Shutting down Kiwanis House, which has served the addicted here in Kamloops for 37 years, is like closing a hospital in the midst of a medical emergency.

Drug and alcohol abuse is the plague of our country, possibly our world. Yet our governments' approach to solving this problem is to put our money into punishing the victims. That's because the public still doesn't -- or won't -- get it.

People with addictions are the victims of a disease.

Yes, they have a choice to get better, unlike patients of a terminal ailment. Some, however, don't have the ability to make the right choice and they die as practising addicts or alcoholics. That's a tragedy we should all mourn.

So when addicts ( and alcoholics are addicts ) reach out for help, we need to be there with immediate resources. "We" being government, society, the community and those of us fortunate enough to be able to stay sober.

Interior Health told Kiwanis House some months ago it would not fund it as a residential addiction treatment facility. It wanted the board to provide supportive housing for recovering addicts instead. Kiwanis, run by a non-profit organization, said it wanted to stay true to its roots as an abstinence-based treatment centre.

Off it went on its own to attempt to offer that treatment privately, save for three publicly funded beds.

Tragically, the organization did not have enough time to market its treatment centre properly and now has no money to operate. It shut its doors to clients last week.

The other problem for Kiwanis House officials is they believe in an abstinence-based model of treatment whereas the accepted method now is something called harm reduction. Interior Health authorities in charge of funding addiction services believe in harm reduction, meaning an addict is not automatically tossed from the program if he or she has a slip.

That doesn't mean recovering addicts can shoot up or toss back shooters on a treatment centre's premises, but they can come back if they have a relapse during the course of treatment.

Beating any addiction is the most difficult test of mental and physical strength any human being can undergo. It can be horrifically difficult, depending on the individual.

There are benefits to harm reduction. It is probably the best way to help a young addict quit. Young people have difficulty with the totality associated with never again using the drug their body craves and which is associated with the "party."

An immediate end to that use is rarely successful when it comes to young people. That's where Crossroads residential treatment centre in Kelowna comes in. It follows the harm-reduction approach.

On the other hand, there is also a place in treatment options based on complete abstinence. If people can get through a seven-day detoxification program and move into the next stage of treatment, there is a very good chance they won't use their drug of choice for the next 33 days of therapy.

Kiwanis House has saved lives. As with all addiction treatment centres, the failure rate is higher than the success stories, but any person saved from addiction is a huge plus for society. The financial savings alone can't even be calculated because we won't ever know what that person might have cost us as a lifelong drunk or junkie.

What's happened with Kiwanis House can be explained away, as it has been by the health minister and our MLAs, as the board's own fault for not accepting the out offered by Interior Health.

But those explanations are unreasonable and short-sighted.

When we have addicts asking for help, we need to provide it. To shut down a long-established centre because it can't yet pay its way independently hurts all the cities in B.C. and Canada that have nowhere to place an addict who wants to get better.

Our MLAs have said the 51 addictions beds available in Kamloops are sufficient. Who do they think they are kidding? There is a serious and growing problem with alcohol and drug abuse in our society.

Addiction is a money-sucking, family-destroying disease. We can no longer continue to ridicule, condemn and jail addicts. As a society, we must stretch our hands out to them and say help is here, and then provide it the moment any one of them indicates he or she is ready to take that life-saving step.

And, no, that's not a bleeding-heart sentiment. That's hard cold practicality.

Now if only our provincial government would ignore the politics being played with Kiwanis House and show the common sense needed to come up with a solid plan to reopen the facility.