DRUG SELLERS AND USERS SHOULD BE FORCED OUT

Editor, The Record:

First off, I want to say that yes, the downtown area has greatly
improved as the scum bags have followed their Methadone source to
other stores.But a sizable portion of the users of the taxpayer-funded
methadone go on to deal drugs to fund their other drug addictions.The
problem is the blight that plagued the downtown core has simply moved
on as the scum bag population shifted to other commercial areas of
Mission to get their "happy juice."

Like all previous governments in this province, the Liberals have not
provided enough treatment centres.In fact, it is doing its best to
balance the budget by ending the few effective programs that the
province did have in place.

Even if we can never completely solve the criminal activities
associated with the drug sellers and users, we can, and must, force
them out of the area somehow.Sure, that is just moving the problem to
another town, but so what.At least they won't be threatening our
friends, family, and others who work and shop in Mission.

I've made it my business in the commercial area that I frequent to
tell the stores about any incidents, problems, or certain individuals
of "interest." Ignorance of what is going on is not bliss, it is just
plain stupid.There is an implied duty of care to staff and shoppers
when they frequent any store although mall management must have missed
that day in business school.

One area of concern to me is how the addicts and dealers are using the
public pay phones. Sometimes they are there shoving quarters into the
pay phones for an hour or more as they arrange drop offs from the drug
runners who dart from shopping mall to shopping mall, gas stations,
and fast food outlets in and around Mission. Get involved or stop
whining that the police and courts don't do anything. All it takes is
a phone call to the police to tell them that a drug runner has shown
up and what his licence plate number is. Give them the times and
descriptions of those who are using the pay phones in a suspicious
manner and then pat yourself on your back for doing the right thing.

For the scum bags that other bleeding hearts want to help, I have
little such compassion as I am more focused on the damage the scum bag
addict/dealers are doing in making Mission a less livable city than it
deserves to be. I have literally gone nose to nose recently, with
barely an inch to spare between us, with one of the worst of the
addicts who uses the pay phones to get his drugs delivered to him
after he has collected enough money either from bottles he has found
or from fencing anything not nailed down that he has stolen.Boy did he
make a mistake in trying to sell me what he claimed were $200
sunglasses for $20.He also made the mistake of saying "So?" when I
called him nothing but a drug addict.

The "so" is you can get out of my face.I only wish more people would
actively help in moving these people on by what ever means are necessary.

Robert T. Rock

Mission