NEEDLES DO DAMAGE

ON the way through town today I stopped and chatted to the workers taking
down the remaining arched bus shelters running the length of East Row. "Why
are they doing it?" I asked, looking at the mean shelter offered by the new
model. The answer was that the old one that blended in with the arches of
the Sydney Building offered too much comfort for the junkies sleeping rough
over night. The needles had to be cleared up before each morning rush
started. The rest of Civic now has no plantbox or wisteria arch where a
junkie might shoot up. Along Northbourne Avenue I pass greened areas marking
demolished flats. Macpherson Court is gone. Just what price are we paying
for trying to engineer those anti-social junkies out of our lives?

W.M. BUSH Families & Friends for Drug Law Reform, Turner