Get a Smile Here...

I scream, you scream, they're not buying ice cream....
I don't know what Nanaimo can do to fight this GI-NORMOUS drug problem, but somebody better come up with a new plan. Whatever is "the master plan" now just ain't working , the red zone isn't working, the security guards aren't working...not for us, anyway.

That's our Neighbourhood Watch sign these two are passed out under. Victoria Road around the Glow is a nightmare. Nobody can walk downtown anymore without passing through a literal gauntlet of drug activity and criminal behaviour. If I was coming into Nanaimo on the Old Island Highway and saw that mass of addicts doing their shakey dance, making deals, trying to pick up Johns just like they OWNED that whole stretch of road coming into town, I would KEEP ON DRIVING! That's quite a "Welcome to Nanaimo!"

"Lock the doors, Honey. Don't stop. Whatever you do, don't stop!"

This car isn't from our part of town. Hell, it may not even be FROM this town. It has just picked up a hooker. It's daylight, it's summer, "our" kids are home(probably just like this guy's). Why don't we have Vice in this town? You know the revenue the RCMP could generate with an on-going sting operation? Probably enough, honestly, to pay to put one, if not two, more officers on the street. For real. And? Publish the name of the Johns, while you're at it.

Deal with slumlords.

Don't push all your problems south.

This is the second time in two weeks for a full crisis response to the house down the street. I don't know how many in one year. Too many to count, though I have shown you all the lights flashing down there a time or two before. The basement is flophouse for homeless and drug addicts. Two weeks ago, apparently, someone died there. Alcohol and drug related health crisis and domestic violence calls fueled by the same problems...on a weekly basis, it seems.

This red van is passing the scene of drug-related violence and may be on it's way downtown(or more precisely, near my house) to pass out needles, "harm reduction" in action...in a town that already has more than one needle exchange... maybe, instead of all these different agencies spending all their money on the SAME programs, they could get together and make a plan to use it in a way that doesn't seem like a competition to see who can hand out the most needles, or the most condoms, or the most crack pipes.

This is just a thought I have, call me crazy... maybe, if there is already a needle exchange, the money other advocacy groups are also spending on needles would be better spent on...oh, say, helping someone STOP being addicted? Maybe the amount spent on duplicate programs would be enough to stop one person, maybe even two, from living like this. Am I wrong?