WESTERN CITIES PLAGUED BY STREET DRUGS, GANGS

Western Canadian cities are fighting a rising tide of street drugs and
gang activity, according to a report released yesterday by the Canada
West Foundation.

In researching Hard Times: A Portrait of Street Level Social Problems in
Western Canada, the foundation consulted 311 frontline workers, experts and
community leaders.

They found that "street-level social problems" are getting worse --
particularly in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton -- and are
concentrated in inner-city neighbourhoods.

They are also interconnected, becoming more complex, and involve more
young people.

The result, the report says, is a growing division in western cities
between the affluent and the marginalized, higher long-term government
service costs, and loss of business and investment in downtown
neighbourhoods.

While homeless people were more visible in Vancouver, Calgary and
Edmonton -- the report found homeless transients tend to move between
the three cities -- street gang activity is worse in Regina, Saskatoon
and Winnipeg, according to the study.

In Regina, "gang recruitment is rampant and children as young as nine
years old are recruited to become drug runners," one participant said.

And although no city identified street prostitution as their greatest
concern, they did note that sex-trade workers are getting younger.

So are gang members, who are increasingly born into the gang and drug
culture, the report says.

In Winnipeg, for example, "many aboriginals are born into gang
membership," said one person consulted for the report.

"It is like a family business in this sense."

Hard Times is part of the Canada West Foundation's Western Cities
Project, paid for in part by the cities that were surveyed.