City Councillor Jeff Coffman is asking for a study to be funded to find out why Lethbridge has so many people suffering with substance addictions.

Coffman brought the issue forward to City Council on Tuesday (Sept. 4) as an official business resolution.

He says the intent is to find the root causes. “Two weeks ago (during the SCS debate), we had a rather wholesome conversation about addictions and it really does raise the question of what makes us different? Why do we have such a large population within our community who are suffering from substance addictions?”

Councillors voted to postpone the issue for two weeks, till Council September 16th regular meeting, so the City Manager could look into whether or not this type of study is already being done.

Coffman says the aim is to find out some information so that Council can further target the provincial and federal governments, “the two orders of government that are 100% responsible for this, but nobody is doing the work,” says Coffman

It was suggested that no more than $74,500 be set aside for such a study. Some members of Council however, questioned why the city should be paying for such research when healthcare is a provincial jurisdiction.