Pubdate: Thu, 26 Oct 2006
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun

MUNICIPALITIES SEEK HELP FIGHTING DRUGS

Annual meeting of B.C.'s towns, cities addresses growing problem of 
crimes associated with drug use

B.C. councillors from villages to cities asked for new tools to fight 
drugs and the crime associated with them throughout sessions 
Wednesday at the annual meeting of local-government politicians.

Sparwood Mayor David Wilkes suggested B.C. adopt the laws Montana has 
put in place, which require hardware stores to keep a record of 
people buying materials associated with crystal-meth production.

Coun. Jim Harker of Kamloops said he wants more municipal tools for 
shutting down drug houses. Coun. Sushil Thapar of Quesnel asked for 
more drug-treatment facilities so that police do more with local drug 
users than cycle them in and out of jail.

And delegates unanimously supported resolutions asking for more 
federal help in fighting drug trafficking, stiffer penalties for 
drug-related offences, regulation of drug paraphernalia sales, more 
supportive recovery houses and more regional detox facilities.

The picture that emerged from sessions during the day, which included 
one where people shared their strategies for crystal-meth prevention 
and another with the province's attorney-general and 
solicitor-general, is of cities and towns in every corner of the 
province battling with drugs, no matter how small or how remote.

Coun. Rita McKay of Lytton, who is also with the local native band, 
said people started noticing drugs creeping into the community in the 
last couple of years.

There had always been marijuana and alcohol, she said, "but now the 
dealers are mixing marijuana with cocaine and that's how they're 
drawing young people into that."

She works on a crystal-meth prevention strategy in Lytton that 
involves a lot of school visits and community workshops.

Many councillors were frustrated with the apparent lack of 
consequences for drug crimes. In Terrace, Coun. Rich McDaniel said a 
meth lab was busted almost next door to the police station and those 
charged were put on probation.

Attorney-General Wally Oppal said one promising experiment that may 
help with some of these crime- and drug-related problems is the 
community-court model now being piloted in Vancouver.

He said community courts help bring together people from different 
parts of the system who have traditionally operated in isolation to 
create real solutions.

That allows the community court to deal with "the root causes of 
crime, the street-level crime that is upsetting to all of us."

But when Oak Bay Coun. Nils Jensen, a prosecutor, asked when 
community courts might be put into other communities, Oppal did not 
offer a definitive answer.

He said he hopes the Vancouver community court becomes permanent, but 
said that with other communities, his ministry would work with cities 
and courts to do "a lot of other things."
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MAP posted-by: Elaine