PREMIER NOT SURPRISED BY MONEY-FUELLED DRUG TRADE

CALGARY -- Premier Ed Stelmach says he's not surprised to hear a
suggestion that Alberta's hot economy helps promote a fast-lane
lifestyle that is fuelling illegal drug use by executives and the
middle class.

Fred Lindsay, the province's solicitor general, has said that he has
been told by police that the boom has been feeding an appetite for
drugs including cocaine, crack and marijuana.

Speaking in Calgary on Thursday, Stelmach said that if there wasn't a
market for such drugs in Alberta, drug dealers wouldn't be fighting
over it.

Calgary Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart says that social agency workers
have told her that they often see business people, dressed in running
gear, doing drug deals at lunchtime before jogging back to work.

Garth Gillespie, a counsellor for the Fresh Start Recovery Program,
says it treats everyone from executives to people off the street for
drug problems.

Dermot Baldwin, executive director of the Calgary Drop-In Centre, says
he feels encouraged by the cabinet minister's frankness about the problem.