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the HERALD Taking aim at illegal drugs Home Newspaper of Halton Hills- Established A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown 3Z6 Ontario DAVID A BEATTIE Publisher and General Manager BRIAN DAN TAYLOR Editor Advertising Manager PhOne 8772201 1 Mall ru Page THE HERALD Wednesday November No politics We admire the Georgetown Lions Clubs attempts to keep politics out of the Santa Claus parade on Saturday but those attempts werent entirely successful The citizens group POWER Protect Our Water and En vironmental Resources and a prolife group were permit ted to have floats in the parade despite an advertisement in the local press by the Lions Club that no political or pro test groups would be allowed to enter floats in the parade The advertisement was a bold step and were sure the citizens appreciated it Nevertheless the floats were there This time around however POWER did come up with a better float Last year the group marched along the street with a gallowstype float with a green garbage bag sw inging from the end of a rope Parade chairman Mark Rush called that float objec tionable We agree And although there was no direct attempt by prochoice groups to enter a float this year the Lions Club did suggest that because that group isnt based on religion it wouldnt be allowed to enter a float Prolife groups are fundamentally based on religion Mr Rush said The parade should be an allornothing event when it comes to protest groups And for the kids and the parade is for children it should be nothing when it comes to political or protest groups POWER prolife and prochoice groups have many venues including fall fair parades to push their causes The Santa Claus parade is a time to recall Canadas religious roots and to help children explore the magic of Christmas It really shouldnt be used to advance the goals and ob jectives of political or interest groups no matter how no ble or outrageous the cause Up on the roof And although there was no direct attempt by prochoice groups to enter a float this year the Lions Club did suggest that because that group isnt based on religion it wouldnt be allowed to enter a float Prolife groups are fundamentally based on religion Mr Rush said The parade should be an allornothing event when it comes to protest groups And for the kids and the parade is for children it should be nothing when it comes to political or protest groups POWER prolife and prochoice groups have many venues including fall fair parades to push their causes The Santa Claus parade is a time to recall Canadas religious roots and to help children explore the magic of Christmas It really shouldnt be used to advance the goals and ob jectives of political or interest groups no matter how no ble or outrageous the cause Up on the roof If you havent taken a sojourn down to the John Elliott Theatre yet to catch the Globes production of Fiddler on the Roof youre miss ing out While both the Globe and the Georgetown Little Theatre have always given us firstclass theatre this ambitious production works in almost every way True its a good story to start with and that always helps but the cast and production crew of this play has pulled it off with pizzazz At times youll forget youre sit ting in a seat in a little theatre and youll be drawn into the story line Those who know the story of Fid dler on the Roof would settle into their seats knowing that in order to pull it off the Globe would have to come up with a good lead character for After Topol established the character so well in the epic movie the part was hard to duplicate But Joe dies through a Rich Man with character There are still tickets left for performances tonight Wednes day and Thursday and a few singles left for Friday and Satur day Take a look Its worth it Okay anyone who didnt enjoy that 4340 thriller at the SkyDome on Sunday has ice in their veins As a longsuffering Montreal Allouette fan I was routing for the underdog Saskatchewan Even if you turned on the tube and your favorite team wasnt playing Sun day you couldnt help but feel the pulse of what had to be one of the best pigskin games on the tube this decade So all you CFL can take a hike- pun intended The special relationship that Canada shares with the United States is becoming even more im portant to Canadians as the days pass So weve tried to do something to bring the American way of thinking and their understanding of issues home to Canadians Thomson News Service has assigned reporter Kevin Bell to the Washington Bureau He will write with Canadians in mind Thomson Newspapers searched long and hard for a reporter capable of helping Canadians understand the way Americans understandiand approach issues You can hjiu today on Page a distance the Ontario governments antidrug strategy looks like a die approach Thats probably being unduly harsh but by emphasizing preven tion and early intervention with law enforcement a distant second and treatment nowhere in sight that is the impression left with observers here And it might well be the right at titude Provincial drug czar Ken Black announced the twoyear 224- million program here this week Hes keeping another million in reserve for further demands on his purse over that time frame Schools will get million to train teachers to promote healthy lifestyles starting in Grade 1 Is there any social problem left that schools arent being called upon to solve Anoftier 56 million will be spent doubling the size of the Ontario Provincial Polices drug- enforcement units Nothing additional will go for treating existing addicts Black noted that studies in the S in dicate about per cent of those treated return to using drugs The question is should we con tinue to spend millions and millions of dollars on treatment programs that were not sure work he asked He softened that later but his first comments and the funding allocation ring more true Still this rather contradicts other aspects of government policy On driving while impaired for example one of the favorite punishments nowadays is to in sist the guilty party take man datory drug rehabilitation classes or which is the same thing allow them lo stay out of jail if they take the treatment And if it is good enough for alcohol why isnt it good enough for other drugs The answer of course is that drinking and driving treatment is a con not taken seriously either by most of the people forced to enrol or by the clinicians who have to deal with those involuntarily atten ding Those supposedly being treated dont want to be there WITHOUT BARS It is like a threemonth sentence without bars literally then a per son is free to return to the old ways The same is true of a lot of treat ment programs for other drugs too People often enter them as a choice of lesser evils lose your job or enrol go to jail or join the mar riage is over if you don t go and so on Drug treatment only works if first the people who are trying to break the habit genuinely seek freedom by making the required changes in lifestyle and second if they can get external support to carry them through the bumpy parts Nobody appears to have found a magic formula to make that easy or predictable In that context Blacks com ments make a lot sense If treatment is downplayed then community involvement is stress ed as a means of prevention About million will be allocated in this regard some of it for training and technical support and some for test projects The jargon surrounding this aspect of the package was smothering joining with com munities to identify several loca tions that are considered par ticularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of illegal drug use and without detail do they mean street youth Torontos public housing projects that have been in the news recently what and seems aimed to short- circuiting peoples entry into the drug world by catching them ear ly Maybe it will work maybe not What makes this observer a little dubious is that it requires rather extraordinary people to sway the minds and emotions of those sink ing into the drug world from their chosen path Most social workers and social work programs just don t have it Still it is probably worth the ef fort to find out Hopefully those who II be evaluating success or failure will do so with an eagle eye Can Santa bring the mail Vic Parsons Ottawa Bureau Santas helpers at Canada Post are gearing up to handle the estimated letters that kids send the Jolly Old Elf each But theres another postal customers who will be hop ing for a gift when Santa swings south from his North Pole haunt postal code HOH OHO toward the end of December These are urban andr suburban people who have seen their postal services deteriorate in recent years with Canada Posts decisions to cut extension of doortodoor delivery and to introduce the dreaded In its firstever report last week the Postal Services Review Com mittee called upon Canada Post to explore alternatives to the com munity mailboxes including a revival of doortodoor maildrops in some areas The new committee headed by Alan who rose to postal stardom with his review of Canada Posts services heard complaints of obvious ine quity when it gathered information earlier this year from consumer and labor groups mailers and other interested parties In at least one suburb the com mittee was told homes on one side of the street received doortodoor service while unfortunates on the other side had to make do with community mailboxes Unfair critics protested MINOR INVESTMENT Elaborating on the review com mittee report Marchment said about 807000 points of call could be estimated annual cost of million This is really a minor investment when you think of the sizeand spending of Canada Post he said figure is a far from the billion over five years that Canada Post tossed out as the tost of door-to- door delivery But that figure was a farcical redherring to begin with No one in his right mind would ever sug gest that posties should trudge to every isolated trappers cabin and windbattered igloo across the country Indeed while recommending another look at doortodoor delivery Marchment said its not for everyone The costs would be too high and cant be afforded at this time Doortodoor maildrops were a gift suggestion for cities and towns from the committee but what can Santa give the rural parts of the country The report says 319 communities have been affected to date by the rural conversion program The committee says in some cases where retail outlets have taken over from rural post offices equal or betterVervicp been established- But in communities of fice closures have meant reduced service with customers having to drive up to fon to pick up their mail The committee declared itself tO be deeply concerned