Pubdate: Fri, 15 Nov 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: International
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Clifford Krauss
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms)

A WOULD-BE MAYOR'S MISSION: 'SAFE INJECTION SITES'

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 14 - Larry Campbell, a former policeman 
and the leading mayoral candidate, was campaigning down his old beat on 
West Hastings Street the other night when a man in a denim jacket and with 
a straggly goatee gestured to him. He might have been a prospective voter, 
but he had something other than politics on his mind.

"Bud?" the man said, parlance for marijuana among the street dealers in the 
Downtown Eastside section of Vancouver.

Mr. Campbell shook the dealer off and looked for other voters to greet in a 
neighborhood where drugs, prostitution and homelessness have become an 
eyesore and scourge in recent years. "On this street you get anything you 
want," he said, shaking his head. "Weed is the least offense."

In ways big and small, illegal drugs are dominating the hottest Vancouver 
mayoral race in a generation. Recent polls show that Mr. Campbell has a big 
lead in Saturday's election over Jennifer Clarke, a city councilor who is 
the candidate of the center-right Nonpartisan Association. The party has 
held the mayoralty for the last 16 years and has dominated city politics 
for most of the last six decades.

The issue that has inflamed the campaign is whether Vancouver should follow 
Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Sydney in creating "safe injection sites." In such 
indoor areas, intravenous heroin users would be able to inject drugs bought 
elsewhere without the threat of arrest under the supervision of public 
health care workers who would offer them safe needles and counseling to 
change their lives.

Health Canada, the chief federal health agency, is considering sanctioning 
such sites around the country. Vancouver is expected to be the first to try 
the idea, especially if Mr. Campbell wins. He wants to start the program 
within two weeks of taking office next month.

Ms. Clarke says that she is ready to study the idea, but that it would need 
approval from the federal authorities and local communities.

Mr. Campbell is running on the ticket of the Coalition of Progressive 
Electors, or COPE, an association of left-wing groups with heavy union 
support. He campaigns in a black trench coat and a green fedora tilted just 
so, giving him the look of a streetwise, no-nonsense detective who knows 
how to deal with crime.

That image has been burnished by the popular Canadian Broadcasting 
Corporation television series "Da Vinci's Inquest," a show about a tough 
Scotch-drinking coroner loosely based on Mr. Campbell's other former career 
as chief coroner of British Columbia. Mr. Campbell is an adviser and 
occasional scriptwriter for the show, whose star and main character share 
the Campbell name.

Mr. Campbell's early campaign buttons said "Mayor Da Vinci."

"It's art resembling life," Mr. Campbell suggested.

Ms. Clarke and Mr. Campbell agree on many things. Both want more buses and 
better streetcar service. Both favor new parks and improved day care 
services. Both want to put more police officers on the street.

Their conflict is over drugs. As a former coroner, Mr. Campbell rattles off 
the statistic that 1,200 addicts have died in Vancouver over the last 10 
years, mostly of disease and overdoses. As a former member of the police 
drug squad, he speaks graphically of the ways addicts prepare and inject 
their heroin.

"Now the addict goes to an alley to find a needle that is dirty and may 
have blood on it and then he sucks up water from a puddle which could have 
urine in it or rat feces," he said in an interview in his downtown 
headquarters. "We're saying, 'Make it safe and bring these people in 
contact with health professionals.' We will have detox and treatment."

He said addiction must be treated as a disease, not a crime.

What to do about the Downtown Eastside has become the major issue in 
Vancouver because in recent years heroin and crack users have been held 
responsible for the highest property crime rate of any city in Canada. As a 
port, Vancouver is an entry place for drugs from Asia. With a relatively 
mild climate that makes street living less uncomfortable than in colder 
cities, it attracts addicts and homeless people from all over Canada.

Business leaders are worried that Vancouver's reputation for being a center 
of drug use could hurt its bid to play host to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Municipal politics here is still a civil affair in which candidates applaud 
each other between retorts at public debates. But the subject of "safe 
injection sites" produces real sparks.

"Mr. Campbell believes that he will put in safe injection sites by Jan. 1, 
whether it's legal or not and whether or not there is community consensus, 
and there certainly would not be time for public consultation," Ms. Clarke 
said in a radio debate this week. Mr. Campbell shot back: "The drug 
addiction problem took off the last 10 years while Ms. Clarke was in 
office. Rather than study this problem yet again, COPE is actually 
committed to doing something about this problem now."

Ms. Clarke has been hampered by the refusal of Mayor Philip Owen, who is 
not running, to support her, in part because of their own disputes over 
drug policy. Hoping to make inroads in the last days, she has begun 
advertisements linking Mr. Campbell to a failed former provincial leftist 
government. In an interview, she expressed frustration that she was having 
trouble dispelling Mr. Campbell's television image.

"It's like Martin Sheen running for president," she said with a sigh, "and 
voters assuming that Martin Sheen would respond as president the way the 
television character does" on the hit show "West Wing."
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D