DRUG usage is a real issue across all communities. Exclusion of drug users and dealers from a particular area tends to oversimplify the issue.
As always drug education and its impact should be maintained in our schooling system, which would hopefully deter young people from the perils of drug use. Drug use affects everyone in one way or another, there is no escape.
People use drugs for many reasons, which cannot and should not be judged. People also sell drugs for pretty much the same reason (assuming we are talking about the small-time dealers).
Issues such as unemployment and supporting of one’s own habit come to mind. This, of course, raises other community and individual concerns.
Sadly, I don’t see drugs (illicit and otherwise) fading away, despite our utopian ideals and thoughts. Moreover, despised as drug sellers are, they too deserve community support in redirection from this behaviour. Excluding both parties from an area is not going to solve this dilemma.
Increased intensive support from experienced persons with mentoring over a long period may go some way to alleviating this curse in our community. Let’s not oversimplify nor judge and those who are not users should take a moment to think how fortunate they are.
Unless we have walked in our brother’s shoes, we cannot judge, we cannot condemn and we as a community are obliged to support in whatever practical way.
Marc Thatcher,
Cranbourne.
Pay out on policies
WHEN the City of Greater Dandenong’s former CEOs Warwick Heine and Carl Wulff departed, they went with fat payout cheques.
It seems there is one rule for the masters and another for the servants. Several years ago after Kennett amalgamation of local government my employment as a mobile librarian was taken over from the previous council structure to what became the City of Greater Dandenong.
The new council wasted no time in “restructuring” my position and retrenching me. I did not receive all entitlements accrued through 20-plus years of loyal service.
Thanks to union negotiation I ended up receiving most of my money, however, not all of it. I couldn’t afford to go to the Federal Court.
That was then, when unions had teeth, Victoria had an industrial relations system and the worker still had rights.
There is no doubt now that employers have much more power, many more workers will see their retrenchment and redundancy payouts remain in the pockets of their bosses. Welcome to John Howard’s brave new world. I wonder why we think this Prime Minister is good for us?
Diana Thurbon,
Keysborough.
