PIPE DREAM NOT ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE

To the editor:

I'm not quite sure if Mayor Campbell is aware, but we already have a crack
room-it's called the corner of Jackson and Cordova, aka "Crackton" ("Mayor
says legal crack smoking room is no pipe dream," Aug. 29).

Public crack smoking is commonplace and out of control in the surrounding
blocks of that intersection. It is a problem that many local residents
endure in this neighbourhood. People smoke crack everywhere.

In my neighbourhood, people walk down the street and put a rock in their
pipe and smoke it, just as a person might stop on the boulevard and light a
cigarette in most other neighbourhoods. You only have to drive down Cordova
from Main Street to see this.

Because people tend to smoke crack whenever and wherever, I don't believe
people would travel all the way to the existing safe injection site to
smoke crack. But if they did decide to do so, due to the large number of
crack smokers in the Downtown Eastside, it would likely be more crowded
than the Blarney Stone on St. Patrick's Day.

If, on the other hand, it can help restore this neighbourhood and make it a
safer and more livable place for local residents, then I would say it is a
positive step.

Joe Chaput, Vancouver