TREATMENT SURREY DRUG CENTRE PLANNED

Surrey will be home to a medium-to large-scale treatment centre, if
a current proposal goes ahead as planned, Mayor Dianne Watts says.

An unnamed Surrey philanthropist is proposing the facility, which
will be subject to extensive community consultation in the coming
months.

The philanthropist, who has another facility in the United States,
already owns the land and is keen to get the treatment centre started
in Surrey.

Details of the facility are being kept tightly under wraps until the
plan is formalized, likely closer to the year's end.

"More information will be given to council and general public as the
preliminary plans become more solidified," Watts said.

"It's very exciting stuff, and it's a key piece of the overall
strategy."

The crime prevention strategy, currently being drafted, will be
presented to council this fall.

It will be based on a four-pillar approach, which differs from
Vancouver's model in that it won't include safe injection sites or
free heroin, Watts said.

Key elements in the strategy will be treatment, prevention, education
and enforcement.

Treatment, she says, will be a cornerstone of the model. For a drug
strategy to work, addicts must have a ready and accessible way to get
off drugs.

White Rock's Kerry Jackson, whose son Ryan committed suicide after
leaving treatment for crystal meth addiction in Vancouver's St.
Paul's Hospital, said location of a treatment centre is key.

She's hopeful the proposed treatment centre in Surrey works, but says
addicts treated in highly populated areas often drop out.

"I'm not so sure having it in Surrey is the best location...I've
heard it said many times by addicts that it is best to be away from
it all."

Jackson says treatment centres in the United States that are
successful are all in secluded areas. And she is currently trying to
line up funding for a treatment centre of her own, in B.C.'s Interior.

While not knowing the details of the treatment, prevention and
education pillars for Surrey's proposed centre, Jackson said the
traditional approach is not enough. She calls for a more holistic
treatment model.

"Getting addicts clean is not enough, they will be in and out of
treatment like yo-yos," Jackson said.

"They need psycho-therapy, cognitive therapy, grief therapy and
working on past traumas."

"We need to do more, we go from generation to generation doing damage
control."

On the enforcement pillar, Watts said focus will be shifted toward a
"supply-side" approach, where dealers and drug manufacturers will be
targeted.

"The targeting needs to occur at the level of organized crime and
drug traffickers," Watts said.

"That's to shut off supply."

She also said a key part of the strategy will be the need for a
community court, which is similar to a drug court, but also involves
youth, and community-based issues that don't require the use of B.C.
Supreme Court.