MAYOR SAYS COMMUNITY SHOCKED AFTER TWO-YEAR-OLD FOUND
SUFFERING FROM COCAINE INTOXICATION

QUESNEL - Mayor Nate Bello said Wednesday his community has been
working hard to combat its drug problem, and that he is shocked a
two-year-old boy there ingested cocaine.

"I, and the whole community, am shocked that something like this could
happen, that people would have their two-year-old somewhere in a place
where they could get cocaine into their system," Bello said in an
interview. "It's very sad."

Social workers seized a two-year-old Quesnel boy this week, after he
was taken to hospital suffering from cocaine intoxication.

Police said tests revealed evidence of cocaine in the child's system,
as well as that of his mother. On Wednesday police said they had not
yet determined how the cocaine was administered to the child.

The child is in foster care pending the outcome of investigations by
police and the ministry for child and family development.

On Wednesday, Bello said the matter should not be seen as a sign of a
community that is not doing enough to tackle its drug problems.

"It's not because we don't do things as a community. We have this on
our priority list," he said, pointing out the community recently hired
a second drug officer for its police detachment.

Staff Sgt. Keith Hilderbrand, head of the Quesnel RCMP detachment,
agreed the drug problem in the central Interior city is serious, but
he does not think it is any worse than in any other community in the
province.

Hilderbrand, who worked as a drug officer for 20 years in Vancouver,
said the problem in Quesnel is largely due to crack cocaine, and that
drugs are now filtering down to elementary schools.

"It [was once] high schools and now [drugs are in] the elementary
schools," he said, explaining he has heard of marijuana to cocaine to
ecstasy in elementary schools, something he said he finds very
distressing.