NEW BILL TARGETS MAKERS OF ECSTASY AND CRYSTAL METH

Editor,

A story that recently broke concerning an ecstasy lab on Vancouver's
North Shore highlighted the need for my Private Member's Bill to pass
the Senate. Bill C-475 would create a new offence that would squarely
capture the type of unacceptable behaviour conducted by those who create
ecstasy or crystal meth in our neighbourhood backyards and basements.

My efforts to get the law passed include ongoing discussions with the
senators in whose hands the Bill now sits, after it received unanimous
support in the House of Commons on June 9, 2010. We learned recently
that Larry Campbell, the Liberal senator who championed drug reform as
former mayor of Vancouver, will lead when discussion of Bill C-475 resumes.

The importance of our bill was highlighted in Ottawa recently by Gil
Kerlikowske, director of the office of national drug control policy
under President Obama, at a conference hosted by the Canadian Centre on
Substance Abuse.

Director Kerlikowske, known as the US "Drug Czar," was making his first
visit to Canada in his current role.

He emphasized the need for countries, including Canada, the USA, and
Mexico, to work together.

The audience included representatives of all levels of the Canadian
government; throughout the evening, we heard references to the need for
intergovernmental collaboration within countries as well as between
countries.

In that vein, it's a promising sign that 12 First Nations and local
governments within our riding have endorsed Bill C-475.

Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq has recently come on strong with a
holistic approach to dealing with substance abuse, childhood obesity,
nicotine avoidance, and other syndromes related to "healthy choices (and
unhealthy)" in life.

Collaboration among government officials and a holistic approach for the
individual are ultimately two excellent ways to put out of business
people such as those who would set up ecstasy labs in our neighbourhoods
to ruin our children's lives.

John Weston, MP