SAYING 'NO' TO SHOOTING GALLERIES

Hats off to Abbotsford council for its new zoning bylaw prohibiting such
"harm reduction" programs such as safe injection sites, needle exchanges
and methadone clinics.

Obviously the elected representatives of that burgeoning city do not want
to follow the stupid and dangerous path that Vancouver adopted a couple of
years ago. That policy to provide such "services" at taxpayers' cost has
led to an ever-growing flood of drug abusers flocking to the wet coast to
shoot up on government-approved illegal drugs.

By providing shooting galleries to any junkie that wants a fix, Vancouver
has thrown in the towel towards putting funds towards rehabilitation, and
simply acts as a benevolent cocaine or heroin provider. The fact that the
homeless rate in the Big Smoke has doubled in the past couple of years
should come as no surprise - the international jungle telegraph has
hard-drug users worldwide being told that Vancouver is Nirvana. They pour
in because they know that there is one key element of the so-called Four
Pillars strategy that has not been applied - enforcement.

No matter what the police across the Lower Mainland do in order to roust
the thieves seeking to feed their drug habit, no matter how many times some
of these lowlifes are busted, the courts and our mealy-mouthed judges
simply let them back onto the mean streets with nothing more than a slap on
the wrist. And as for targeting the true villains of the piece - the
higher-ups, the wheeler-dealers behind the multi-billion-dollar illegal
drug trade - forget about it.

There are earnest, well-meaning people actively involved in trying to help
addicts who choose to believe that an inert substance has power over them.
These caring individuals have bought into the flawed thinking that
maintains that the only thing left to do is to provide a safe environment
for addicts to perpetuate their habit, rather than to educate them on how
to end it.

In June, Abbotsford council banned the aforementioned services because they
were not seen as the best way to deal with drug addiction. Now the council
is threatened with action by the provincial government to get with the
program and become dope dealers, just as Vancouver council has, in effect,
done.

Some health officials are upset that bylaws such as the one Abby approved
do not fall under the control of the health ministry, and are spewing
statistics saying the financial costs of dealing with infections attributed
to dirty needles is enormous, and thus should prompt needle exchanges and
safe injection sites. The mandarins prepared a briefing note for Health
Minister George Abbott outlining no less than three legal remedies for
Victoria to force Abbotsford to toe the line - challenging the bylaw in
court, invoking a legal override, or bringing in new legislation to give
the provincial government power over zoning restrictions.

By saying No to such nonsense, Abbotsford council may help to shine a light
on the real problem of a lack of foresight and planning to provide rehab
facilities to get the junkies off crack cocaine or crystal meth or heroin,
instead of supplying it, or at least not enforcing the laws against them.