'OUR TOWN HAS BEEN INVADED BY ORGANIZED CRIME'

Dear Editor:

The Town of Hawkes Bay has finally made its place in the annals of
Newfoundland and Labrador history. Our town is now known as having the
largest bust of ecstasy in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Fifteen thousand ecstasy pills, along with cocaine and marijuana, were
confiscated in this area.

The scary thought is that ecstasy is a teenager's drug of choice and
it's our teenagers who those pills were going to be marketed to.
Considering the quantity confiscated, if these pills had reached their
target, our teenagers would have resembled walking zombies from the
warp zone.

That thought is scary enough, but the cocaine is even more horrifying.
This is an extremely addictive drug. In the hands of our young adults
and teenagers, it would have put our town in an extremely precarious
situation. It doesn't take a very vivid imagination to see that we
could have had armed robberies, home invasions, murders and even the
death of some of our young people.

Our town has been invaded by organized crime at it's worse. Why Hawkes
Bay? Well, why not?

The people of this town had the opportunity five years ago to stand up
and say 'no way' to the drug dealers, but their message was loud and
clear by their inaction and failure to support those who wanted to
make our town a safe place to live in.

Our own mayor and councillors showed how out of touch with reality
they really are when, on Jan. 8, 2009, they wrote the following in a
letter: "Mrs. Hoddinott's attempt to take a stand on local teen drug
and alcohol abuse was less a stand against anything other than try to
institute vigilante justice and public parental censure and ridicule."

I wish to God someone had stood with me and instituted vigilante
justice. If they had, we might not have been sitting on a powder keg
this past week.

I want to express my thanks to the police and the drug squad for
intercepting this shipment and keeping it out of the hands of our most
precious gifts that God has blessed us with - our young people. May we
all do our part to see that this never happens in our town again and
also do our part to weed out the other dealers in our town that didn't
get caught in this bust.

Nova Hoddinott

Hawkes Bay