EDITORIAL – Return to Four Pillars a hopeful sign in battle against addictions

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE FOUR PILLARS are back.

Once the centre of a strategy to tackle the drug crisis, the approach has seldom been mentioned in recent years as the emphasis was put on only one of its pillars — harm reduction.

The other legs in the chair — as the current saying goes — were broken: prevention, enforcement and treatment.

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson used his authority under the Community Charter to call for reconsideration of council’s recent bylaw decision to ban using illicit drugs in public places, and Coun. Bill Sarai picked up the Four Pillars ball from there.

At the end of the kind of long discussion for which this council has become known, it approved adjustments to the bylaw approach, adding a 100 metre no-go zone around parks and playgrounds and adding sidewalks into the mix.

But it was the Four Pillars that came in for the most attention.

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Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.