Pubdate: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 Source: Penticton Western (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 Penticton Western Contact: http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1310 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Marijuana - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada) ILLICIT DRUGS BYLAW APPEARS LESS POTENT The city, after a lengthy delay, is close to passing a bylaw designed to curb the production of illicit drugs such as marijuana and crystal meth. There is no question that the criminal production of these substances is hurting Penticton. Most of the reported crimes in this community relate to the production and distribution of these and other substances. Their human toll, meanwhile, is immeasurable and we agree with city councillors who praise the bylaw as another means to fight the "scourge" of illegal drugs. If everything goes according to plan, the bylaw should come into effect next month, almost 20 months after the previous council first considered introduction of such a bylaw. The source of this delay was opposition from landlords who expressed concerns that the bylaw put too much responsibility on them to police their properties. "Sometimes you have no control over renters," said Karl Schrank during the public hearing when council received input on the bylaw. He and others referred specifically to stipulations that appeared to shift the onus on property owners rather than the alleged offenders. Those concerns were in hindsight legitimate and we are pleased that the most excessive ones have been dropped from the revised bylaw. The revised bylaw, for example, now leaves the inspection of rental properties up to the discretion of landlords, rather than mandating inspections every three months. This approach will ideally also ease some of our concerns around the privacy rights of tenants. But we also believe that the landlords who raised those concerns in 2004 overstated their severity. We note that some landlords expressed support for the original bylaw because they realized the beneficial aspects of it. As former mayor David Perry noted at the time, conscientious landlords will ensure their properties are not used for illegal activities. We also note that staff went out of their way to note the toughness of the original bylaw, which appeared (at the very least) to satisfy the RCMP. Also consider that the three current councillors who sat on the previous council - Dan Ashton, Rory McIvor and John Vassilaki - voted for the original bylaw. If they were so concerned about it at the time, why did they approve second and third reading even after the public hearing? We note that the only person who voted against the bylaw at the time was Gary Leaman, now no longer on council. Yes, hindsight is perfect and additional information came forward. As we noted above some of the concerns were legitimate for a number of reasons. But the subtle flip-flop and staff's concession that the RCMP would have preferred rules tougher than the ones found in the current bylaw suggests that council bowed to pressure. Fair enough. That is, for better or worse, the essence of representative democracy and balancing individual rights against public interests has vexed public officials since the Enlightenment. But add it all up and suddenly council's stated commitment to winning the war on illicit drugs has lost some strength. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake