WHY NOT OPEN DRUG-REHAB CENTRE INSTEAD OF SECOND PICKTON TRIAL

This plea is to the families of 20 missing moms, sisters and daughters
whose names and photos occupy convicted serial-killer Willie Pickton's
second charge sheet. In a few days a judge will invite the defence to
respond to the Crown's bid to shelve further prosecutions involving
the 20 women, at least until the appeals of Pickton's six
second-degree murder convictions are known, and perhaps forever.

But the families argue there will be no closure for them and no
justice for their loved ones until Pickton stands trial again.

Many of them seem hung up on the idea that only by means of more
trials can there be justice for the women whose years of unexplained
silence may be the imprisoned butcher's doing.

With all due respect, there is a more memorable, dignified way to
honour the street workers whose servitude to heroin, crack, crystal
meth -- or all of the above -- made them easy pickings for predators.

Let's take the $50 million, or whatever it's expected to cost to
prosecute the lifer a second time, and even a third, considering the
catalogue of remaining charges, and open a full-service, drug-rehab
centre for female addicts in the Downtown Eastside who want off.

I can't think of a more satisfying, humane way to celebrate the
missing women's lives, as well as to acknowledge their despair, than
to give their sisters the option to flee from what they couldn't.

While the east side is home to hundreds of Vancouver's drug addicted,
it also is a source of income to scores of well-meaning service
workers intent on alleviating the physical destruction that using
causes. In other words, they make heavy drug use safer for addicts.

Neither they, nor the multimillion-dollar government-funded services
they provide, devote much time or resources to helping junkies clean
up.

Go figure: Governments spend more public funds providing clean
needles, crack-pipe paraphernalia and injection sinks for addicts than
they do maintaining detox and treatment beds for them.

It's easier for a druggie to find a clean rig or safe spot to shoot up
than to find a safe place to clean up.

But what's most amazing is the lack of a co-ordinated team approach to
helping recovering addicts. Finding out what is available, when and
where is a daunting task. Imagine the difficulty for women whose
brains are addled by years of drugs, sexual abuse and rejection.

I can count on two hands the number of inpatient withdrawal beds for
women in the DTES: the Salvation Army's Harbour Light does its best
with funding from Vancouver Coastal Health for six bunk beds wedged
into an otherwise bare, institutional-type room. All are occupied.

The next step after withdrawal is stabilization: women just days off
the drugs need time to regain their health and flush the dope from
their bodies before entering the next phase: a long-term treatment
facility that, ideally, provides life-skills training, high-school
education, job opportunities, financial aid, etc.

And that's where panic sets in. At Harbour Light, otherwise known as
Cordova Detox, a worker spends most of her day trying to tee-up rehab
beds for women who have progressed through detox and
stabilization.

Timing is crucial: if an addict who is struggling to stay clean is
spurned because of a shortage of beds, you've lost her.

Manager Nancy McConnell says over the years they've lost many women to
the streets because of a lack of beds.

"I expected an outpouring of public sympathy and an effort to build
more facilities since the Pickton trial," she said. "But nothing has
changed."

A relative of Dianne Rock, one of the 20 missing women, said she
didn't want her sister's story gathering dust in a lawyer's abandoned
legal file folder.

But how about on a plaque at the entrance of a rehab centre that
offers her street sisters hope and the chance to escape a similar
death sentence?