SMOKING POT IN PLAYGROUND 'UNCOOL'

Editor: Let me tell what happened to my family and me on Saturday, April 24
in Douglas Park and I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

It was a beautiful day, so my family and I headed downtown for dinner
at a nice outdoor restaurant on Fraser Highway to enjoy the evening.
After we ate, my four-year-old son wanted to go play at the park, so
we all walked over to Douglas Park to enjoy the rest of the evening.
It was early and many families were also taking advantage of the
glorious weather at the park with their children.

We'd been there for only a short time when I noticed two young ladies
in their early 20s sitting on a park bench directly in the centre of
the park, less than 10 feet away. They had young children with them as
well.

As I observed them, a big cloud of smoke erupted suddenly from the
park bench. I knew instantly what was happening and walked directly
over to the bench to confront the two young ladies. They decided it
was okay for them to start smoking pot in broad daylight, directly in
the middle of a playground with children all around. I was
flabbergasted, shocked and very upset with this complete disregard for
people - mostly for the children.

I walked over and asked them what they thought they were doing and
their feeble attempt of a rebuttal was "we moved over here to make
sure the smoke wouldn't come your way." I was dumbfounded that they
actually thought they were being considerate.

I was outraged that they had the audacity to sit there and think that
were doing nothing wrong. After a few words were exchanged, I told
them that what they were doing was very "un-cool"a=80=9A and left it
at that.

They responded with the expected "Yeah, so" and other assorted
intelligent comments. As I left, I asked if they cared at all for the
children. Their response, as they sat there with marijuana smoke
billowing from their face and their children sitting on the grass in
front of them, was "Yeah, we care about them."

I promptly took my family and left the park, shaking my
head.

Without getting into any moral and ethical argument on the pros and
cons of smoking pot, what they did was inexcusable.

Do what you want, but when a poor decision another makes affects my
family or me, what type of protection do I have? The bigger picture is
that this is the direction society is heading - where people have
complete disregard for anyone or anything that's outside the six feet
that surrounds them. It's evident everywhere from road rage, school
shootings and drug use and the moral decay is out of control.

Common sense really isn't that common after all.

Jim Bugg

Langley