6 ~ Wednesday, March 27, 1991 - North Shore News VIEWPOINT INSIGHTS ’ . Substance abuse OME RECENTLY-released statistics provide an unsettling picture of drug and alcohol abuse on the North Shore. Although most residents would like to think that the real problems of drug dependency reside elsewhere in the Lower Mainland, statistics reveal this is not the case. The North Shore substance abuse committee has found that substance abuse is alive and growing in the North Shore’s three municipalities. In its recently-released report, the com- mittee found that, among other things, North Shore adults consume a whopping 33 per cent more alcchol than other Ca- nadians, spending, on average, $426 per year per capita on alcohol. It also found that 28 per cent of North Shore secondary school students drink at least weekly, and that the use of mari- juana, cocaine, LSD, heroin and other il-. legal drugs is a fact of North Shore life. But it is more than just the simple use of drugs. illegal drugs and the abuse of legal drugs ‘that is at issue; it is the attendant social costs and drain on community resources that result from substance abuse. For example, according to the commit- tee’s findings, 3,400 non-emergency ad- missions to Lions Gate Hospital in a one- year period were directly alcohol; and 32 per ceni of all North Shore family court cases related to involve alcohol and A public meeting tonight at the Leo Marshall Curriculum Centre, 810 West 21st St. in North Vancouver, will address the myriad issues of substance abuse. LETTER OF THE DAY Northlands requires a referendum Dear Editor: I am perturbed at North Van- couver District Council’s move to designate the Northlands golf course a centennial project (North Shore News, Feb. 27). Last week district staff inform- ed me that although the first meeting had not yet been held a review committee has been form- ed, consisting of representatives from over 20 of our ratepayer and citizens’ groups. to investigate the feasibility of the golf course on the Northlands site. Why would council not wait to hear from this review committee before pushing ahead to designate a project that may not have the blessing of the taxpayers? Is it possibly because the overwhelining majority of these same groups hagg previously turned down the idea’ of a golf course on the Northlands site? I am also surprised to read that an additional $250,000 of tax- payers’ money has been allocated for consultant studies on the pro- posed golf course, while at the same time I read that we tax- payers may face a 22 per cent in- crease in our taxes. From what I understand we have already paid for three previous studies relative to this issue. Surely if district residents are facing a 22 per cent tax hike, council can only properly proceed witi this non-essential adornment if is has the broad backing of the majority of residents as demon- strated by a referendum. I am = greatly dismayed that council appears to be moving ahead without input from the taxpayers on an issue of this magnitude. Marian Wilson Nerth Vancouver Publisher . Peter Speck Display Agvertising 980-0511 = Distribution 986-1337 North Shore Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Subscriptions 986-1337 managed Assoc! ate Editor Noel Wright = Classitied Advertising 986-6222 Fax 985-3227 Advertising Director Linda Stewart Newsroom 985-2131 Administration 985-2131 Comptrolier | Doug Foot North Shore News, founded im 1969 as an 7a worcn ce wont nn we ty econ MEMBER independent suburban newspaper and qualiiied ufider Schedule 111, Paragraph Ilt of the Excise Taa Act, 15 publishea each Wednesday, Friday and arning quiz | for Socred ship-jumpers THE POLITICAL DEATH of Bill Vander Zalm, and likely the Social Credit Party with him, was announced Sunday in a much ballyhooed write-in survey of readers by Vancouver’s morning tab. It suggests 40 per cent of 1986 Socred supporters will switch to another party at the 1991 election because of Bill’s alleged — but for the moment unproven — misdeeds. This was followed by such a wealth of other statistics that it would be churlish not to pay thern the courtesy of a little independent analysis. The quiz, which The Province admits was ‘‘unscientific’’, drew 2,371 write-in respondents. That’s a little over one-10th of one per cent of B.C.’s more than 1.7 ruil- lion voters. Among this minuscule sample of the electorate, 58 per cent voted Socred in 1986 and 28 per cent (all decimals rounded) for the NDP. The survey showed only 38 per cent of them will vote Socred next time —- in a dead heat with the 38 per cent who will vote NDP. I have a slight problem, in pass- ing, with that ‘*40 per cent”’ defection. If you start with 58 per cent and lose 20 percentage points, | make that a 34 per cent loss (20 divided by 58, multiplied by 100). Maybe The Province has later-model calculators. The survey’s key statistics, however, concern the free-enter- prise vote. A total of 65 per cent of respondents said they backe4 free enterprise in 1986: 58 per cen. Socred plus seven per cent for Liberals, Tories and other minor anti-socialist candidates. Today, 60 per cent claim siill to back free enterprise: 38 per cent Socred — with or without Bill Vander Zalm — plus a whopping 22 per cent for the anti-socialist splinter parties (topped by nine per cent for the Reform Party which says it won’t run provin- cially). In other words the survey shows only half of the NDP gain coming from Socred losses — and three in five among 0.14 per cent of B.C. voters still opposed to a second dose of socialism. What the other 99.86 per cent of the B.C. electorate thinks we don’t know. But assuming the Province survey is at least a valid trend-indicator, its warning to Socred defectors planning this time to vote for minor right-wing or centre groups is loud and clear. In actual 1986 results the Socreds led the NDP by seven percentage points (49.6 per cent to Noet Wright HITHER AND VON 42.3 per cent) in the popular vote. The minor parties — with only eight per cent between them — had no chance of splitting the right-wing vote and the Socreds wound up with a 48-seat landslide. The solid 22 per cent of the vote forecast for the free-enter- prise minors this time would enable them to wreak havoc on Socred candidates in marginal seats — leaving the NDP to romp to victory. With Social Credit and the NDP tied at 38 per cent, free- enterprise Socred defctors might just as well vote socialist and have done with it. But should the idea of four to eight years of Mike Harcourt and his cohorts worry them even more than Fantasy Garden capers, their one slim remaining hope now is to stick with the Socred ship — never mind who’s at the helm. It’s as simple as that. eee DATELINES: ‘‘Substance abuse in our community — and what we are doing about it’? — is the sub- ject of a panel and question period Town Meeting tonight, Wednesday, Mar. 27, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in North Van’s Leo Marshall Centre, 810 West 21st... Good Friday evening brings a special 7:30 p.m. performance of “*The Last Seven Words’’ by Dubois and selections from ‘‘The Gloria’ by St. David’s Choir and the B.C. Boys’ Choir in St. David’s United Church, Taylor Way and Upper Levels, West Van... And please be sure to cele- brate the weekend with an Easter gift of life at the pre-holiday blood donor clinic tomorrow, Mar. 28, between 2:30 and 8 p.m. in West Van Rec Centre. eeo Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lic and distnbuted to every door or the North Shore Second Ciass Maid Registration Number 3885 Subscriptions North anu Wes! Vancouver, $25 per year. Marling rates avaiable on request Supmissions are welcome but we Cannot accep! fesponsibiity for unsolketed matenat including manuscnpts 2anG pictures whicn should 02 at tTomnamed py a siamaed ittrecsat enyalag~ SUNDAY - WEORESOAY - FMIDAY SDA DIVISION 1139 Lonsdale Avenue. North Vancouver. B.C. V7M 2H4 with or without him, a 38 per cent par- ty. VANDER ZALM... 61,582 (average circulatan Weanesday Friday & Sunday) HARCOURT... Garden capers preferable? are Fantasy Satire eqntantc * 1994 Narth Snore Free Press Ltd All riahts reserved