Dear editor,

Recently I learned that there is a safe injection site on 6th street, in downtown Courtenay. I am appalled that our government is not only allowing but, in fact, enabling this illegal and unsafe activity to occur here. I find it ironic that we have laws that prohibit us from sitting out on a restaurant patio to smoke a cigarette, yet the government is providing a safe and comfy place for drug addicts to sit and shoot illicit drugs into their bodies. Has everyone completely lost their minds?

I moved here over 10 years ago because I thought it would be a great, safe place to raise my kids. Several weeks ago my youngest son went bowling with a friend and I felt completely at ease dropping him off at Dairy Queen on Cliffe and letting he and his friend make their way over to 6th street by themselves. Today is a different story. As long as there are drug addicts strolling in and out of that injection site, I will not feel comfortable letting my kids walk around downtown alone.

I hear a lot of talk about the welfare of drug addicts. What about our children? Isn鈥檛 their safety important? Who鈥檚 protecting their right to live in a safe environment? By opening these injection sites the government is condoning and normalizing the use of dangerous illicit drugs. I think it鈥檚 time for parents and grandparents to speak up and put an end to this lunacy.

Mary-Ellen Bergvinson

Courtenay