CRACKDOWN ON BLATANT DRUG USE CONTINUES WITH CRACK SMOKERS ARRESTED
IN SCHOOL STAIRWELL

VANCOUVER - Police announced three more arrests Tuesday as part of a
crackdown on blatant drug use on Downtown Eastside streets.

A man and a woman, aged 25 and 33, were arrested about noon Sunday
smoking crack cocaine in the stairwell of Strathcona elementary
school at 592 East Pender while about 20 elderly citizens were doing
tai chi on the school grounds, and children were playing nearby.

On Monday at about 10:15 a.m., two men in their 40s were arrested for
smoking crack while standing beside a police officer on the sidewalk
near a daycare centre in the 300-block Princess in the Downtown
Eastside. Children from the daycare in the block walked by after
police made the arrests, said Vancouver police Const. Howard Chow.

The crackdown on street drug use began about three weeks ago after
Vancouver police Chief Jamie Graham was standing on East Hastings
giving an interview to a magazine writer and a drug deal took place
under his nose, the dealer unconcerned by the chief's presence.

In the last few weeks, police have made 38 arrests during 33
incidents, with 21 of those in parks, three at bus stops and 14 in
public places.

For years police stopped enforcing drug possession laws because of
the courts' indifference to simple possession charges.

Now police are targeting hot spots for users in the Downtown
Eastside, including the intersections of Main and Hastings, Hastings
and Carrall, Hastings and Columbia and Hastings and Abbott.