Pubdate: Fri, 16 Oct 2009
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Mike Howell

CITY'S DRUG POLICY LACKS COORDINATOR

Resignee Notes Need For Law Reform

Does the city need a drug policy coordinator now that the person who 
held the position for almost a decade resigned?

The short and quick answer from Vision Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang is, 
of course.

But should the coordinator's position left vacant by Donald 
MacPherson be held by one person, or have the work spread out among 
senior staff?

The answer is not clear.

"Maybe there's somebody on staff who wants to take that on as part of 
their current workload," said Jang, who is his party's point person 
on mental health and addictions.

What the future of the city's drug policy work will look like is a 
question Jang has asked frequently since MacPherson announced his 
resignation in September.

He pointed to senior staff in housing and social planning as capable 
of continuing MacPherson's work. He noted homelessness, mental health 
issues and drug addiction are intertwined.

He said MacPherson's steering of the city's Four Pillars drug 
strategy in the early part of this decade was crucial to tackling the 
drug problem.

Fewer Vancouverites are dying of drug overdoses and contracting 
infectious diseases. The city also opened North America's only legal 
drug injection site on East Hastings in September 2003.

But the strategy, which includes police enforcement and drug 
treatment, is largely dependent on funding, political will and 
amending drug laws.

MacPherson, who laid out drug decriminalization options in reports to 
council, felt that full implementation of the strategy was hampered 
by the federal government's views on drug policy and its continued 
focus on the so-called war on drugs. It is the reason MacPherson is 
seeking to form a national drug policy network to critique drug 
policy at provincial and national levels.

"A whole group of people are being criminalized who are really in 
need of health services," he said. "We keep behaving as if [drug 
addiction] is a criminal issue. So I want to put much more energy 
into that, and that is well beyond the municipal level."

He wouldn't weigh in on whether the city should have a stand-alone 
person to continue his work. That's up to city council, he said.

Former NPA mayor Philip Owen, who was mayor when MacPherson became 
drug policy coordinator in 2000, is worried that tackling drug 
addiction is not a priority at municipal, provincial and federal 
levels of government.

Owen pointed out that drug policy was absent in political campaigns 
during recent elections at all three levels of government.

"It's just not on the radar screen anywhere and I'm really pissed off 
about it," he said, noting the Lower Mainland's gang violence is 
largely drug-related.

MacPherson said leadership on drug policy must come from politicians. 
"They have to keep pushing and doing that advocacy work. If the 
politicians don't advocate, it's very difficult for staff to."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart