Editor, The News:
Re: In need of collecting needles (The News, Aug. 19).
Have we all forgotten that IV drugs are illegal?
A person caught using them should be given two options: prison or rehab.
To keep costs down, the rehab can be run by the former addicts.
By doing nothing, we aren’t helping them or society.
It isn’t right that people should have to hunt all over the place for used needles, every time they want to go to a park.
Not every needle will be found.
It will take many centuries for the ones that become slightly embedded into the soil to decompose.
Are we to put up with this problem indefinitely?
Why should we allow individuals to not only trash our environment, but make it dangerous, as well?
If everyone thinks the status quo is acceptable, then, at the very least, make the needles of a steel, which oxidizes and decomposes very quickly.
Everything that is disposable should have to be biodegradable.
Michael Patterson
Maple Ridge
