Keeping the Door Open: Dialogues on Drug Use

Keeping the Door Open (KDO) brings together different dialogues to bring more awareness and discussion to various substance abuse problems. It is basically a site that provides different resources if one was looking for more information or was looking to discuss different issues like self-injection sites and criminalization. Different speakers (locally, nationally, and internationally) are brought to different venues in order to engage others, by sharing their own stories and insights. The site brings together people from different spectrums including drug users, their friends and family, police officers, elected officials, business people, and the local community.

I found the site interesting as they bring up a broad range of issues to discuss. I particularly like the fact that it recognizes the complexity of addiction and its (often) attachment to mental illnesses and trauma. The event that caught my eye the most was the one held most recently in March/April of 2008- Rethinking Treatment: Recognising and Responding to the Spectrum of Substance Use. This event discusses the fact treatment is currently being provided with “enormous and unrealistic time pressures by inadequately trained staff and does not follow established best practices.” I believe that in fact treatment is provided under unrealistic time pressures and many do not recognize (or understand) that the battle with addiction is one that lasts a lifetime.

It is easy to present facts about addiction but it’s another story when trying to engage others in the process of analyzing how to make it more effective. This is a good site for those who are willing to talk about the issues and are ready to begin creating innovative ways of solving the problem.