MEET THE 'METH'

Our friends in St. Lawrence may or may not wish to hear how some
Corktowners are coping with Mr. Gupte's methadone business that moved
from their neighbourhood to ours about three months ago.

At the September meeting of the Corktown Residents & Business
Association, several people who lived and/or have businesses near the
new methadone dispensary at King & Trinity had a lot to complain
about: vagrants threatening them with and without weapons, strangers
offering people crack, break-ins, noise, garbage, drug dealing, and a
whole lot more.

Corktowners recently succeeded in cleaning up Sackville Parkette, a
few steps east of this dispensary, so that people with children and
dogs would feel safe there. Now it's a pit stop for people going to
and from the "clinic" for their fix. This Saturday morning I saw a
man rushing out of the park with a water bottle full of still steaming urine!

Tell me, what is that for?

This is not a place where you nod to your neighbours in elevators.
This is still a village where people get to know who their neighbours
are. These trouble-makers are not the neighbours. I suspect they are
only a small percentage of Mr. Gupte's hundreds of daily clients, but
their impact on a small, street-level community is shocking! The
politicians who allowed this business to set up in a small
neighbourhood - ANY neighbourhood - should be thrown out with the
rest of Toronto's garbage.

FYI, Queen and River has never been quieter. The hookers and pimps
won't come out now until we worker bees are in bed, and we have 51
Division to thank for that. I used to feel that meth dispensaries
should be in hospitals, but I now think maybe they should be in police stations.