DRUG DEALS ANGER MOM

Parent says drug dealing is going on in full view outside Coquitlam's
Centennial Secondary School.

A 36-year-old Coquitlam mother says she's "fumed" that drug dealers sell
heroin and cocaine outside Centennial Secondary School and get away with it.

The mother, who doesn't want her name published to protect her 15-year-old
son from gang vengeance, says the trafficking in hard drugs is going on
"morning, lunchtime and after school right under the noses of the school's
office" and at the public library across the street.

She says she is so mad that one day she walked up to one dealer and
"confiscated 10 flaps of heroin." She said she was kicked in the head and
thigh.

"I told the vice-principal who said they don't know who it is (dealing). I
don't see how they can't know. It's right out in front. One dealer drives a
silvery grey BMW and one a small red car."

The mother said her son was a straight-A student until the family moved
into the area.

"He hit this school and everything just fell apart."

"We're definitely aware of the dealing around the school and the library,"
said school principal Julie Pearce. "We have people out on supervision. We
also ask parents to contact the police and give a description. Part of the
problem is an incredible code of silence among the students."

Pearce said she would like a policed drug-free zone around the school, as
in some municipalities.

"And I would love to have a youth liaison police officer in the school."

The mother said her son first used heroin at a party last New Year's Eve
"because everyone else was doing it."

"I didn't know what was happening at first except that I noticed he was
losing weight."

The boy dropped from 155 pounds to 112. "And he just wasn't my boy any more."

The youth was admitted to detox May 22 but when he was released 10 days
later, the mother says he was put on a six-month waiting list for a
recovery house. He was asking for immediate treatment. Within hours he was
using heroin again.

He was scheduled to be re-admitted yesterday to detox.

"You'd think after detox they'd automatically put him in a recovery house.
By not, they're just wasting money on detox," the mom said.

She said her son is taking five calcium pills a day because the heroin
weakens his bone structure.

"He played lacrosse for 14 years but I had to take him out because it was
too hard on him."

The mother says she won't allow the boy to attend Centennial because of the
trafficking and keeps him home.

"I phone him constantly when I'm at work. I'm at my wit's end. I can't keep
him locked up."

Meanwhile, the Ministry for Children and Families is slowly rolling out
some of the 75 youth detox and treatment beds it announced more than a year
ago to try to address B.C.'s serious youth drug addiction crisis.

On Monday the ministry said a new day-treatment program designed for youth
involved in the justice system will operate through the Burnaby clinic of
the Youth Forensic Psychiatric Service. It will serve up to 40 youths a year.

In New Westminster an intensive day, evening and weekend treatment program
for high-risk youth between the ages of 12 and 18 will operate out of the
Adult Education Centre at 1001 Columbia St.

And in Surrey, the ministry plans to open in October seven residential
treatment beds for girls ages 12 to 18, five of which will be for those
involved in the youth justice system. Each girl will live with a foster
family specially trained to work with treatment professionals.

But at the same time, the ministry has not extended funding for the 13 beds
at Campbell Valley Women's Centre in Langley which has provided intensive
addiction treatment for high-risk teenage girls and operator Carl Stroh
says the facility will close at the end of the month.