Utmost respect for the police, yet how are they addressing blatant drug use in Eastbourne area?

I have the utmost respect for Sussex Police and was more than willing to help increase their funding though my council tax contribution, however, it is difficult to see where my money is being spent in our town.

My main concern is the extent of seemingly unopposed, blatant drug use in the Eastbourne area.

It is almost impossible to go anywhere without smelling cannabis and to see people on the streets and driving their vehicles openly smoking a joint. I have even smelt it wafting out from the men’s changing room at a sports facility where I attend an evening class once a week.

In the summer at home I smell it wafting through the open windows and up from the beach. I know cannabis is the least of it. There is a ready supply of cocaine and other drugs available if you know where to look. There are venues in town where people openly snort cocaine. Dealers lurk outside schools and even the DGH. The cocaine epidemic in the town is well established and dealers operate freely.

My family has recently seen how drugs destroys lives and I imagine there are many other families like mine who have been affected in some way. The level of drug related crime must be astronomical, theft and violent acts being perpetrated on a daily basis. The dealers, or scum as I like to refer to them, are brazen and seemingly untouchable.

The public are not stupid, we are not naïve, we know there will always be some active, subliminal level of drug culture around.

However, I am so disappointed and discouraged by the local policing approach and their failure to curb the drug problem and I cannot be alone in that and wishing they would get their finger out, listen to the people they serve in this town, people who contribute to funding their service and actually be seen to be addressing the issue.

Don’t quote us facts and figures because if you pardon me for saying it, they can all be manipulated to reflect statistics which are somewhat at odds with what we see happening around us.

Demonstrate your attention to the problem with actions and not rhetoric.