Editor:
I am currently visiting friends in Sechelt and considering relocating here. I have been enjoying reading the local newspapers to inform me of the local issues of folks living here. I am prompted to write in response to “Letter fails sniff test” in your March 23 issue, and the remark that the person who didn’t like the smell of skunk must be against marijuana.
When I got out of the car at my friend’s lovely home here in Sechelt, I was filled with joy at the views of the sea and the landscape covered with trees. I remarked that we must be deep in nature as I smelled skunk. I was told no, that smell was not a skunk, it was marijuana. I am a child of the ’60s and still a hippie at heart; I know that skunk weed is good weed! However, to have to live with the eternal smell of skunk is not something even I would appreciate. Skunk smell has always been associated with something smelling bad. It is part of our cultural vernacular. I feel compelled to state that just because someone does not like the smell of skunk does not mean they are against marijuana. One has nothing to do with the other. Having to smell skunk when one is working in the garden, sitting enjoying the view, or even just unloading the groceries from the car, encroaches on one’s rights to enjoy one’s own property. Certainly as a guest I am not enjoying the constant odour.
In considering a move here I wonder if there are no local ordinances against industrial growing in a residential area. Or a smell ordinance? I wonder what others think.
Francesca Lund, Sechelt
