Liberal politicians were quick to pat themselves on the back last week when B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor revealed the province has a $4.1 billion surplus. But you don't have to look far for evidence that the Campbell government's penny-pinching ways have come with a hefty social cost. True the B.C. Liberals can't take all the blame for the increase in addiction, poverty, homelessness, theft, property crime and street-level drug dealing that has occurred in communities across B.C. since they took office. [continues 422 words]
Needle exchanges like the AIDS Vancouver Island program have been shown to reduce the spread of HIV without increasing drug use. They also serve as a bridge to drug treatment for an especially hard to reach population. Drug users are not the only beneficiaries. Consider the tragic experience of Canada's southern neighbor. U.S. Centers for Disease Control researchers estimate that 57 percent of AIDS cases among women and 36 percent of overall AIDS cases in the U.S. are linked to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. [continues 55 words]
Community Courts Bus Fare Protest The "honour system" has finally been abandoned on the Greater Vancouver buses. The establishment of "fare paid zones" beyond the driver's seat and at least the theoretical appearance of someone to check tickets is an effort to stem the problem of people refusing to pay and assaulting drivers who remind them the ride isn't quite free. It seems that once a city reaches a certain size, it doesn't have enough honour left for honour systems. Surveys indicated that Ottawa doesn't yet have bus anarchy, but Toronto does. [continues 830 words]
Mile Zero If you ask people living in the 800-block of Cormorant Street to describe how well they've been sleeping lately, many will answer with exasperated sighs or tight-lipped grimaces of frustration. The area is one of downtown Victoria's acknowledged "hot spots" of illegal drug activity and it's also home to the needle exchange operated by AIDS Vancouver Island. Despite the best efforts of AVI officials, city employees, neighbourhood associations and the police, drug-related activities and unwelcome nighttime noise extends for several blocks in every direction. [continues 824 words]
I'm writing about Alan Randell=92s outstanding letter: =93Legal drugs the answer=94 (May 25). If we re-legalized all our illegal drugs so that they could be sold by licensed and regulated businesses for pennies per dose, would this eliminate our drug problems? No. However, doing so would substantially reduce the crime rate and increase public safety. Will we ever be able to eliminate our drug problems? No. However, we can substantially reduce the harm caused by our now illegal drugs. [continues 114 words]
Re: "Treat the problem" (editorial, May 18). Answers are indeed in short supply about how to deal with "career criminals who steal from honest hardworking folks because the crooks need to feed their drug habits." That's because newspapers such as yours are extremely reluctant to suggest what would be the most effective answer: ending drug prohibition. Legalizing drugs will reduce the costs of currently illegal drugs so much that many more users will be able to finance their habit with their own money, just as alcohol and tobacco users currently do, rather than by stealing from others. Alan Randell Victoria [end]
For the most part, answers have been hard to come by debate over how to deal with career criminals who steal from honest hardworking folks because the crooks need to feed their drug habits. But there may be a ray of hope in Attorney General Wally Oppal's bid to establish community court system for chronic offenders who seem unable to free themselves from the twin evils of addiction and crime. The prevailing wisdom among criminologists is that longer sentences and more stringent parole requirements do little to deter crime. On the other hand, shortening sentences and granting parole more easily won't stop crooks from committing crimes either. [continues 425 words]
Re: "Illegal drugs -- why not remove the cause? (March 30). Stephen Lamb's letter praising Singapore's enforcement of drug laws and asking us to face the facts doesn't take into consideration that the population of Singapore has not enjoyed our level of human rights and freedoms for as long as we have. Many Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and even Thailand have enforced laws in horrendous ways that would not be acceptable in a free and just society. Drug dealers and users were often shot on the spot with no hope for trial or questions asked. Is this how we should enforce our drug laws in this country? Would you risk having your son or daughter at risk of being shot for their youthful experimentation? Let's not hold up the law enforcement examples of a country that still regards homosexuality as punishable by canings and life in prison. Their law and order is enforced by standards that fortunately would never be acceptable here. Barry Carvish, Victoria [end]
Recent press has carried another spate of articles bemoaning illegal drug activity and the ineffectiveness of combative measures. One writer asked, "Does anyone else have a better idea at a reasonable cost?" At the risk of offending the gentile and naive, I quote from an article presented in Readers Digest of June 2006. This article was written by two educated, observant, realistic Canadians, who have lived and worked in Singapore for several years. "It's probably the world's safest country. It's certainly the cleanest big city I've ever seen." According to the same article, "Most citizens enjoy subsidized housing, an advanced medical system that rivals Canada's and a level of public safety that seems incredible to a North American." [continues 64 words]
If Keith Martin had his way, the Capital Region would become home to a safe-injection site for intravenous drug users. "I've been pushing for a safe-injection site like the one in Vancouver," the Liberal MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca said in recent interview. Both new and earlier evidence has shown that safe-injection sites are beneficial, Martin said. The more recent evidence essentially corroborates earlier evidence showing that safe-injection sites reduce crime in areas such as break-and-enters and auto theft. [continues 245 words]
The message was crystal clear -- meth kills, and the end won't be pretty. Members of Crystal Meth Victoria Society made a presentation to Parkland secondary students this week to reinforce that message. The Meth Info Show educates youth on how to recognize crystal methamphetamine, the effects that it has on the body and the devastation it wreaks on families. An 18-minute video that pulls no punches, Death by Jib, was shown to the students. The video was followed by an open question period with presenters and Crystal Meth Victoria Society cofounders Mark McLaughlin and Marilyn Erickson. [continues 809 words]
Last week's column touched on crime rates around the province, which the BC government tracks by health region. If you look at violent crime, serious property crime and non-cannabis drug crime, the safest place to live in BC is Vancouver Island. Next best is the Interior region, which encompasses the Kootenays, Okanagan and Cariboo. In the middle of the pack is the Fraser region, the largest in the province by population, extending from Burnaby through the Fraser Valley to Hope. [continues 827 words]
Legal marijuana users decry federally sanctioned product as weak and pricey The cannabis menu at the Vancouver Island Compassion Society changes daily. On this particular day, clients have a choice of Pochi, Hog, Shishberry, Imposter or Jack Herer. Beneath each name, a brief description of the effects of the variety is provided: strong and heady, reads one; mellow and body buzz, reads another. In addition to supplying medical cannabis buds to about 600 clients on Vancouver Island, the compassion society offers an arrange of cannabis by-products and alternatives to smoking, such as cookies, oral sprays and tinctures, says society director Philippe Lucas. [continues 1196 words]
Education Minister Shirley Bond says more young people than ever are experimenting with crystal meth. "We know crystal meth use is a problem," Bond said. "Research shows that about five per cent of students in Grade 7-12 may have tried crystal meth. "Our government believes that one person using crystal meth is one person too many." She added that the province is working to give parents the information they need to talk to their kids about the drug. That's the reason the B.C. government has initiated a $3-million school-based program and public education campaign. [continues 104 words]
Tougher sentencing of crystal meth lab operators and more intrusive measures to catch them when they buy precursor chemicals are urgently needed, delegates to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention heard Wednesday. Terrace Coun. Rich McDaniel said a meth lab was busted within 300 metres of both Terrace city hall and the RCMP detachment, but its operators were sentenced this month to probation only. "They didn't even get a damn fine," he told a crystal meth strategies forum. "There's no deterrent." [continues 395 words]
The Crystal Meth Society is offering an awareness presentation on Crystal Meth at Parkland secondary school, in the gym, on Thursday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. The Crystal Meth Society 's presentation is meant to help parents and adults in the community to become educated on the dangers of crystal meth, and to find out about its destructive qualities among users, especially young people. The presentation is being hosted by the Sidney Rotary Club, the Interac Club, and the Crystal Meth Society. For further information, call Mark McLaughlin, 744-4111, for the Crysta Meth Society or Rick Patterson, 655-0816, for theInterac Club. [end]
Re: Bums prefer ocean views (B.C. Views, Sept. 7) I have just returned from a two-week holiday visiting my family, most of whom emigrated to B.C. around 50 years ago. I now have two aunts, three cousins and their extended families living in Maple Ridge and I always receive a warm welcome. I congratulate you on your article, which I read on the internet. Here in Scotland we have the same problems with the so-called "homeless drug addicts" and we also have the same bleeding heart politicians and social workers with their schemes, projects and solutions to the problems of crime, illegal squatting on private property and vandalism caused by these people. [continues 151 words]
BC Views: Another summer winds down, as the weather begins to separate the really homeless from the fair-weather pretenders. But the issue is pressing hard on BC communities, and not just Vancouver and Victoria, which get most of the attention. Here in the capital, which seems to have more than its share of hostels and street services already, the consensus is that they need more shelters. Over in Vancouver, BC Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair says the solution to poverty and homelessness is to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, and get rid of that evil $6 training wage. He doesn't mention that fewer and fewer employers are even trying to attract help at the $8 an hour minimum, let alone the training wage. [continues 797 words]
A quick recap. Buck, the drug-sniffing police dog has unfortunately become addicted to cocaine. A family adopts him. The little girl "loans" her brother her special savings - for a trip to Disneyland - in order to buy medication for Buck. Eventually, the school adopts Buck and organizes fund-raisers (with the police, local groups, church groups) to raise money to buy medication for Buck. However, a small shipment of the cocaine goes missing from the school. The principal demands that the cocaine that rightfully belongs to the school be returned so that it might be medicated to Buck. Eventually Buck is called in to "sniff" out the cocaine. He points to the little girl's locker. The little girl protests that all she wanted was her money back so that she could go to Disneyland. [continues 1310 words]
Last week, in Buck the Druggie, we introduced Buck, the drug-sniffing police dog who had become addicted to cocaine. Buck was "adopted" by the local school: to ease the cost of providing Buck with his medication, a number of fund-raisers were organized by the school, the local police and a number of church groups to raise money to buy him his medication. It was on a Tuesday, just after the "shipment" from a place not unlike Campbell River was delivered by a dark-haired stranger named Dave, that the story about Buck took a dangerous twist. [continues 1274 words]
The dog's name was Buck. Buck was a police dog, a specially trained drug-sniffing dog. Buck had done so well in basic training that he was doing full-time duty by the age of one year. Buck could sniff out cocaine through anything: rubber fishing boots, hermetically sealed bags, secret pockets, leather purses, in just about anything. Buck sniffed it out, took the odd lick, the odd snort, then let the canine officer know what the white stuff actually was. [continues 1060 words]
All the key players - substance users, researchers, policy makers, law enforcement and local business people - attended a recent substance-abuse forum - well, almost everyone. "The health authority," said Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe, when asked who should be sitting at the table next time, adding that the focus should be on drug addiction as a health issue, not an enforcement issue. "It's time to come to terms with the fact that we're a substance-using culture," said Connie Carter, a member of Voices of Substance, citing the prevalence and acceptability of alcohol, cigarettes and coffee in our society. "Unfortunately, the burden of marginalization falls on people using illicit substances." [continues 233 words]
Recent press has described a litany of crime and social deviance in Canada. Major drug seizures, with another under investigation; the shut-down of an alleged Vernon drug gang; illegal immigrants protesting deportation; terrorist scares in Toronto; B.C. Ferries employees advised by lawyers not to talk. Not being one of the gentle people, following a lifetime of practical experience, I am at the same time saddened, sickened, appalled, disgusted and frightened by the apparent powerlessness of Canada's "justice" system. [continues 220 words]
It's not a good time to get busted for marijuana possession now that Stephen Harper is the prime minister. When the Liberal Party held power in Ottawa they drafted legislation calling for the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana. But the Conservative Party and Harper have indicated an intention to scrap planned legislation. Harper recently expressed that position at the annual Canadian Professional Police Association conference in Ottawa. "Harper adheres to this notion that society should morally sanction people who use illegal drugs," said Keith Martin, the Liberal MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca. [continues 510 words]
There were no surprises in the federal all-candidates meeting last Thursday evening. Liberal candidate Sheila Orr began the opening statements and set the tone for the others singing the praises of her party's leader Paul Martin. Conservative MP Gary Lunn hyped Stephen Harper, NDP candidate Jennifer Burgis promoted Jack Layton as leader, however Green Party candidate Andrew Lewis spoke of a crisis in leadership, without mentioning Green Party leader Jim Harris by name as an alternative. Written questions from the audience of about 200 were directed to individual candidates and were asked by moderator, A Channel anchor/reporter Stephen Andrew. [continues 2170 words]
It's been less than a month since local Shoppers Drug Mart outlets joined Meth Watch, but at least one local retailer says the program is already having a positive impact. "We had a couple of characters in the store who wanted to order four-litre jugs of rubbing alcohol, and said 'no we can't do that'," said Brian Martindale, who owns two Shoppers Drug Mart outlets in Victoria. "Then they said 'Okay, we'll just take 10 of the smaller bottles' and we said 'we can't do that either.'" [continues 488 words]
Large sales of cold medications that could be used to make methamphetamine will be more tightly monitored by the province in the first plank of a new B.C. program. Solicitor General John Les said the province will work with police, pharmacists and retailers to track large sales and thefts of cold medications from retailers. Les admitted most meth labs use bulk commercial imports to get the chemical precursors they need - they don't usually buy them at pharmacies or grocery stores. [continues 137 words]
Imagine a cocktail of acetone, drain cleaner, paint thinner, kerosene, lithium batteries and iodine. Throw in a little umbrella and suck it back. The thought will make you sick, but that's what crystal meth addicts do on a regular basis - the difference is they smoke it or shoot it. Crystal methamphetamine typically is smoked using glass pipes similar to pipes used to smoke crack cocaine. Crystal methamphetamine also may be injected. A user who smokes or injects the drug immediately experiences an intense sensation followed by a high that may last 12 hours or more. [continues 703 words]
Ted Smith's trial on charges of distributing marijuana-laced cookies at a pro-pot rally five years ago took three times as long as the sentence he received. The 36-year-old marijuana activist was sentenced to one day in jail Friday at the end of a three-day trial stemming from charges that were laid in November, 2000, when he arrived at a rally outside the Greater Victoria Public Library's main branch with more than 18 kilograms of chocolate chip cookies containing cannabis. [continues 578 words]
Some people might be shocked at the idea of pregnant women smoking marijuana to deal with the nausea that comes with pregnancy. But a UK-based medical publication, Journal of Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, has taken the idea seriously and published a study conducted by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society on the topic. The Victoria-based society, which provides medicinal marijuana to people suffering from various illnesses, recently completed the study that examines the therapeutic potential of medicinal cannabis for nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy. The study argues that marijuana is an effective method to deal with nausea and vomiting with pregnant women. [continues 440 words]
The latest episode of American led "reefer madness" is a good example of the world according to Dubya. A Canadian judge allowed our warring neighbours to orchestrate the arrest of a Canadian citizen on our soil, for a crime we don't give a damn about. Just who runs our justice system? A bunch of Texas rednecks? Since when do we arrange the arrest of a Canadian for offences we deem trivial, to face a lifetime in an alien jail. The Americans are facing self destruction from their right wing agenda and under no circumstances should Canadian authorities cooperate in any way. [continues 110 words]
Coleman v. Campbell Governors-General In Waiting? The forces of anti-Americanism are in full throat after the arrest of B.C. Marijuana Party leader Marc Emery to stand trial in Seattle for selling seeds by mail-order. The hard left in Kamloops (yes, there is one) sees the sinister hand of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney at work. In a letter to Kamloops This Week, Gary Williams muses that Canadian Gen. Rick Hillier's recent Donald Rumsfeld-style talk about whacking terrorists may be part of a pattern with this sudden crackdown on pot. He writes, "Indeed, I have to seriously wonder if Hillier, Defence Minister Bill Graham and the RCMP are now taking their directions from Washington." [continues 802 words]
Word watch Crack rooms backed Drug tourism When 'safe' isn't safe Victoria is the second city in BC to get in line for the brave new world of "safe injection sites," as they are persistently referred to in the mainstream media. If it goes ahead, our quaint old capital will also be the second city in Canada to embrace this trendy European strategy. Or North America for that matter, since so far only Vancouver has taken the plunge. Once this questionable bit of social engineering spreads to two cities, look for it to pop up in other BC communities that have a significant hard drug problem, which is to say most of them. They're already talking about it in Kamloops. [continues 809 words]
Gloria Gillingham's Grade 5 class at Sidney school are daring to say no to drugs and violence thanks to the RCMP's DARE program. The students have been taking the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program [DARE] taught by Sidney North Saanich RCMP Constable Ravi Gunasinghe for the past 17 weeks. The students used words like "cool" and "fun" to describe the course. "We got to play a lot of games," said R.J. Laughren-Smith. "We learned to walk away and say 'no'," said Reinhardt Starke. [continues 221 words]
Sidney/North Saanich RCMP have been DARE-ing kids to resist drugs since 2000. But the program always runs on the edge of extinction. "Funding is our biggest issue," said RCMP Cst. Ravi Gunasinghe. The DARE course is taught to Grade 5 students at a cost of approximately $700 per class. In its first two years the Sidney program taught two classes, since Gunasinghe took over the program last year, about half of the Grade 5 classes in the district have received the course. [continues 272 words]
The death of four police officers is a tragedy. We need to learn a number of lessons from the incident in Alberta last week. It's important to find out exactly what happened, and how four Mounties were ambushed by one man in a lonely farm area, far from help. Could it have been handled differently? Can we learn something that will help keep other officers safer? What we shouldn't be doing is making the incident something that it was not. According to the information that's become available (and what has now been corrected by the top RCMP officer in the country), the officers were not at the farm to take down a grow-op. They were there to assist a bailiff to repossess a vehicle. The marijuana - apparently 20 plants - was something the officers came across when they got to the farm. [continues 291 words]
Thirty-three thousand British Columbians are dependent on illicit drugs, according to Every Door is the Right Door, a recent publication of BC's Ministry of Health Services. So the Centre for Addictions Research of BC, with UVic acting as lead agency, has created the Substance Information Link (www.silink.ca) to provide one-stop shopping for substance use information. It aims to help people who are worried about their children and crystal meth, a colleague's drinking, or their own prescription drug use. [continues 64 words]
The inquest into the death of Lyndon Charles Valan wrapped up last week. Coroner Beth Larcombe was presiding over the case which was set to lay out all of the facts in the death that occurred in police custody last November. Forensic pathologist Dr. Daniel Straathof performed the autopsy on Valan and concluded that Valan suffered from cocaine psychosis, which includes symptoms such as aggression, disturbing hallucinations, paranoia and mania. Straathof concluded that Valan died after taking cocaine and ending up in a cocaine-induced delirium which, along with a pre-existing enlarged heart and thickened heart wall may have been contributing factors in the man's death. [continues 221 words]
Stelly's Style It's twelve o'clock and a young girl is sitting with her friends at a party. A good-looking guy who is checking her out approaches her. He offers her a blue cocktail. Smitten, she accepts. As she sips away her friends leave her alone with the "hottie." Fifteen minutes later she starts to feel woozy. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a stranger's bed without any recollection of the night's events. This young girl, who could be anybody, has been raped. [continues 430 words]
Thanks for the outstanding column by Arthur Black, Going to Pot, Dec 24. Mr. Black got it exactly right, cannabis poses far less danger to the public safety and neighborhood tranquility than legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco. Just try taking away a tobacco addict's butts and you'll see some fur fly. I would only add that 100 per cent of all cannabis-related violence is actually cannabis prohibition violence. In the 1920s and early '30s, and with the best of intentions, the US embarked on the noble experiment of alcohol prohibition. It didn't stop anyone from drinking; it only transferred control of the drug from the government to criminal syndicates. [continues 81 words]
Did I ever tell you about the time I impersonated a cop? Relax, sergeant - it was several years ago, in another provincial jurisdiction. I lived in the sticks at the time, the hour hand had long passed midnight and some Party-Hearties in a house down the road were making noise. Way too much noise. I took it for an hour and a half and then I called the cops. A bored dispatcher informed me that, as it was the weekend and due to budgetary cutbacks, no police were actually on duty, but an officer could be summoned from a nearby jurisdiction 'in an extreme emergency'. [continues 733 words]
Addicts who pump drugs into their veins with a needle won't have to go far to find clean syringes anymore. A new mobile needle exchange has started rolling along the streets of Greater Victoria. Prompted by the lack of service available during daytime hours, the Victoria AIDS Resource and Community Service Society (VARCS) this week launched Mobile X. The mobile service is taking the needle exchange to where users gather, giving them the choice of staying put and waiting for needles to be delivered or actually going to the exchange located at the corner of Blanshard and Cormorant streets. [continues 681 words]
Drinking, drugs, driving and dying - that is the topic of The Danger Zone, an intense look at the number one killer of youth - car crashes. After the devastating death of his sister at the hands of an impaired driver, and 20 years of experience as a police officer, Sergeant Ed Illi of the Saanich police has developed The Danger Zone to educate young people about the dangers of drinking, drugs and driving. "The program is an emotional attention-getter and incorporates humour, exciting visuals and a very valuable message geared especially for youth," said Illi. "In order to communicate effectively with these kids, the message has to be on their level." [continues 103 words]
Much of the heat in the debate about medical marijuana in Greater Victoria has been levelled at the police in Victoria and Oak Bay, both of which have raided the operations of compassion clubs in their districts. On March 28, Victoria medical pot activist Ted Smith led supporters in speaking out to Victoria councillors, hoping to convince them to ask police to ease up on their surveillance of club operations. At the same time, said Smith, they hoped to educate councillors of the reality of forcing terminally ill people who gain relief from ingesting marijuana to buy their supply off the street. [continues 153 words]
A Victoria-produced documentary to be shown nationally next week is aimed at prompting questions about the federal government's medical marijuana program. Crimes of Compassion is a one-hour piece which looks at efforts by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS) to distribute marijuana to terminally ill patients, and explores various perspectives on the issue. "I think that this documentary is really just scratching the surface of a very huge topical issue," says director Jennifer Pickford. "It's a health issue but it's also a human rights issue." [continues 447 words]
Staying out of jail is proving to be a challenge for Ted Smith. "I'm not in jail yet," says Smith. But he expects he may be heading there soon. Smith is the coordinator of the Vancouver Island Cannabis Buyers Club on Johnson Street in Victoria, which provides marijuana to people for medical purposes. Smith is currently facing a charge of possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) for the purpose of trafficking. On Jan.3, Victoria police arrested Smith in his store, Ted's Books, which doubles as the Vancouver Island Cannabis Buyers Club. Smith, who was arrested along with another person who was allegedly caught rolling a marijuana cigarette. [continues 195 words]
Victoria-based pro-pot activists and even a local Canadian Alliance MP have been busy, chipping away at the foundation of existing drug laws The past two weeks have been a busy time for those who want to see the federal government throw out the existing laws on illicit drugs. Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca Canadian Alliiance MP Keith Martin succeeded in getting his private members bill calling for the decriminalization of marijuana debated in the House of Commons last week. And Ted Smith, a Greater Victoria-based advocate of getting rid of Canada's current drug laws, has also been busy promoting his cause. [continues 555 words]
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. Socrates Well, it's official. The Fraser Institute has declared that the War On Drugs has been a big fat waste of time. The Institute, for those who don't patrol the far-right fringe on the political tundra, is a collection of bigdomes who pronounce regularly on the vagaries of government and social policy. The Fraserites hang their mortar boards and three piece pin stripes in British Columbia, but ideologically they are Alberta Incarnate. [continues 548 words]
I am sure there were many people like myself who, when reading the newspaper accounts of Jessica States' last tormented moments of life, felt tears trickling down their cheeks. Over the last few years we have read numerous accounts of young children disappearing; only to be found later, murdered, beaten and often sexually interfered with. As adults, we all have a duty to conduct our lives in a manner that will prevent us from putting another's life in danger. Roderick Jonathan Patten, charged [and convicted] with first-degree murder in the killing of Jessica States, willingly indulged in consuming alcohol, LSD and marijuana during a contest with his friends to see who could ingest most of this toxic elixir. [continues 115 words]
After more than 30 years as a drug and alcohol counselor, Samuel Sam of the Tsartlip Nation is retiring. Sam holds an honorary Doctor of laws degree from the University of Victoria, and is a Recipient of the Order of Canada. He's also an alcoholic. "I almost destroyed my life and marriage," Sam said. "But I had a wonderful wife who stuck with me." After sobering up in 1959, he's worked hard to make up for those early years. Through regular counseling activities, Sam has helped many who suffer from alcoholism and drug abuse. And as Chairman of the Regional Advisory Board for First Nations at Health and Welfare Canada, he was instrumental in establishing the Round Lake Treatment Centre in Armstrong, and the Tsowtunlelum Treatment Centre at Nanoose Bay. [continues 222 words]
