brothers and
sisters, their own children, or whatever the case may
be, and the impacts we see and hear about in the news
each and every day; because oftentimes when people
become addicted to drugs, and especially hard drugs,
they have to get their fix and they have to find the
financial means to be able to do that. As a result of
it, they lend themselves to theft, they lend themselves
to break and enter, and they lend themselves to whatever
they need to do to be able to supply themselves with the
drugs to fix their addictions. That is why we are seeing
the increase in crime happening, especially in our
capital city.
Mr. Speaker, let’s talk
about the impact that then brings upon the family
because when you have a loved one who is an addict,
oftentimes it attracts other people into the home, other
addicts, people who are drug dealers, that are supplying
your loved one with the drugs that they require and they
make appearances in your house looking for money or
looking for that loved one. It is very disruptive to the
family unit, disruptive to the point that it causes a
great deal of stress and anguish in the homes, a great
deal of mental discomfort for parents and it also
provides distractions to other children who might be in
that home. Oftentimes we find that people who are
addicts in a family unit that you will have cases where
younger siblings will model after that person and,
again, themselves turn to drugs and alcohol as a
mechanism.
Mr. Speaker, we see cases
and hear about cases in our Province today where parents
of children of addicts are under a tremendous amount of
stress, stress that has caused them to have a number of
effects on their mental health and their physical
health. Mr. Speaker, that, in itself, puts a great deal
of stress, not only on our prison system for the addicts
but on our health care system for those who need to have
the treatments and need to be looked after. This kind of
disruptive behaviour, as I said, affects the family unit
in a number of ways. That is just one of the reasons why
I certainly support the people who are coming forward
with this petition, and I hope that government members
will as well. |
