Penticton chamber wants city to go ahead with plan to ban drug use in parks

The Penticton Chamber of Commerce doesn’t agree with Interior Health’s recommendation to temporarily keep drug use legal in parks and on sidewalks.

Penticton – along with every other city in the B.C. Interior – was asked by the health authority to wait six months before implementing any bylaws related to B.C.’s three-year pilot project of decriminalizing hard drugs up to 2.5 grams.

“While we appreciate the reasons behind Interior Health’s request to collect data on public narcotic consumption, decriminalization by itself is not the answer,” Penticton Chamber president Nicole Clark said in a media release issued April 21.

“Everyone refers to the Portugal model and how decriminalization is necessary, but what always seems to be left out is everything else that makes that model so effective.”

READ MORE: Interior Health asks local governments to pause plans to ban open drug use in parks

The City of Penticton is already drafting a new drug bylaw and has launched a Shape Your City survey, which includes questions that relate to drug use in public.

"The City is proposing to limit the locations where illicit drug use can occur to supervised consumption or overdose prevention facilities operated by or on behalf of Interior Health or BC Housing,” read one of the questions, to which respondents can agree or disagree.

The chamber sympathizes with those struggling with addiction and is saddened by their circumstances but said people using narcotics “can display unpredictable and sometimes alarming behaviour.”

READ MORE: What to know about B.C. decriminalizing possession of drugs for personal use

An expedited investment in treatment and complex care solutions is a better idea than asking municipalities to wait, “which has already led to organized groups taking matters into their own hands,” the Chamber said.

“In Penticton, we were denied funding from Interior Health for a Car-40 program and do not have outreach workers that you’d typically see in an urban centre guiding those suffering from addiction into treatment. Now they want us to hold-off putting restrictions on where people can and cannot ingest narcotics?” Chamber executive director Michael Magnusson said in the release.

READ MORE: Penticton vigilante group patrols streets to fight property crime

“The contents of the proposed bylaw put forward to mayor and council is not punitive, but rather helps ensure that public areas, especially those visited by families, seniors, tourist, and areas around storefronts are kept as safe and accessible as possible while those with drug dependencies are still able to utilize designated consumption sites.”

Anti-crime protests are planned this weekend in Penticton and Kamloops as part of a campaign called Enough is Enough which started in Nanaimo.

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