Tracknum: 10987.qfoh60kbmylv092yn
Pubdate: Thu, 23 Nov 2000
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 2000
Contact:  200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Author: Chad Skelton
Related: CN AB: Drug Park Brawl
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1737/a08.html
CN AB: Drug Talk Called Junk
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1744/a05.html
Canada: Vancouver Mayor Fears Influx Of Alta Addicts
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1741/a06.html
Series: Searching for solutions - Fix on the Downtown Eastside
http://www.mapinc.org/thefix.htm

OWEN'S COMMENTS 'ABSURD': KLEIN

Vancouver Mayor Worries About Influx Of Addicts.

Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has attacked Vancouver's mayor for
suggesting that if safe-injection sites were set up in this city, they
would attract drug addicts from Alberta.

But experts on the Downtown Eastside say addicts from across Canada,
including Alberta, are already drawn to this province by more lenient
courts and more generous social programs -- and further liberalization
would attract even more.

The controversy began on Monday when the City of Vancouver unveiled a
discussion paper on drug policy that included a proposal for
establishing sites where drug users could inject heroin and cocaine in
a safe, clean and supervised environment.

Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen was asked by reporters at the time why the
city did not establish such sites immediately.

Owen said that if only one city in Canada had injection sites, they
would serve as a magnet for addicts from across Canada -- especially
Alberta, which in the past has given welfare recipients one-way bus
tickets to B.C.

"They have a lot of one-way Greyhound bus tickets that the premier of
Alberta would like to hand out to a lot of people in Calgary and
Edmonton and they'd all be here in hordes and I think that's not good
for anybody," he said.

On Wednesday, Klein took offence at the comment.

"The assumption is absolutely absurd," Klein said. "I just can't
imagine in my wildest dreams the establishment of [safe injection
sites] in Vancouver attracting the junkies from Alberta.

"I think the mayor is experiencing some political problems within his
own council and he wants to use Alberta as a whipping boy."

But Owen defended his position.

"I think it would happen," he said. "People who are using hard drugs
are looking for a safe haven."

Experts on Vancouver's drug problem agreed with the
mayor.

Martin Schechter is head of the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study
(VIDUS), which has been tracking 1,400 injection drug users in
Vancouver since 1996.

Of the addicts in his study, only 17 per cent were born in the Lower
Mainland and another 19 per cent were born somewhere else in B.C.

Most of the study's addicts -- 64 per cent -- were born in another
province.

"It suggests a lot of people come [to the Downtown Eastside] from
outside B.C.," Schechter said.

The study has not broken down how many people in the study came from
each province.

But Schechter said it is reasonable to assume "there would be a
significant number [of addicts] from Alberta" in the area.

John Turvey, director of the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities
Society, estimated "hundreds" of Vancouver's addicts are from Alberta

While addicts come to Vancouver from all regions of Canada, Turvey
said those from Ontario and Alberta are particularly well-represented
because both provinces have significantly cut back on welfare programs.

Addicts are very mobile, Turvey said, and will often travel to areas
where drugs are cheaper, policing is more lenient or social programs
more generous. And a safe-injection site -- if it was the only one in
Canada -- would likely attract even more, he said.

"If you have a liberal drug policy in one city, there's a risk of
people migrating from other parts of Canada," he said.

On Wednesday, Klein admitted his government did buy tickets for
Alberta welfare recipients to travel to British Columbia in the early
1990s as part of a campaign to cut the province's welfare rolls.

The premier also acknowledged that he made comments in the early 1980s
when he was mayor of Calgary telling "eastern creeps and bums" to
leave Alberta during the province's oil boom.

However, Klein said there is an important distinction.

"I was talking about people coming to this province who were mugging
senior citizens and robbing banks. [Owen] is talking about junkies."