A FEW CRACKS IN MAYOR'S PILLARS

A city proposal to crack down on johns and pimps who exploit
drug-addicted youths could make things worse for sex trade workers,
says a local prostitute advocate.

Raven Bowen, spokeswoman for Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and
Education, said the plan will force prostitutes into other crimes and
expose them more to sexual predators.

"If there aren't all the regular johns around buying sex, then the
street workers are left with the sexual predators and that's who they
will have to get their money from," Bowen said, arguing underage girls
would also be forced into pimp-run houses of prostitution where groups
like PACE can't monitor them.

Bowen was reacting to an amendment to the city's Framework for Action: A
Four Pillar Approach to Drug Problems in Vancouver, which went before
council yesterday afternoon. The changes are the result of community
feedback to a draft policy paper, modeled on European methods of harm
reduction, released last November. One of the changes includes increased
enforcement against
pimps and johns that target youth prostitutes, co-ordination of health
services to direct youths towards treatment programs and provision of
long-term residential treatment for youths.

Donald MacPherson, the city's drug policy coordinator, said the
amendments were included after people expressed concerns that the
original draft did not draw a link between youth drug abuse and
prostitution. "Some individuals felt there wasn't enough focus on the
relationship between substance misuse and the sexual exploitation of
youth and that there should be a stronger focus on youth,particularly
'at risk' youth," MacPherson wrote in a report that went to council
yesterday. "Others pointed out that there was not any mention of
long-term treatment for youth and that this was a significant item
that should be addressed given the lack of this kind of option for
youth in Vancouver and British Columbia."

MacPherson said Vancouver is seen as a destination for child sex, so
the city must get the message out that it's increasing enforcement
against the activity.

But Bowen said if the city does crack down on johns, it must also open
up more detox beds, recovery houses and services, especially for young
women. "They may visibly eliminate the sex trade and the people that
are circling the neighbourhood buying sex, but it won't solve the
problem," Bowen said. "It's just one small part. They need to change
the conditions that lead women and children into the sex trade instead
of doing the band aid stuff like arresting the pimps and johns. It's
part of it but not all of it."

The city recently rejected a funding application from PACE that would
have allowed the group to employ a prostitution outreach worker.

The outcome of yesterday's vote on the amended drug policy was not
known at the Courier's press time. If it's approved, city staff will
be directed to start implementing the raft of recommendations in the
report, many of which require co-operation with provincial and federal
government agencies.