NEW EXPANDED RED ZONE ENCOMPASSES DOWNTOWN

All of downtown and Nob Hill is now out of bounds to known drug
dealers.

The federal Crown attorney's office has been asking the court for
conditions blocking those convicted or accused of drug trafficking
from entering an area encompassing much of the city core.

The so-called red zone is now bordered by Fitzwilliam and Bastion
street in the north and Milton and Esplanade in the south.

Until a few weeks ago, the red zone covered just the Victoria Crescent
and China Steps area.

The courts expanded it after a recent RCMP sweep on 22 drug dealers,
mostly in the Victoria Road-Nob Hill area.

"It works on a case-by-case basis," said Brian Jones, a Crown lawyer.
"When each case comes up, if bail is asked for, it is imposed as a
term of bail, or when he comes up for sentence, it's asked for as a
term of sentence."

Jones said the original red zone proved useful in cleaning up the
Victoria Crescent area, but drug traffickers soon reappeared further
south.

"We found with the red zone we were successful in pushing it out, but
it was popping up all over the place," Jones said.

Jones said red zones alone won't solve addiction and drug
problems.

"There's more to making this problem go away than enforcement," he
said.

"Generally, if you keep it diffused, the effects aren't felt as keenly
as having them all in one area."

Randy Churchill, city of Nanaimo bylaw services manager, said the red
zones help control a "predatory" subgroup of 20 or 30 of the city's
300 or so homeless population.

"One of the things we're finding is the open drug market, this
predatory part of the population, has a really strong effect and you
can't ignore [it]. And if you look at their records, some of those
individuals have up to 100 charges."

Coun. Merv Unger agrees.

"It helps clean up the streets," Unger said. "Once the predatory ones
start disappearing, we can address homelessness."

Norm Abbey, who lives on Victoria Road, said his neighbourhood has
improved since the red zone was expanded.

"Police and bylaws (officers) have been excellent," Abbey said. "I
think it's a good idea. I support that."