Pubdate: Mon, 21 Nov 2005
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005, Canoe Inc
Contact:  http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Irwin Loy, 24 Hours	
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Vancouver
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?131 (Heroin Maintenance)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

SAM TAKES VANCOUVER

It's full speed ahead for strategies to deal with drugs, homelessness,
and crime, said Vancouver's brand-new mayor.

A day after earning the mayor's chair in a close victory over Jim
Green, a bleary-eyed Sam Sullivan told reporters the previous council
had turned complacent on drugs.

"I was disappointed that we weren't taking a more proactive approach,"
Sullivan said outside a coffee shop near his Yaletown home yesterday.
"Personally I didn't see a lot of new actions from this council."

Not one to keep his progressive views drug strategy a secret, Sullivan
told 24 hours in a previous interview he'd like to push ahead with a
more aggressive form of NAOMI, the controversial heroin maintenance
program that's now in its trial stages. But although Sullivan also
supported a city plan to look at legalizing marijuana, the new mayor
acknowledges it's strictly a federal government matter.

When Sullivan takes the mayor's seat for the first time in December,
he'll be looking at a council that's evenly divided between the
traditional left and right parties.

Vancouverites can likely look forward to a rethink of a trial plan to
close two lanes of the Burrard Bridge - Sullivan wants to cancel the
trial immediately and widen the sidewalks. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake