EXAMINING THE DEPTH OF CITY'S DRUG ADDICTION PROBLEM

Drug Addiction Forum Will Be Held Nov. 26.

Mayor Walter Gray will lead a panel discussion Nov. 26 on how residents of
the city want to deal with what is by all accounts a growing problem of
intravenous drug addiction in Kelowna.

"We want concepts and ideas from the public on what they want to see happen
and how it will happen," said Brian Mairs, executive director of the
Okanagan Aboriginal AIDS Society and one of the principal organizers of the
public forum which will be held in the Rotary Centre.

The Capital News reported in June, right after the successful run of the
movie FIX at a local theater, that the mayor had asked for a proposal for
such a forum. Mairs, along with his counterparts at the AIDS Resource
Centre, Okanagan Boys and Girls Club and NOW Canada Society, have been
meeting ever since, planning what they hope to see is the first in a series
of public consultations based on the so-called Four Pillars
approach-education, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement-to deal with
drug addiction.

"The key to this is feedback from the community," said Mairs.

"There's the human side to this and there's the effect that human side has
on the community.

"We have to show these people some compassion but at the same time, realize
it's a problem that has to be solved."

While there is little empirical evidence of a wave of drug addiction, Mairs
said there is plenty of indicators of the depth of the problem, one being
the number of used syringes discarded on Kelowna streets.

In 2000, Mairs said the Kelowna Fire Department picked up and disposed of
872 used IV needles.

In 2002, that number had risen to 1,379 needles.

"It's the end of October and they've already picked up 1,368 needles," said
Mairs.

"I've had some people who live or work in the downtown core and they say
they don't want a safe injection site in their backyard.

"But this isn't about safe injection sites, it's about community safety."

Mairs said the ad hoc committee that has brought the public forum to
fruition would like to see a steering committee emerge from the meeting
with broad-based community representation.

"I want the drug addict (on the committee) but I also want the store
manager who finds a drug addict shooting up in the doorway of his store,"
said Mairs.

"I want the RCMP and the city to have someone there. I want the publisher
of your newspaper."

For more information about the public forum on addiction, contact Mairs at
862-2473.