Pubdate: Sat, 03 May 2003 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Page: A13 Copyright: 2003, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Jane Armstrong Bookmarks: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) http://www.mapinc.org/people/Larry+Campbell (Mayor Larry Campbell) http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) SHOOTING HEROIN, IN A VANCOUVER STOREFRONT Activists Launch Illegal Safe-Injection Site in the City's Downtown Eastside VANCOUVER -- On a warm spring afternoon last week, Norman Brixher walked into a storefront shop in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside with a packet of heroin, rifled through a tray of clean syringes, then selected one to help push the drug into a vein in his left arm. As reporters looked on and cameras zoomed in to record the moment, relief spread over Mr. Brixher's face as the drug took effect. He mumbled that he hoped a judge he knew didn't watch the news that night and revoke his bail. "He'll have to understand," Mr. Brixher said. "I'm just a user." Nearby, a registered nurse hovered, watching the addict for signs of an overdose. Mr. Brixher was at Vancouver's only safe-injection site, the name given to a place where addicts can use drugs in a supervised, sterilized setting. Health-care workers, activists and, most prominently, the mayor of Vancouver, have extolled the benefits of such sites, saying they save lives by providing an alternative to dirty back alleys and solitary hotel rooms. The only problem with Vancouver's new haven for addicts is that it's illegal. While common in several northern European cities, safe-injection sites where addicts can use illegal drugs without the threat of arrest have yet to be sanctioned in North America. The storefront operation where Mr. Brixher used heroin last week was opened by a band of militant health and poverty activists who say they're frustrated with the delays for a legal site, which Mayor Larry Campbell promised in last fall's civic election campaign. Mr. Campbell, a former coroner and narcotics police officer who won in a landslide, vowed Vancouver would have Canada's first-ever legal injection site by early 2003. It was the centrepiece of Mr. Campbell's promise of a new approach to the city's notorious drug problem: treating the drug scourge as primarily a health concern, not a criminal issue. Now, nearly five months after taking office, Mr. Campbell's promised legal site still awaits approval from Ottawa. In fact, while Vancouver activists were summoning reporters to the illegal site, Mr. Campbell was in Ottawa meeting with officials from Health Canada and Solicitor-General Wayne Easter's office in a bid to get approval for a sanctioned site. Mr. Campbell left the capital satisfied the plan would be approved, but it's not without critics. A U.S. drug official touring Vancouver this week warned that Canada's plans to liberalize its drug policies - - from sanctioning safe-injection sites to decriminalizing marijuana - - could rupture Canada-U.S. relations. Safe-injection sites, he warned, aren't a panacea for tough drug problems. "My impression is that there will be unintended consequences and that the presumed benefits will turn out to be illusory," said David Murray, special assistant in the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. For the rookie mayor, the dispute over safe-injection sites has underscored the gap between running for mayor and running a city. "I suppose if anything I could be accused of being naive and certainly hopeful," Mr. Campbell said in an interview. But he said he doesn't mind the delays if the site is eventually approved. If successful, it will be a blueprint for the rest of the country. But activists say they ran out of patience. While Ottawa dithers, they say, people are dying. What pushed them to open an illegal site was a controversial move last month to beef up police presence in the Downtown Eastside. In early April, teams of officers moved in on horses, arresting more than a hundred suspected dealers after an aggressive, two-week undercover operation. Since then, more than 40 officers have been added to patrol the 10-square-block neighbourhood. The Downtown Eastside activists said this get-tough approach was not what Mr. Campbell promised when winning votes last fall. Megan Olesen, a 26-year-old registered nurse, said the police action frightened addicts. "The increase in police . . . does not prevent drug use," Ms. Olesen said. "All it does is exacerbate an already existing health crisis in the Downtown Eastside because it forces people into riskier and riskier situations of obtaining drugs and using drugs." She said the illegal site has been used every night - by up to 15 drug users - since it opened nearly a month ago. The illegal site has infuriated police and drawn derision from the mayor. The dispute between city officials and Downtown Eastside activists has also reignited an old debate on how best to help the drug-ridden neighbourhood. "Words just can't describe how disappointed we are that these groups have taken this action," Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham said, adding the force may shut it down. "We believe that it could put the legitimate [safe-injection site] into some jeopardy." Mr. Campbell dismissed the illegal site as a publicity stunt. He said his meetings in Ottawa went well and he hopes to have a site opened by summer. The mayor also defended the extra police presence in the Downtown Eastside, saying he promised in his campaign to help addicts, not turn a blind eye to traffickers. He said police are going after dealers -- not users. And he said neighbourhood residents have welcomed the heightened police presence. "Nine out of 10 feel safer," he said. "I certainly don't feel that this has lowered the rate of addiction but it has broken up the open drug market." Indeed, on the notorious Hastings Street strip, the dense crowds of dealers and users have thinned since police moved in. One elderly man sitting outside the illegal injection site last week said he felt safe for the first time in months. "It's quite a difference down here, eh?" he said looking around at a park once thick with dealers. "It's nice for a change." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake