ONT.'S FAILURE TO BAN DRUG DISPLAYS 'SILLY'

The executive director of the House of Sophrosyne is condemning the
province's failure to ban displays of drug paraphernalia at convenience stores.

Deborah Gatenby said the displays serve as an unwanted temptation for
recovering drug addicts and can give kids the impression that drug
use is condoned.

Gatenby, whose agency offers drug treatment programs for women, said
she has lobbied two years for drug paraphernalia to be hidden from
store displays, but the province hasn't taken action.

" It seems silly that they wouldn't do it. They've been told
repeatedly that they need to do it and yet they haven't done it," Gatenby said.

"If smoking crack is wrong, then why would pipes be available in all
the stores you go in to get your Popsicles?"

She said she hopes it becomes an issue in the next provincial election.

Alarmed that drug paraphernalia is being sold in local convenience
stores, Kingsville council considered passing a bylaw Monday to ban
the sale of what look like crack and hash pipes and marijuana bongs.

Once council heard it was difficult to enforce such a bylaw --
sellers claim the pipes are not for smoking illegal drugs -- council
decided to ask other municipalities to lobby the province to at least
put the items out of view.

With some sellers saying the pipes are legal because they are used
for tobacco, Gatenby says the province should treat the paraphernalia
like tobacco products and force them to be out of view.

But Hilary Smith, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health Promotion
and Sport, said, "It doesn't fall within our mandate or the scope of
the Smoke-Free Ontario Act."

The act banned the display of tobacco products in 2008.

Minister of Health Promotion and Sport Margarett Best wasn't
available for an interview Thursday, said her press secretary, Wendy Vincent.

Vincent said the ministry doesn't have any plans for legislation to
force the stores to hide the items.

Gatenby said a display ban would be cheaper and easier than
municipalities trying to police it.

She said stores could still sell the items by having signs or a book
of pictures of the pipes.