WHITE ROCK TO STUDY DRUG PARAPHERNALIA

White Rock city council is starting its own war on drugs, or at least
on bongs, pipes, papers and other related paraphernalia.

After a failed attempt two years ago, Coun. Catherine Ferguson
emerged victorious from a city council meeting Monday night after her
motion asking staff to create a report outlying a plan to prohibit
the sale of drug paraphernalia was approved by council.

The motion was broken into three parts: the first was the creation of
the report; the second requested the finalized plan be included in
the RCMP DARE program, a school-based, anti-drug program for
children; and the third was to include the report and related actions
in the agenda for the upcoming planning session between White Rock
and the City of Surrey.

"It would be a stronger bylaw, a stronger preventative measure if we
could do this with the City of Surrey," said Coun. Doug McLean, who
pointed out drugs and crime don't recognize city boundaries. While
all councillors voted unanimously in favour of the last two parts of
the motion, Coun. Matt Todd was the only dissenting voice on the
first, which dealt with the actual report creation.

Calling Ferguson's intention "noble," Todd argued staff had too much
on its plate already to take on this extra work.

Todd said he thought it wasn't a high priority since White Rock
wasn't overrun with shops selling hydroponics equipment, used in
illegal grow ops, as was the case in other cities that had similar
paraphernalia bans.

"I feel this motion is too broad and asking for too much," Todd said.
"I feel it would be just creating a make work project for our staff."

Coun. James Coleridge disagreed with Todd, stating staff was
perfectly capable of managing its own time effectively. He thought it
was time for the city to get "aggressive on these issues" and for
council to develop a strategy to "drive drugs out of the city."

"We fought smoking in a lot of different ways," Coleridge said,
pointing to council's success as a leader in this endeavour, and one
of Todd's pet projects.

City manager Peggy Clark said the report wouldn't require a lot of
staff involvement, mainly a resource from the city's bylaw
department, which is how the ban would be implemented, and a contact
from the RCMP.

Following the creation of the report, and proposed implementation
plan, staff and law enforcement will make a presentation to council,
which will debate and finalize the issue before including it in the
planning session with Surrey.