PERSECUTED TOBACCO SMOKERS SHOULD SWITCH TO CRACK

To the editor:

Re: "DTES is proof that Vancouver isn't a 'No Fun City"

I live in the Downtown Eastside. I thought that it might be nice to see a
letter from someone who actually lives down here in a local paper, now that
my area is getting so much attention.

I really don't understand this city. We can harass, arrest and fine
cigarette smokers as soon as they try to light up out of the rain; however,
if the same people were outside smoking crack the police couldn't go near
them without people screaming "Save the addicts!" like some demented parody
of Greenpeace.

Smokers take heed: You need to change your addiction. Tobacco is passe.
It's the new millennium. Smoke crack and scoff at the WCB signs you see
around you. If your addiction has militant supporters or activists on your
side you are not to be arrested. Nope. You are to be protected.

You can be protected from the law even more if you say you are below the
poverty line. As soon as you say you have crossed that threshold, it's a
free-for-all. It doesn't matter that the cost of your crack consumption
would have supported a 30-pack-a-day cigarette habit. Because you are poor
and using illegal drugs, you are completely off the radar screen. It is
officially wrong for the Vancouver Police to enforce the Criminal Code of
Canada when you say you are poor or addicted.

Come down here and get your subsidized housing, and your free meals. Spend
your money on crack, or, if you are an entrepreneur, sell some crack of
your own in the doorway of an abandoned storefront to supplement your
income. Four Pillars? The enforcement pillar will never be more than a
nuisance. The city won't fund it, and the judicial system won't support the
police efforts in any event.

Wake up and smell the crack, Vancouver! This isn't a "No Fun City"; you
just don't know how to go with the times. Stop working so damn hard and
drop out.

Ian Burns

Vancouver