MUNICIPALITIES JOIN FORCES TO COMBAT DRUG ABUSE

Municipalities in the Area Are Setting Out to Tackle Drugs and Crime
Before They Get Out of Control.

The Municipal Area Partnership (MAP) committee has asked Family and
Community Support Services from its six member municipalities -
Carstairs, Cremona, Didsbury, Mountain View County, Olds and Sundre -
to help develop a regional drug and crime prevention strategy.

"Drug use is becoming a problem in Mountain View County, with our
proximity to Red Deer and Calgary," said Carl McDonnell, chief
administrative officer for Carstairs. "Each community is now engaged
in some type of awareness, but a collective effort would work better
than each one of us doing our own little projects."

McDonnell said Carstairs has already had to deal with a grow-op in
town and it would help to know the scope of the problem in the area.

"We need to identify how big the problem is, and individually we
can't do that."

Stuart Ray, FCSS administrator for Olds, said he's seen this kind of
regional approach work in places like Hinton and Edson.

"They were working with the provincial government to ensure
additional resources were brought there and raise the overall
awareness not only within the community but within the province," he
said. "Our task now as FCSS folks is to start to do that research,
find out who's had success and the like, and then synthesize all that
information."

Ray said a drug prevention strategy would help bring more services to
smaller communities in the region. He said other strategies have
involved community awareness and working together with industry,
police and social services. Ray added that people have to watch for
suspicious activity in their communities.

"If you see all the sudden that, gee, all of the windows are all
covered up with tinfoil or there's different cars coming and going,
or there's some strange smells coming from here, or things don't look
normal, of course you report those things."

Ray cautioned that small towns can be ideal locations for drug
dealers taking a break from the city.

"Drugs are here," he said. "Is it as bad as other areas in the
province? No, but that's the best time to start working on it, before
it gets out of control."

The FCSS heads from each municipality are scheduled to have a plan
ready for the Feb. 20 MAP meeting.