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I would like to refer to the contribution in your newspaper by Dr Anna Mallia of the 15 May 2005 entitled Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll.
I appreciate Dr Mallia’s concern on the drug situation in Malta and in Gozo. It is a pity though that one had to tackle this issue after the release of the National Focal Point Report, considering that the drug problem has been amongst us all the time and constantly increasing day by day.
I would like to refer to the remark made by Dr Mallia where she stated that OASI has got no patients. Surely her statement did not come from official sources, and of course does not reflect the truth. I would like to point out to Dr Mallia that unfounded statements might cause harm to the service the Foundation is striving hard to offer to all those persons who particularly need its support.
The OASI Foundation was set up in 1991, and since then, amid several hardships and difficulties, there was not a day where persons with a chemical addiction problem did not knock at its door for assistance.
It is true that the Foundation between August 2003 and September 2004, had found itself in a very extreme financial situation that it was constrained to close down the residential unit of the OASI Treatment & Rehabilitation Programme. However, even then, service users continued to receive regular assistance on Day Care and Out-Patient basis.
Noel Xerri
Manager, OASI
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