Pubdate: Thu, 16 Oct 2003
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Frances Bula

FREE HEROIN EXPERIMENT CAUSES DISMAY

East Hastings Location Close To Special Housing, Day Care, School

A plan to conduct a two-year scientific experiment in giving free heroin to 
a select group of addicts has people buzzing with dismay this week in the 
Downtown Eastside.

But it's not the concept they're objecting to.

Instead, the main complaint is about the planned location for the 
experiment -- the northwest corner of East Hastings and Heatley. It's right 
next door to a recently opened building dedicated to alcohol- and drug-free 
housing, half a block from a day care, and one block from an elementary school.

The next complaint is that no one from the agencies planning the experiment 
has come to talk to anyone -- a normal courtesy observed in the beleaguered 
downtown neighbourhood that is shared by drug users, the country's highest 
concentration of poor people, social agencies, businesses and regular 
residents.

"It could be a very brilliant concept, but the process really is a 
problem," said James Kennedy, who operates a training cafe for young people 
at risk and is the chair of the local Strathcona Area Merchants Society. 
"And the location is brutal."

Even more concerned is the president of Union Gospel Mission, which just 
opened an 81-unit housing facility next door to the proposed site. The 
housing facility is dedicated to people who want to kick their alcohol or 
drug habits.

"It's a place where people come to find freedom from drugs. There must be a 
block that's more suited, instead of having this jammed up next to a 
building where people have come to get away from drugs," said Maurice McElrea.

Kennedy and McElrea are two of about 200 people and community agencies near 
the 600-block East Hastings who got notices from the city Friday that the 
University of B.C.-sponsored trial has applied for a development permit for 
the building at the northwest corner of East Hastings and Heatley, with 
operations slated to start in March.

The trial, which has been in the planning for five years and still has not 
received final federal approvals, aims to replicate experiments that have 
been done in Europe to look at whether medically prescribed heroin produces 
better results than methadone in helping long-term drug users' health and 
quality of life.

Swiss and Dutch experiments have shown that those given heroin were 
arrested less, had a higher chance of holding down a job, and went through 
fewer bouts of homelessness.

The trial, called the North American Opiate Medication Initiative or NAOMI, 
is to be conducted in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto simultaneously with 
470 subjects in total. In Vancouver, 158 users would be selected for the 
experiment, with 70 getting methadone and 88 getting heroin.

According to the explanatory letter that went out to the community, only 
the selected clients will come to the clinic, visiting up to three times a 
day during its 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. opening hours.

The experiment has already received $8.1 million from the Canadian 
Institutes of Health Research and all three study sites received final 
approval from the ethics review boards in June 2002, but it has been 
stalled in other regulatory approvals processes. As well, it still needs 
about another $2 million to cover all the costs of the pilot.

The project team has been hunting for a site for at least two years, 
looking at almost two dozen sites during that period. Although there had 
been some behind-the-scenes pressure from the previous Non-Partisan 
Association city council to put the site at St. Paul's Hospital, 
researchers maintained the experimental site needed to be close to where 
drug users live if it was going to have any impact.

It has been an open secret in Vancouver during that time that the 
experiment is planned, but federal government policies have prohibited 
those involved from speaking publicly.

University of B.C. researcher Dr. Martin Schecter, a lead proponent for the 
project who was in Toronto Wednesday for a meeting with project 
researchers, could only say: "We are working to get all the necessary 
approvals we have to obtain before we can do this study."

However, the project team was required to supply extensive details about 
the planned project to the community as part of the development permit process.

But in spite of the four pages of information and diagrams supplied, many 
are concerned that the community isn't getting any of it because the 
majority of businesses and residents nearby know only Chinese.

Joe Chaput, a Vancouver business operator who lives directly behind the 
proposed site, said the letters came only in English.

"I tried to explain it to my neighbour but he didn't really understand me," 
said Chaput, who's worried about the volume of traffic it will generate, 
with up to 30 users an hour going in and out of both front and rear entrances.

Chaput said the area, about four blocks east of Main and Hastings, has been 
relatively quiet the past couple of years.

Chaput is also concerned about the deadline given for residents to respond 
to the city -- less than two weeks away, on Oct. 24.

But city project planner Michael Mortensen is already working on that part 
of the problem.

Mortensen said the deadline is going to be extended to Nov. 3 and letters 
in Chinese will be sent out by the end of this week.

As well, he pointed out that anyone can continue to register complaints or 
concerns with the city at any point up until the decision is made.

What is likely to be a continuing subject of community friction, however, 
is the site location and the relationship with the project team.

The team is planning to see what the community response is to the 
development permit proposal, and then organize one or several meetings to 
hold discussions.

That's leaving it too long in some people's eyes.

"I'm assuming they'll [the project team] be in here on Monday to do 
community consultation," said Kennedy, who has been getting a flood of 
e-mails from local resident and business groups concerned about the plan.

Kennedy said they aren't expressing concerns about the general idea of 
giving free heroin to local users.

"Most people here are very supportive of the four pillars [the city's drug 
strategy] and very patient in waiting for things to evolve."

The plan means giving drugs to "80 people a day who are using this product 
anyway."

Besides, he said, "it can't get worse" and there might even be a benefit if 
fewer people are having to break into cars and houses to get money for drugs.

But people would like the city to consider whether the 600 block is the 
best site.

Kennedy pointed out that the former Buddhist temple at Hastings and Gore, 
now owned by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, is sitting empty and 
would make a much more suitable site, since it is less residential and 
closer to the main centre of drug activity in the Downtown Eastside.

Recent studies have estimated there are 60,000 to 100,000 heroin users in 
Canada, with 500 to 1,000 overdose deaths a year among them. More than half 
have acute health problems, multiple mental-health problems, and no 
permanent housing. Two-thirds resort to illegal activities to earn money.

Although methadone was introduced to Canada in the 1960s as a substitute 
for heroin users trying to quit, only about a quarter of heroin users are 
in a methadone program at any time. Many people either refuse to enter a 
methadone program or try and drop out.

Subjects will be chosen by the researchers and will be restricted to 
current residents of the Downtown Eastside who are long-term heroin users 
and whose previous episodes of trying methadone failed.

People going through the criminal justice system will be excluded, as will 
people whose medical or psychiatric conditions indicate they wouldn't be 
good subjects for heroin treatment.

Subjects will get paid for their research visits.

The project has been guided by an advisory committee that includes the 
RCMP, Vancouver police, College of Physicians and Surgeons, College of 
Pharmacists, the provincial and city governments, and the health authority.

Vancouver police spokeswoman Constable Sarah Bloor said police are 
supportive of the pilot project as part of the continuum of options for 
drug treatment.

"It's a health initiative and we support health initiatives."

Mayor Larry Campbell also said he supports it as part of the continuum of 
care in the city.

He said he thinks it will be even less intrusive than the city's authorized 
injection site for drug users, which has attracted almost 3,000 visits in 
its first month of operation with little incident.

He said he hasn't heard any complaints about the location and can't imagine 
why there would be any.

"Where are the addicts now? This is 140 people who won't be injecting in 
the alleys."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman