WELL-OFF ALBERTANS CONTRIBUTING TO DRUG TRADE, MINISTER SAYS

EDMONTON -- Fast-living executives and middle-class people who get
high at parties are partly to blame for driving the drug trade and
increasing gang activity, Alberta's Solicitor-General said yesterday .
Fred Lindsay said he has been told by police that the province's
booming economy has fuelled an appetite for illegal drugs among
executives in Alberta's office towers.

Well-off Albertans who use illegal drugs are just as guilty of
contributing to the problem as the street gangs who sell them, he said.

"We know that there's people in the upper-middle-class and
middle-class jobs who are using these drugs," Mr. Lindsay said in an
interview.

"But they don't relate to the fact that by the use of their drugs -
whether it's crack, cocaine or even marijuana - it contributes to the
gang and the organized crime activity that we see on the streets."

The Solicitor-General was responding to recent pressure from police
chiefs in Edmonton and Calgary for more government money to recruit
hundreds of new police officers.

But hiring more police alone won't break the crime cycle, he said.
What's also needed is for Albertans to stop buying drugs to feed their
addictions.

"Looking at the amount of illegal drugs that are being used in our
province, it's not all used by the people down on the street level."

Mr. Lindsay said new legislation is now allowing police to target
drug-impaired drivers and his message to all Albertans is that users
will be charged.

The Solicitor-General's remarks appeared to take business leaders by
surprise. Both the Calgary and the Edmonton chambers of commerce
refused to discuss Mr. Lindsay's remarks.

Ken Kobly, president of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce, said he has
known Mr. Lindsay for 20 years and was surprised by the minister's
remarks.

"I think the comments are unfortunate and I don't think they're
particularly well-founded," Mr. Kobly said in an interview.

"I don't think any social status or any income level is immune when it
comes to drug abuse.

"Certainly those types of comments are not all that productive in
tackling the issue of drug abuse in the province."

Alberta's drug abuse agency made no official comment on Mr. Lindsay's
remarks.

But Korey Cherneski, a spokesman for the Alberta Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Commission, did offer some statistics from a 2004 survey by
several health agencies.

Of 2,400 Albertans surveyed, Mr. Cherneski said, 4.2 per cent who
reported a high income also reported using one or more illicit drugs
other than cannabis. Just under 5 per cent who reported a low income
used one or more illicit drugs.

Edmonton police Chief Mike Boyd, who is also president of the Alberta
Association of Chiefs of Police, could not be reached for comment.