DOWNTOWN DRUG HOUSE CLEARED OUT

Cocaine powder and crack were among the drugs police found early
Friday morning at a Vernon home now closed under the city's drug house
bylaw.

At around 5 a.m. RCMP officers used a search warrant to enter a house
in the 2000 block of 33rd Street.

Inside, police found about a dozen people amidst crack, cocaine
powder, marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

RCMP spokesman Gord Molendyk said several people could be charged with
possession for the purpose of trafficking, but the incident is still
under investigation.

The house was posted under the controlled substances property
remediation bylaw, which declares a house associated with drug
activity unfit for human habitation.

Several safety and building inspections have to be cleared before
people can live in it again.

So far this year, 17 Vernon homes have been posted under the bylaw,
two of which have met standards and are now occupied again.

Molendyk said drug users are aware now their residences will be shut
down because of the bylaw. But he said sometimes it means addicts just
move on.

"Yes, of course it does, because when you close a house you displace
those individuals, so they do move elsewhere and with people addicted
like that, they just gravitate to other areas where the drugs are."

Insp. Steve McVarnock said the bylaw is making perpetual drug houses a
thing of the past.

"If you don't have those tools in place, those people will just go
back into those walls . . . and it will just drive the neighbours crazy."

He said the effects of the bylaw also enforce the need for property
owners to be more aware of their renters' backgrounds.

"We're hoping it will put a little more onus on landlords to do more
homework on who they're renting to."

McVarnock said eventually he'd like to see a database compiled and
available to property management agencies of people with records of
being involved with drug houses to make it more difficult for them to
relocate in Vernon.