FELLOW MAYORS JOIN SMITH'S ANTI-DRUG CRUSADE

EDMONTON - Mayors from across northern Alberta rallied Friday behind a call
from Edmonton's mayor to launch a fierce and determined campaign to
eradicate the province's illegal drug trade.

The unanimous support from the group of more than 30 mayors came one day
after Mayor Bill Smith warned drug dealers and their clients to get out of
town and challenged all Edmontonians to take an active role in the fight
against illegal drugs.

"It's an Alberta problem, it's not just an Edmonton problem," Smith said.

"Drugs are very transportable. They move across all kinds of boundaries."

The group of mayors meet three times a year to discuss common problems and
projects.

Fairview Mayor Jean Charchuk described the call to action as long overdue.

This is the forum's second tough and united anti-drug stance this year. In
June, the mayors identified the drug methamphetamine as a serious problem in
communities across the country. At the request of Drayton Valley Mayor Moe
Hamdon, the group called on the federal government to keeps tabs on who
sells and buys large quantities of chemicals that are used to make the drug.

Friday, Hamdon urged municipalities to share information about successful
drug-fighting programs.

Smith said he was speaking out to get judges to impose tougher penalties on
people charged with drug offences, to convince the province to give more
funding to police to fight the drug war and other citizens to be watching
for signs in their schools, communities and homes of drug use.

Several mayors said their cities and towns were in the midst of anti-drug
efforts before Smith's call to action.

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray, is
holding a drug awareness symposium on Oct. 22, organized by the RCMP, social
agencies and the city's chamber of commerce.

The business community is getting involved because there are concerns that
illegal drug use is having an impact on work performance, said the city's
mayor, Doug Faulkner.

Smaller communities such as Camrose and Bonnyville also have recognized drug
use, particularly crystal meth, as a problem.

Camrose Mayor Norm Mayer said his city established a drug task force within
the last year. Like Smith, Mayer said the police are doing an excellent job
putting pressure on the people making and dealing drugs. But community
groups need to help keep it up.

"We're going to keep the pressure not only on crystal meth, but all drugs,"
Mayer said.

The town of Bonnyville also recently organized a group called Coalition for
Living Without Drugs, which includes social agencies, AADAC, the schools,
RCMP and everybody in the community.

"We launched it with a public meeting on one of the coldest nights in
northern Alberta, and we had 100 people come out," Mayor Kathryn Wiebe said.

Four Edmonton-area MPs also support zero tolerance for drug dealers.

Fourteen drug-related killings since 2002 is too many, said Edmonton North
Alliance MP Deb Grey, who worried about innocent bystanders when she woke up
to a report another teen had been shot dead after a drug deal went wrong.
Strathcona MP Rahim Jaffer said zero tolerance should focus on violence to
reverse a trend to gang crime. MPs Peter Goldring and John Williams also
called for tougher punishment.