Pubdate: Mon, 12 Jan 2004
Source: Kelowna Capital News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004, West Partners Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.kelownacapnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1294
Author: John McDonald

MAYOR'S DRUG TASK FORCE PRESSING AHEAD

The Mayor's Task Force on Harm Reduction and Community Safety took a small 
but significant step forward Wednesday with the formation of a steering 
committee charged with keeping the whole process moving along.

Forum organizer Daryle Roberts of the AIDS Resource Centre said the meeting 
saw more than 70 participants split into groups based on the so-called Four 
Pillar approach of prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction to 
deal with drug use and abuse within the Central Okanagan.

"We provided them with a definition of what the four pillars mean," he 
said. "They discussed that and from there picked two or more people from 
each pillar to sit on the steering committee."

One immediate result of the meeting will be the organization soon of 
smaller community forums with the aim of defining the problem and gleaning 
recommendations at the neighbourhood level, Roberts added.

"This affects them directly," he said. "We need to know what's going on in 
their communities and what they feel the solutions will be."

The need for local research into the scope of drug use in the Central 
Okanagan was also recommended.

Roberts said the steering committee was anxious to meeting again soon and 
will likely do so by the end of January.

The Mayor's Task Force on Community Safety and Harm Reduction began last 
fall amid concerns that drug abuse in the downtown core was increasing and 
becoming more blatant.

The task force has adopted as a template the Four Pillars approach which 
has been adopted by Vancouver to deal with its burgeoning street drug problem.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman