COUNCILLOR WANTS DRUGS OFF CITY'S STREETS

Councillor Sal Polito Wants The City's Drug Dealers To Know They Aren't
Welcome Here.

Coun. Polito (Ward 9) wants a public committee established to deal with
hard drugs in the municipality's urban centres. He suggested the idea
during this week's emergency services committee meeting.

Coun. Polito said he was first contacted in January by a member of the
RCMP's drug enforcement division who lives in Lindsay about setting up a
hard drug committee.

A new committee - to be made up of volunteers - would work to prevent the
City's urban centres from falling prey to the same fate as communities like
Oshawa, where hard drugs have taken a toll on the downtown, Coun. Polito said.

Coun. Polito stressed the sale of hard drugs also affects smaller urban
areas such as Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon.

"It's not just a Lindsay issue, although the primary focus (of a new
committee) will be on Lindsay," he said.

A committee dealing mainly with hard drugs in the City of Kawartha Lakes
would likely be the first in Canada, Coun. Polito said. The group's broad
mandate would focus on ways to curb drug sales, although that agenda could
later be broadened to include other public safety issues, he said.

"But right now the focus is on drugs."

Coun. Polito stressed the committee would be a community-based group that
would stay out of the police's hair. Rather, the group would co-operate
with the police, similar to how Crime Stoppers works.

The community and emergency services committee supported establishing a
drug committee, but City council will get the chance to debate the idea
during their regular meeting on Tuesday.