Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jan 2017
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Page: A18

GET ADDICTS OFF DRUGS

Affordable housing and drug addiction are among the most talked about
issues in B.C., especially in the Lower Mainland.

The latest survey from Demographia ranked Vancouver the third-least
affordable housing market in the world. Companies fear a loss of
skilled labour as millennials seek a lower cost of living elsewhere.
Parents worry their children will be unable to live in the communities
where they were raised.

And the latest figures released by the B.C. Ministry of Health and
B.C. Coroners Service show 914 lives were lost due to illicit drug
overdoses last year, 215 of those in the City of Vancouver. The
provincial total is an increase of nearly 80 per cent from a year earlier.

So, perhaps it's not surprising mayors of Canada's biggest cities used
the opioid crisis in their push to extract $12.6 billion from the
federal government over the next decade for affordable housing. They
argue federal housing assistance is a critical part of an intervention
to keep addicts away from street drugs laced with fentanyl.

But conflating affordable housing with drug addiction does a
disservice to both problems.

The drug death figures included a surprising statistic: 90 per cent of
illicit drug overdoses in 2016 occurred inside - 61.3 per cent in
private residences and 28.7 per cent in other locations such as
trailer homes, hotels, rooming houses and public buildings.

Despite the ubiquitous images of first responders reviving a victim in
a Downtown Eastside alley, only 9.2 per cent of overdose deaths were
outside, on sidewalks or streets or in vehicles, parks, wooded areas
and campgrounds.

Affordability is the relationship between home prices and median
income, and the imbalance is dealt with by increasing housing supply,
tweaking mortgage rules, enforcing tax rules, improving job quality
and wages, adjusting interest rates and other measures. Affordability
has no connection to the opioid crisis. Federal bean counters will be
quick to recognize this.

Where the big-city mayors should focus their attention is on funding
for addiction and mental health services. Part of those services may
be supportive social housing, where addicts live in a drug-free
environment and receive treatment.

For that should be the overriding goal of every level of government
and health authorities they fund: to get addicts off drugs. There is
no question harm reduction policies have saved lives and play an
important role in any solution, but they have a downside - they send
the message it's OK to be a drug addict. It is not OK.

Governments must do far more to stop the flood of dangerous drugs into
our communities, provide adequate funding to help users break their
addiction, and educate children and adults alike that being a drug
addict is a waste of a life.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt