LOCAL POLICE CHIEFS STEP UP WAR ON DRUGS

The chiefs of police in Cobourg and Port Hope are taking different
approaches to the increasing amount of drugs on town streets.

The increase in crystal meth is of great concern, says Cobourg Police
Chief Garry Clement. It's one of the reasons, he says, he initiated
his Drug Challenge Program asking young people to say "No to Drugs."

His next presentation is February 20 at St. Mary's Secondary School
in Cobourg where he'll meet with Grade 9 students.

Chief Clement's first presentation was in December, when students
from three elementary separate schools came together at Notre Dome
Elementary School on Burnham Street in Cobourg. The program targets
young people in Grades 7 to 10. The chief says he gives a straight
talk based on what he has seen drugs do to people. It's not scare
tactics but real life experiences, he explains. Crack cocaine and
marijuana are readily available to local youngsters, he says, and the
program is to ask young people to voluntarily sign a pledge that they
won't do drugs.

They take the pledge away with them.

"They don't come back to me," he says.

Recently 12 teens at a Rebound Youth program, where the chief
volunteers, all signed the pledge.

"That's 12 kids who were picked up for drugs," he added.

It will be important this year to get councils and communities to
appreciate the drug problem and attack it with education, treatment,
enforcement and harm reduction, he said.

In Port Hope, Chief Ron Hoath says the local service's joining the
Kawartha Drug Enforcement Unit has put pressure on illegal drug users
in Port Hope.

"We've done that in spades," he says. "They are reeling..., knowing
we may come in their door or windows at any time."

The number of search warrants executed has doubled that of previous
years, and at least four times a month the target is right in Port
Hope. There have even been weeks when two raids were done a week, he added.

Crack cocaine is a big issue, he says, along with marijuana and the
pain-relief prescription drug OxyContin, commonly known as Hillbilly Heroin.