Pubdate: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2002 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Website: http://www.vancourier.com/ Author: Allen Garr Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?131 (Heroin Maintenance) CLARKE'S DRUG VIEWS BELONG IN THE ARCHIVES In the likely event that Jennifer Clarke becomes the next mayor of Vancouver, she will be the first NPA mayor in 15 years to send this city's drug policy sharply into reverse. When Gordon Campbell had the job in the '80s, he championed the first free needle exchange, following a report from the province's chief coroner, Vince Cain, into the alarming number of drug overdose deaths and spread of disease through used needles on the Downtown Eastside. A decade later, Philip Owen embraced the idea of harm reduction in a drug policy he calls a "four pillar approach." By then, the spread of HIV-AIDS among injection drug users was epidemic and street prostitution and property crime by junkies was on the rise, plaguing the whole region. As a result, we reached a collective conclusion to stop treating addicts as criminals and start treating them as people with serious health problems. Europe, Britain and Australia were far ahead of us. Junkies there were counselled rather than jailed and safe shooting sites were set up to get addicts off the street and injecting their drugs under the supervision of health care professions. Now, those countries are looking at distributing heroin to junkies on a limited bases. It's in part because of the impact of the criminal element in drug distribution that mayor Owen says he wants marijuana decriminalized. "If there was a vote, I'd vote to decriminalize it," he told me. But more to the point, he has also supported safe shooting sites and trials to distribute heroin to addicts on a limited basis. Now we get to mayor-apparent Jennifer Clarke, who promises that if she's elected, we'll see a New Generation of Leadership. Clarke has profited most from the showdown between Owen and the NPA backroom gang that pushed him out, in large part over his drug policy. In the spring of 2000, Owen was getting favourable headlines for his four-pillar approach and NPA councillor Lynne Kennedy was heading off to Liverpool to check out an innovative heroin maintenance program. Clarke, typically, figured it was in the best interest of her political future that she pick up on some of this stuff. She convinced council to foot the bill - $1,081 - for her to travel from Amsterdam, where she was on vacation, to the European drug rehabilitation haven of Frankfurt, Germany. She did a little dog and pony show for council on her return in the fall, typically avoiding any conclusions. Until now that is. Now that she's discovered a convenient constituency in the small but influential Community Alliance, which holds the NPA captive by controlling the board, Clarke has found her tongue. She damns Owen's drug policy with the faintest of praise, calling it a good "conceptual framework." She says before there are safe injection sites, more money should be put in rehabilitation. Almost every health care professional in the Western world has pointed out that safe injection sites, regardless of other services to addicts, will save lives and reduce costs to the system. As well, treatment facilities have improved significantly in Vancouver in the past two years. Safe shooting sites are seen as part of treatment, even though the drugs are acquired through illegal means. Indeed, while Clarke may cringe at the thought, there is already a safe shooting site at the Dr. Peter Centre for the treatment of HIV-AIDS. Nurses there simply consider it part of their responsibility to reduce risk of disease and death by overseeing injection procedures. What is most interesting about Clarke's New Generation of Leadership is that the world has passed her by. New safe shooting sites are being considered in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Victoria and Ottawa. On Thursday, council will have the opportunity to support this latest project, already unanimously endorsed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Owen. Or it can shift into reverse and follow Clarke. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk