Re: Former addict fights for detox center (Chilliwack Progress, Nov. 20 ).

I am so utterly disgusted at the socialist mindset that is so prevalent here in BC!

Would somebody please explain to me, if someone decides to turn to drugs and mess up their own lives, why I have to fund their recovery with my tax dollars at a detox center I will never use? Why do I have to pay for the consequences for their illegal and immoral decisions? It’s bad enough the government has been funding this kind of socialist garbage on my tax dollars as it is. Who’s the victim here, really?

I say, if they want a detox center, let them start a charity and get their own money for it – in fact, I’ll even gladly donate to the cause if they asked me to – but don’t try to force me, and all the other honest, law-abiding, non-drug using citizens to foot the bill, and use the government to steal it from me in the form of more taxes.

This is insanity. We are in the middle of a serious “economic downturn”, many are losing their jobs and the cost of living keeps going up, and up, and up; our government does not shrink, it only keeps getting bigger and has to tax us more to pay for it all; and we, the law-abiding, non-drug using taxpayers are going to be the ones who have to pay more taxes if Cynthia Ward and her crusade actually succeed, because they will have to get the money from somewhere.

People, wake up! Are these druggies and junkies the ones working and contributing to society? No. They are the ones leeching off of us, the law-abiding, non-drug using taxpayers who always end up footing the bill for these ridiculous socialist programs. They “vote” for their paycheck, while the rest of us work for ours.

Until we learn to start letting people face the consequences of their own actions and take responsibility for themselves, and quit ‘forcing’ the rest of us to pay for it, we will inevitably grow to become a thoroughly communist nation. We will have no more rights to the fruits of our labour, and we will all be so poor and overtaxed in order to pay for the myriad socialist programs in place to look after the irresponsible and criminal elements of our society, we may as well just go join them in the welfare line-ups.

Joe Ditto