why does Stephen Harper hate drug addicts

Most politicians have come,over time,to realise that people addicted to opiate drugs are not a problem for the criminal justice system but rather belong somewhere in the realm of the medical health system.It is unfortunate that this has,since the election of Stephen Harper and his reform party government(disguised as PC's)been lost in the conservative tough on crime policies that have halted all of the work that was being done in the harm reduction and four pillars approaches.As a result,what we have is a mi-sh mash of half measures and canceled programs that have had the effect of making drug problems in the major cities look like they are getting worse.That's not to say that by making the problems more visible,nothing positive has been achieved.It must now be plain to everyone that we have a serious drug problem in this country and that the situation was getting worse every year when we were throwing people in jail for every conceived drug crime and is still worsening when areas are closed off and drug use is confined to those areas.Vancouver had the first heroin maintenance program in North America which gave certain addicts,those living on the street with the worst prospects,one year of what was probably the first glimpse at a normal life since their addiction (check out NAOMI)first began.A good example of this is myself.I was a mid level street dealer for 30 years.I was in and out of prisons both federal and provincial for a total of 12 years of incarceration in 25 years of my adult life.I then went to work for a few years and both dealt and used till losing my job.I then was tricked into trying cocaine(told it was a new batch of heroin)and was off on another of my eight year(this time)cocaine runs.I do well on heroin,using what I need to maintain but never losing control.Cocaine is a whole other story.I know this and avoid it religiously but drug dealers can be predatory and once they know you have a weakness for a certain drug they will see to it that you get just as much of it as necessary to get you rolling again.I came into contact with a drug resistant strain of strep virus which was so painful that I laid on my couch for a few months afraid to move as the pain was so intense.I went through almost four years of sheer hell before I finally found a doctor that put me on opiate drugs to control the pain.I now have my bills paid on time every month,don't have to duck the landlord,can answer my phone and have re established contact with some of my family.In short,I am living a fairly normal life because I no longer have to spend every dime on drugs.Unfortunately,I am on a long acting slow release kind of opiate which is of no help to the addicted part of my brain.My many attempts to have both my pain and addictive issues dealt with by using one drug that solves both problems fall on deaf ears.The medical profession is still as hung up on the fear that a person,unless near death,might actually achieve some relief from these drugs instead of just minimal blocking of pain?As a result I have a pain doctor that wants me off of methadone and a methadone doctor who thinks being off methadone will lead me to hell on the pain meds?The real point is that being on a regular regimen of opiate drugs has me living the closest to a normal life as is possible under current circumstances.Should I be on heroin,the best pain killer in the world?Of course I should.At the very least I should be on morphine that I can control so that when I have to do something I can increase the dosage and when I am just at home,working on the computer I can lower it and when watching TV,lower it even more.This is a common sense approach that is so far from what is being done that I am often in too much pain to do anything and I am always in pain when I have to go out.I am just one person.In my case is both the promise of a normal life that is being kept from me because if I was given the drugs that would work,I might enjoy them as well as be able to function,pain free and without the depression that comes with being unable to leave the house.This is just a small example of what our current system does to people with drug addictions.The four pillars was a work in progress that was destroyed by a government that has sabotaged every harm reduction effort in what can only be seen as a total disregard for any but the jail em and keep em there policies of the Harper government.This is a government that refuses to acknowledge the work that has been done over tha last 40 plus years and wants to turn the clock back to the days when addicts were tossed into a prison and left to writhe in their own vomit.I was one of those addicts.I still am.Such evil,ill planned and cruel programs will not now,did not then and will not in the future do anything but make the problems worse as they have done for the last 40 years.