Terrace Coun. Rich McDaniel said a meth lab was busted within 300 metres of both Terrace city hall and the RCMP detachment, but its operators were sentenced this month to probation only.
"They didn't even get a damn fine," he told a crystal meth strategies forum. "There's no deterrent."
McDaniel also pressed for even earlier efforts to bring anti-drug messaging to elementary school children.
"Grade 4 is the time to reach them," he said, adding that waiting until Grade 6 is too late.
Sparwood Mayor David Wilks said B.C. should follow the lead of Montana, which requires all hardware stores to require identification and collect names of customers who buy meth components.
A registration system for consumers would go far beyond the existing Meth Watch program used in some B.C. cities in which retailers voluntarily watch for large-scale buying of precursors and alert police when they see it.
The meth session came on the heels of an announcement by the province that another $3 million will be spent on school-focused programs to battle meth. A year earlier, the B.C. government unveiled a $7 million plan to combat meth addiction.
But Mark McLaughlin, one of the organizers of Victoria's crystal meth task force, said the province hasn't yet rolled out its promised programs in the schools.
"September has come and gone and we have yet to see it," he said. "Every day that goes by without kids getting this important information is another day that a child runs the risk of being exposed to crystal meth."
McLaughlin said the province has made a start but must do more.
View Royal Coun. Andrew Britton, also a paramedic, put much of the meth abuse epidemic at the feet of the province, saying it can be traced to Victoria's track record on handling the mentally ill, and in cutting back health care, homeless shelters and low-cost housing.
Some delegates urged cabinet ministers to consider measures to pull young addicts off the street for a mandatory five days of detox.
But Attorney-General Wally Oppal said that would likely violate constitutional protections.
Public safety minister John Les said crystal meth addicts must want to get off the drug and evidence shows forced treatment doesn't work.
Les rejected suggestions from Kamloops council that cities need more power to crack down on drug houses. He said plenty of tools exist that towns are not adequately using, such as vigorous enforcement of unsightly premises bylaws.
Les called a suspected drug house in Kamloops an "ideal candidate" for that treatment based on a photo he was shown.
