RESIDENTS TAKE UP DRUG HOUSE FIGHT

Residents on a south-end Nanaimo street are the latest to begin putting up
a fight against what they allege is a local drug house.

One resident who lives across from the house in question, at 685 Railway
Avenue, has been putting out a sandwich board stating the residence is a
drug den. But this week Barbara Huggins hung a large sign from her deck
stating "Slow!!!! Drug house across street."

She said that sign is a response to open drug use by people near the residence.

"I got frustrated when I saw a man putting a needle in his leg as he sat in
his car with the door open," said Huggins.

She said traffic to from the house is worst early in the morning.

"We get a lot of it at about 6 and 7 a.m.," she said, "business people
doing their drugs before they go to work."

Huggins said in addition to the expected beaters, she sees new luxury
vehicles stopping and people in suits coming and going from the house.

"Every vehicle and every person of every walk of life," she said. "We see
good clean-cut people going in and out."

DECADE OF DECAY

Huggins's neighbour, Cory Salahub, said the house has been a problem for
the 10 years he's lived on the street. He and others believe thefts and
break-ins are connected with people at the house.

"It's been going on for too long and the cops aren't interested," he said.

But Const. Jim Reason, with the Nanaimo RCMP municipal drug section, said
the situation is a "sensitive" one. Reason could not elaborate on their
strategy to deal with the complaints except to say the investigation continues.

Huggins and Salahub say the problem began to worsen about a year ago, the
same time a drug house on Princess Street, a block over, was shut down, in
part through actions of residents there.

"We see a lot of bad stuff and it's got to stop," said Huggins. "They do
(drugs) right in front of the kids and they leave needles all up and down
the street and along the railway tracks."

Salahub fears that Huggins's sign may represent rising tension as they see
more activity they say is connected with drug dealing.