Pubdate: Sun, 01 Oct 2006
Source: Bulletin, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 Community Bulletin Newspaper Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thebulletin.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4263
Author: Francine Berry

MEET THE 'METH'

Our friends in St. Lawrence may or may not wish to hear how some 
Corktowners are coping with Mr. Gupte's methadone business that moved 
from their neighbourhood to ours about three months ago.

At the September meeting of the Corktown Residents & Business 
Association, several people who lived and/or have businesses near the 
new methadone dispensary at King & Trinity had a lot to complain 
about: vagrants threatening them with and without weapons, strangers 
offering people crack, break-ins, noise, garbage, drug dealing, and a 
whole lot more.

Corktowners recently succeeded in cleaning up Sackville Parkette, a 
few steps east of this dispensary, so that people with children and 
dogs would feel safe there. Now it's a pit stop for people going to 
and from the "clinic" for their fix. This Saturday morning I saw a 
man rushing out of the park with a water bottle full of still steaming urine!

Tell me, what is that for?

This is not a place where you nod to your neighbours in elevators. 
This is still a village where people get to know who their neighbours 
are. These trouble-makers are not the neighbours. I suspect they are 
only a small percentage of Mr. Gupte's hundreds of daily clients, but 
their impact on a small, street-level community is shocking! The 
politicians who allowed this business to set up in a small 
neighbourhood - ANY neighbourhood - should be thrown out with the 
rest of Toronto's garbage.

FYI, Queen and River has never been quieter. The hookers and pimps 
won't come out now until we worker bees are in bed, and we have 51 
Division to thank for that. I used to feel that meth dispensaries 
should be in hospitals, but I now think maybe they should be in police stations.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine