I READ with great interest the article on the front page of the Citizen, March 9, and feel I must write to express my anger on the nature of this article.

Having had to live next door to a house illegally set up as bedsits and occupied by several addicts, what sympathy did my family at the time with one small child and another on the way receive?

We are honest, hardworking citizens, who were constantly disturbed by the way they lead their lives, with no thought as to how they disturbed people who had to get up at 4am-5am to work an eight-hour shift and then come home and look after their family.

If these so-called "reformed addicts" honestly feel that they have a right to complain and be heard about how they have not been told about the side effects of injectable methadone, then all I can say is tough!

Do they think that we really care? They choose to inject heroin without thinking about the side-effects and if they cannot face up to coming off one drug without replacing it with another, then I cannot accept these as reformed addicts.

Other people manage to give up without substituting their addictions, so why do not these two try.

Name and address supplied

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.