Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 Source: Georgia Straight, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Georgia Straight Contact: http://www.straight.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1084 WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SUBSTITUTION OF LEGAL DRUGS FOR ILLEGAL DRUGS? Tom Stamatakis President, Vancouver Police Union "I'm not aware of any legal drug that can replace someone's addiction to crack cocaine or crystal meth. And in this city, I would suggest that the vast majority of issues that are related to drug use that we struggle with, whether its public disorder or property crime, are related to the consumption of those two drugs. So I just don't see how it is going to be effective at all." Ann Livingston Executive program director, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users "You can put injection sites in place, but they don't address illegal drug markets. The hope of substitution therapy is that it can finally impact crime, car breakups, biker gangs, whatever. It's so exciting to move away from this endless debate about this stupid little study downtown that Insite is. It's just delaying us moving forward with stuff that's really going to make a difference." George Chow Vision Vancouver councillor "I think you're still not resolving the problem Now we are dealing with a great many more drugs than with the NAOMI project, which was just using the opium substitutes. Now you are talking about heroin, cocaine, and crystal meth [use], so whether the substitution programs work or not remains to be seen. It's really just an experiment." Sam Sullivan Vancouver mayor (in an October 2 NPA news release) "Delivering compassionate solutions to our social challenges is one of the five goals we have established for our government I support substitution treatment for those suffering from addiction because it rejects the use of needles and illegal drugs and offers real hope of reducing homelessness, crime, and public disorder. It can be a pathway to long-term abstinence." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake