DEAL ON DRUGS IS UP: COPS

Margaret Beauchemin Is One Of The Lucky Ones.

Today, as she sits in her West End home, she can do so in peace.

Gone now, for several years, are the problems with the house next door -
the used needles and condoms that littered her yard, the cars coming and
going at all hours of the day, the noise and the prostitutes and drug
addicts walking down the street.

These were all associated with the house next door, a drug house no less.

"It got really bad in 1998. At that time, I just couldn't carry on daily
life. It was a nuisance to the entire neighbourhood and dangerous," the
30-year resident says.

Persistent pressure by residents to both the police and City Hall led to
the eventual sale of the house by the absentee owner and, as Beauchemin
says, its resurrection.

Fully restored, it now fits in with the neighbourhood.

But that's not the case in other parts of the city where police say at any
one time there are 15 to 25 drug houses in operation.

It's a proliferation from years gone by, says RCMP Insp. Ralph Carriere,
and it's one the police are no longer going to tolerate.

The senior officer at the Kamloops Detachment had this message this week as
he announced a targeted effort to curb the city's drug trade.

"Drug dealers will recognize soon that Kamloops is not a place where they
want to operate their business . . .. If you have illegal drugs, we will be
seeking you out."

Pushers, pimps and prostitutes all come under that umbrella.

Police will deliver on this new promise by re-instating a permanent
two-member bike patrol in April and adding an extra officer to what now
will be a four-member drug squad.

This is possible, Carriere says, through the additional officers approved
by the city in this year's municipal budget. While those resources may not
arrive until September, police will do some reshuffling in the interim to
make good on their zero-tolerance approach.

In addition to enforcement, Carriere says police will continue to work with
other groups such as social agencies to ensure other approaches are taken
to combat the problem, including education and treatment.

Beauchemin says this is all good news for those living with a drug house
next door. Yet, people cannot rely on the police alone, she says. Residents
have to do their part.

She notes it was only after petitions to city council and repeated
complaints to the RCMP that there was action.

"Sometimes there's safety in numbers. If you have a whole group of people
trying to take action, it appears to work."