It’s time to stop supporting criminal behaviour

By Lethbridge Herald on July 21, 2022.

Editor:

It is like the Wild West in Lethbridge, constantly having to dodge the drug makers, dealers, distributors and takers.

Your own yard is not safe – fences, gates, security lights et cetera do not stop its use as a transit through the neighbourhood, a bathroom, a smoke stop, a place to sit and converse in the night, a place to dig through garbage and recycling bins.

There is no point in the police picking them up; the justice system just releases them back out the same day or the next. Get serious – this is about criminal activity that kills people and endangers all of us. Everyone who supports any facet of illegal drugs – from making to taking – is involved in criminal behaviour.

We don’t need safe supply, we need no supply. We are rewarding dangerous behaviour with free food, clothing, shelter medical supplies – better treatment than for any low-income seniors or disabled. Those who are smart enough and strong enough to continue to walk the city streets and take advantage of all the freebies are also smart enough and strong enough to take responsibility for their behaviours and to make changes.

The shelter should be a hostel; soup kitchen a low-cost diner; food banks low-cost grocery stores; Alpha House co-ordinating and assisting in job and housing placement: AHS injection site bus a mobile health clinic for all Lethbridge area. The City and the Blackfoot Confederacy know what to do: stop supporting criminals. Reward changed behaviour.

Karen J Collin

Lethbridge