Archbishop Barry J Hickey says we need an anti-drugs campaign, which makes "freedom from addiction its goal," and which is "at least as strong as the anti-smoking campaign". This call to action from the Archbishop is not something abstract. He tells of a poignant tragedy he witnessed firsthand when he found a young woman in his garage who had taken her own life after becoming hooked on drugs. Archbishop Hickey emphasises that the present harm-minimisation approach that "urges drug users to learn how to live with drugs" is "not good enough". We need a high-profile campaign that urges drug users to seek treatment to be rid of drugs forever, he says. TRANSCRIPT Archbishop Barry J Hickey: "It's more than a shame that the warning 'Don't do drugs' has become somewhat of a forgotten message today and it's tragic. It would be very hard to find someone who does not know about a tragedy caused by drugs. The newspapers and the television report high-profile drug users and catastrophes ! that befall them. But drugs don't just affect celebrities. The reality is that illegal drugs are everywhere and they affect everyone, one way or another. I personally had a very sad and confronting experience with drugs when I found a young woman in my garage who had taken her own life after becoming hooked on drugs. She had hanged herself in despair. I mention this here because I want to know why we treat the issue of drugs the way we do. I cannot understand why the campaign against smoking seems to ...
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