CRIME WAVE BLAMED ON DRUGS

Kelowna's downtown transient drug problem is a product of the city's
attractive climate, cheap drug prices and the nomadic nature of the
people themselves, says a Kelowna drug squad investigator.

Const. Don Powell says the problems with downtown street crime are all
directly related to drugs.

Break-ins, robberies, prostitution and other thefts are the quickest
ways t get to get more drugs.

Assaults and even murders are also the likely result of leap-frogging
small-time dealers carving out new territories.

While he acknowledged there has been a large increase in the number of
addicts on Leon Avenue, in City Park and in small pockets around the
city--and a corresponding increase in street crime--Powell said
Kelowna is no different than any other city.

"Prince George, Nanaimo, Kamloops or anywhere in the Lower Mainland,
they all have the same problems," he said.

"I don't think Kelowna is any worse, but it is a good thing to be
concerned about it because this is where most crime comes from."

Powell and the Kelowna drug squad team are plugged into the culture
either by infiltration or interrogation.

He said the police have nearly daily contact at the street
level.

He says, as many do, that the Vancouver Police Department's efforts to
clean-up the downtown eastside of Vancouver has displaced a lot of
them.

The displacement theory is a popular one and has some basis behind it,
Powell said.

He said many transients police check on are from Vancouver, Quebec or
Ontario and are either fleeing provincial warrants (warrants hold no
jurisdiction outside their provinces) or come here with the intention
of picking fruit.

Kelowna is just the best choice of B.C.'s cities outside the Lower
Mainland.

Once transients get here, they find a steady supply of drugs--cheap
drugs like crack cocaine or crystal methamphetamine.

"Crystal meth is very easy to produce and the price of cocaine is
dictated on a bunch of different factors," Powell says. "There is no
shortage and we are certainly not stopping it from getting into the
country."

Six years ago, he said, the price of cocaine was between $100 and $120
a gram. Even with inflation, the price is now half that amount.
Crystal meth is even cheaper.

But it's the nomadic nature of the those involved that will likely
solve the worst of Kelowna's problem.

If trouble catches up, they will likely disperse again.

Kelowna was slow to develop a strategy for dealing with its homeless
and the influx hit them in that soft spot.

The City of Kelowna and Mayor Walter Gray began talking about a
combination of enforcement, harm reduction, treatment and prevention
but never got it off the ground before the numbers started increasing.