GROUP FIGHTING DRUG ABUSE HERE TURNS TO INTERNET

The Central Okanagan Four Pillars Coalition is taking its message to the
Internet.

After eight public meetings held to gauge the public's response to the four
pillars approach to dealing with issues surrounding drug use in Kelowna,
the coalition has now made a questionnaire available on the Internet for
people who may have missed the meetings and still want to voice their
concerns about how to deal with drug use in the city.

"We've gone to the community as a whole and now we want everybody to have
an opportunity to provide feedback to us," said Daryle Roberts, the
vice-chairman of the Central Okanagan Four Pillars Coalition.

"It's really important that people go online and provide feedback to us so
the report will include everybody's opinion."

The questionnaire is available at www.livingpositive.ca/4pillars.php. The
four pillars approach to drug enforcement focuses on treatment, prevention,
harm reduction and enforcement. The questionnaire features questions about
each of the four parts of the approach that is widely used in cities around
the world.

"This has worked in other municipalities and areas of the world," said Roberts.

"We had to do something and we'll see what happens."

The questionnaire will be available online until Sept. 11. At that time the
public input will be organized and taken back to a community meeting prior
to recommendations being made to municipal councils in the Central Okanagan.

"At the same time that this is available on the Internet our subcommittees
are meeting with service providers to talk about the services that are
being provided and the gaps in those services," said Roberts.

"We're continuing to do our work through the summer," he said. "We've given
the public an avenue to have input and we're looking at maybe doing some
focus groups with youth in the fall as well."

While it's too early to tell what the majority of the public thinks about
the four pillars approach, Roberts said there has been one constant in
responses from the public meetings.

"We haven't had a a real good opportunity to look at the returns on the
surveys but I would say 96 per cent of people say there is definitely a
drug problem in the community," said Roberts.

The Central Okanagan Four Pillars Coalition is comprised of citizens from
within the community who represent one of the four pillars and have
expertise in that specific area.