ADDICTION ADVOCATE NOT THE BEST CHOICE FOR ADDICTION MINISTER

Before Brenda Locke became the new Mental Health and Addiction
Services Minister, she was one of B.C.'s most outspoken and tireless
advocates for drinking, smoking and gambling.

Which sort of makes you wonder whether Ross Rebagliati should be named
head of a new marijuana task force. Or maybe Svend Robinson should be
named minister responsible for prevention of shoplifting.

Either would make as much sense as Premier Gordon Campbell's decision
to put Locke in charge of addiction programs, given her track record
defending addictive activities.

Locke was the executive director of the Neighbourhood Pub Owners
Association of B.C. for 16 years. During that time, she fought all
government attempts to ban smoking in bars.

"The reality of our business is smokers attend in big numbers and they
spend more," said Locke in 1999. She will now be responsible for the
government's anti-smoking programs.

"A lot of people do only socially smoke. The only time they do smoke
is when they're in a pub or bar -- that kind of atmosphere. It's a
legal substance. If the government really thinks it's as bad as it
says it is, they should ban tobacco altogether."

Talk about a smoking-gun quote. But wait. There are plenty more from
British Columbia's new champion for addicts. Flash back to 1995 when
the NDP government of the day was considering toughening up B.C.'s
drunk-driving laws. Locke was in a tizzy when the government suggested
lowering the impaired-driving limit from .08 to .05. "It would be
devastating to our industry," she said.

Locke was publicly battling Mothers Against Drunk Driving back then.
Now, as the minister responsible for alcohol-abuse programs, she does
photo-ops with MADD. What a transformation.

Then there was Locke's public campaign in support of video lottery
terminals in bars. VLTs are considered among the most highly addictive
forms of gambling. Locke was all for them in the mid-90s, when she
fought to hook pub patrons on the video rip-off machines. She was
devastated when the NDP outlawed VLTs in 1995.

"We've spent three years on this project so we were shocked, to say
the least."

Here's something equally shocking: Studies suggest that people who
play VLT machines are more than twice as likely to be gambling
addicts, compared to people who participate in other forms of gaming.

All of which makes you wonder what Campbell was smoking when he
appointed his ramblin', gamblin' backbencher to run the province's
addiction programs.