Representatives from the criminal justice system, social and community services, local governments, health services, addiction services, family services and schools came together in one room this week to come up with strategies to handle drug abuse on the Coast.
Vancouver Coastal Health's (VCH) chief medical health officer spoke to the roundtable on bringing the four pillars approach of prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement to the Coast, based on Vancouver's model.
"You have to decide what's right for your community," John Blatherwick said to the invited guests at the Seaside Centre in Sechelt Tuesday. "Crystal meth is one of the drugs of the day. But don't decide that we're going to chase one drug."
All addictive things with potential for harm, including tobacco and alcohol, need to be paid attention to, he said.
"A generalized approach to all of them makes a lot more sense," Blatherwick said.
First, he explained the prevention pillar through the community and schools.
"We need schools involved but we also need to re-educate the parents on how to educate their kids," he said.
He said children and youth should be taught about making proper choices, and parents should model choices.
"When dad goes out and gets drunk on Saturday night, we know what he'll be modelling," he said.
Next, he explained the harm reduction approach.
"Everyone knows someone who's been affected by an addiction," he said.
One of the goals of harm reduction is to prevent drug users from becoming infected with HIV or Hepatitis C, through programs such as a needle exchange or a safe injection site.
"You want to give people the chance to get out of the system alive," he said. "Have we saved some lives? I think so." He said roundtable groups can educate politicians to allow municipal councils to make a difference.
"Local politicians are really, really important in harm reduction," he said. Along with harm reduction, there has to be treatment available, he explained. He was pleased the Coast has home detox available to treat people.
"It's the right way to do it," he said.
There is also always a need for more treatment beds, especially for the homeless, he acknowledged.
Next, for enforcement, he explained how supportive police can be in creating the four pillars and how new constables often bring fresh ideas to the table.
"Give your police a chance to be part of the solution," he said.
The room of about 60 people split up into four different pillar groups to discuss ideas and put a framework together for the Coast.
The prevention group came up with the need for affordable, safe housing, teaching coping skills in schools, community recreation, peer-to-peer prevention programs, parent education, community education and looking at best practices from other communities.
Harm reduction workers brought up the importance of the needle exchange program, transition housing, employment training, special needs support, emotional health education, safe ride services, outreach and educating communities on harm reduction.
The treatment group suggested the need for recovery houses on the Coast to provide a safe, stable environment to get basic life skills, to assist with the transition into the workforce and to get clear-headed enough to make treatment useful, explained Cassandra Langlois of Sunshine Coast Public Health.
As well, the treatment group suggested educating employers on the advantages of providing counselling and treatment options to employees to prevent injury and illness in the workplace. The enforcement group, representing the police, courts and probation, suggested looking at the bigger picture and getting at the drugs' source -the dealers. The police aim to take profit out of drug dealing by seizing property from dealers, said Cpl. Michel Grondin of RCMP serious crimes. The group discussed the possibility of families pursuing civil action in the courts against dealers.
Police are bound by how laws are written on the policy level, so if laws need to be adjusted to reflect reality, police would bring it up with politicians, Grondin explained.
At the end of the three-hour roundtable, acting public health officer Phil Shoemack said to the groups, "It's not a simple solution we need all four pillars."
The roundtable was organized by Chatelech/Sechelt community school co-ordinator Heather Gordon, tobacco reduction co-ordinator Eleanor Weston and Sunshine Coast RCMP Sgt. Danny Willis. Nov. 20 to 26 is national addictions awareness week.
"This is a beginning," Weston said.
Gordon and Weston will next work on forming a task force on creating a framework for services, with representatives from stakeholder groups. Throughout the process, drug users themselves will be involved through input on steering committees.
