TOWN ADDRESSES DRUG CONCERNS

The Town of Vulcan has quickly responded to the Vulcan County
Ministerial Association's request for action on combating drugs
within the county.

The town's council met Jan. 15 and the next day a five-paragraph
letter from Mayor Tom Grant had been drawn up.

"The Town will be more than happy to participate in any collective
initiative to fight this plague, as you so well define in your
letter, affecting not only the users but the society as a whole,"
Grant says in the letter to the association.

Grant thanked the ministerial association, which drafted a letter to
local councils in late December urging action to combat illicit drug
use, for raising the issue and assured the group that the town will
do what it can to "support a campaign against illicit drugs."

The Town forwarded its letter to the Vulcan RCMP detachment since the
RCMP have already expressed their intent to put together a plan to
deal with illicit drug use, reads the letter.

But Rev. Gordon Cranch of St. Aldhelm's Anglican Church was not happy
with the town's response.

"They're passing the buck to the RCMP," said Cranch shortly after
receiving the letter. "It's everyone's business. Why can't they think
of something to help."

Cranch also took exception to a comment Coun. Harold Lewis, who
sympathized with the churches' cause yet wondered council could do
about illicit drugs in Vulcan, made at last week's council meeting.
Lewis said: "We're councillors, we're not narcs."

Cranch read that with dismay, he wrote in an e-mail to the Advocate.

"Very true, I would think," he said. "But I would put it to council
they are not all accountants or bankers, but they have been given
charge over millions of taxpayer dollars.

"Similarly, they are charged with maintaining the peace and security
of the citizens of Vulcan. You were elected as councillors for
leadership in all areas, not those you pick and choose."

Passing the buck to the RCMP, he wrote, was an "exercise in
futility." The RCMP already have ownership of the drug and alcohol
problem, Cranch continued.

"It is precisely the RCMP that we are attempting to aid in their
mandate to protect the citizens of Vulcan County, be it through
education or increased awareness of the alcohol and drug culture
around us," he wrote.

Grant could not be reach for further comment.

The Vulcan County Ministerial Association, which met last week,
intends to create a coalition of community organizations interested
in doing something about the county's drug problem.

The group wants representatives from local councils, RCMP, schools,
churches and others to come together. Cranch said the coalition
should be up and running in a couple of weeks.

Trevor Wagenvoort, mayor of Champion, said it's the responsibility of
council to tackle drug and alcohol problems among its residents.

"We can't stick our heads in the sand on this," he said.

There are drugs issues within the county, and it's not just young
people dealing with addictions, he said.

But unfortunately villages and towns, unlike cities, don't have the
resources to take them on, said Wagenvoort.

"Banding together, if you will, makes perfect sense," he said.

Cpl. Larry Wiltshire of the Vulcan RCMP detachment welcomed the local
churches taking the initiative to help reduce drug use within the county.

He has said that that the drug problem in Vulcan County is no worse,
comparatively speaking, to anywhere else he's policed.