CITY TASK FORCE TO FOCUS ON DRUG-RELATED CRIMES

A new task force will meet at the end of the month to discuss ways to
enhance the city's drug treatment programs and reduce crime in Surrey.

While it's being described as an unfettered flow of opinions, actions taken
will stop short of the more controversial methods.

Task force chair Coun. Dianne Watts said she's open to "a free exchange of
ideas" coming from the members of the group, but she's not willing to
endorse a safe-injection area where intravenous drug users can shoot up.

"It's not a model I personally support," said Watts, who added the RCMP and
Mayor Doug McCallum agree.

She'll entertain most proposals that fall short of that, including
treatment, prevention, enforcement and harm reduction, commonly known as
the "four pillars" approach to substance abuse problems.

One of the first actions taken by the group will be to assess the scope of
the problem locally and come up with possible solutions.

Public education is also a priority, Watts said.

"We need to coordinate a drug awareness campaign," Watts said. "We're
seeing drugs evident in elementary schools (as early as) Grade 5 - we need
to get control of that."

Several people have been invited to join the task force, including Chief
Coroner Terry Smith, Dr. Roland Guasparini, Surrey-North MP Chuck Cadman,
MLAs Elayne Brenzinger and Brenda Locke, School Board Chair Mary Polak and
Jim Bennett of the South Fraser Community Services Society.

The task force will hold its inaugural meeting April 25 at city hall.