VOTE WITH YOUR FEET

Kitty-corner from city hall, and just blocks from elementary and
middle schools, anyone can buy a crack pipe, a bong, or an assortment
of other drug-use paraphernalia.

No dark alleys are needed for the transaction. Simply walk into a
local gas station, pick out your pipe, and hand over your cash.

There's nothing illegal about the sale. But Chilliwack Mayor Clint
Hames is wondering if that kind of trade has a place in a community
struggling to deal with the social consequences of drug use.

We wonder, too.

Every day an enormous number of police resources are expended
reacting to drug-related issues, whether it's violence, crime or
nuisance behaviour.

How can any business justify profiting from this tragedy?

There is a material cost to substance abuse. The crime experienced by
downtown merchants, the car thefts, the residential break-ins all
have a direct link to drug use and the need to sustain an addiction.

And we all pay the price. Metal thefts, which are blamed on
addictions, have cost taxpayers close to $100,000 this year. Other
crimes, vehicle break-ins and petty thefts are less-quantifiable. But
ask a local merchant if drug use is hurting his or her business.
You'll get an earful.

There's also a social cost: the broken lives, the family violence and
the deaths.

This week Mayor Hames called for a boycott of businesses that profit
from selling items like the pipes used to smoke crack cocaine.

We support that call.

True, there's nothing stopping a business from engaging in a legal
activity -- however questionable that activity might be.

But neither is there anything stopping us from taking our business elsewhere.

We hear and see the damage caused by substance abuse daily. It's
impact extends beyond the individual. It affects families,
neighbourhoods and the entire community.

Preventing the sale of tools used to feed this habit won't cure the problem.

But at least community-minded residents won't be rewarding the
businesses that seek to profit from the crippling addictions of others.