CITY COUNCIL ENDORSES DRUG PLAN

Surrey Has Adopted A Four-Pillar Approach To The City's Drug
Problems.

On Monday, city council approved the Drug-Crime Task Force Policy
Paper, a document that will likely be folded into a larger social plan
and will become a key document in Surrey's strategy towards drug and
alcohol addiction.

The policy paper recommends a four-pronged approach, including
prevention, education, treatment and enforcement.

Unlike Vancouver's "four-pillar" approach, Surrey's plan does not
include harm reduction, such as safe injection sites. Instead it
stresses education and prevention for youth.

As reported in Sunday's edition of The Leader, the recommendations
include:

Prevention and education

* Create a multi-faceted resource centre for at-risk
youth.

* Increase the number of prevention and outreach workers within
Surrey's schools.

* Increase programs that focus on children from ages 0 to six years
old.

* Increase substance use education and prevention techniques that
promote parental involvement.

* Create a strategic district-wide prevention, education and
enforcement program for the Surrey School District.

* Use several languages on information brochures to get the message
out to ethnic communities.

Treatment

* Develop and expand youth detox services in Surrey.

* Create an intensive residential treatment centre for
youth.

* Properly monitor recovery houses in Surrey.

Enforcement

* Expand Vancouver's pilot drug treatment court to Surrey and include
a youth component.

* Ensure the safety of people living near grow ops and methamphetamine
labs.

* Designate a percentage of proceeds of crime to support substance
abuse programs.

* Develop a policy which allows the use of drug-sniffing dogs in
schools.

City council was encouraged that the paper targets
youth.

"The task force focuses on children and families, and that's what
Surrey is all about," said Coun. Marvin Hunt, who pointed out there
are more recommendations addressing prevention and education than
enforcement and treatment, which he said was appropriate.

Coun. Gary Tymoschuk sees the report as part of a larger social
services plan, which the mayor called for last week.

However Tymoschuk had some concerns over recommendations made for
other areas of government.

"The report also outlines recommendations specifically for the school
board. Obviously any level of government has to be cognizant of
telling another level what to do," he said.

Coun. Penny Priddy also had concerns.

"I congratulate people who've done the report, I congratulate the work
that's gone into it, but I think it has some critical shortfalls,"
said Priddy, who believes more studies need to be examined around the
results associated with some of the projects. She said there should be
an "oversight" group to ensure the document isn't merely shelved, and
is also against the use of drug dogs in schools.

Watts however, said a dog in a school is a lot more innocuous "than a
locker full of methamphetamines."

The decision about using drug dogs will be up to the Surrey School
Board.

Mayor Doug McCallum said he supports the findings of the Drug-Crime
Task Force and indicated he plans to fold them into a larger social
plan that he called for last week.

"It's a good report," McCallum said. "I like the concentration on
youth... we need to do something about this, we are a city of families."