ADDICT PROGRAMS GET $10 MILLION

Feds Allocate Funds To Treat Drug Users In Downtown Eastside, But Mum
On Insite's Fate

VANCOUVER - Federal Health Minister Tony Clement announced $10
million Wednesday for new programs to treat drug users in the
Downtown Eastside, generating both hopes and fears among
supervised-injection-site advocates waiting for Clement's decision
about keeping the site open.

"We're excited that they're giving money to treatment but at the same
time I'm worried that this could be a cheap political bauble to
distract people from the loss of comprehensive treatment," said Mark
Townsend of the Portland Hotel Society.

"However, I'd like to believe that they really can't be that cynical."

The Portland operates the injection site, along with a detox and
treatment facility attached to it.

The site only has an exemption from federal narcotics laws until June
30 and everyone is waiting to see whether Clement will extend the
exemption, refuse to extend it, or find some way to hand jurisdiction
for the site over to the province.

That issue overshadowed Clement's media conference Wednesday, which
was conducted in Ottawa and Vancouver simultaneously through a
television hook-up, with Clement in the capital and Mayor Sam
Sullivan in Vancouver.

Reporters asked almost no questions about the programs in the
$10-million announcement.

Instead, they focused on whether Clement was making the announcement
as a way to prove he is giving money to drug treatment in Vancouver
to insulate himself from criticism if the government cancels Insite.

Clement declined to answer repeated questions, saying several times
that "I really can't help you with that aspect of your story."

Sullivan also stuck to that script, saying the two issues were
separate, and that he was there to "celebrate" the $10-million
addition to treatment programs

He did say after the formal conference, however, that he has asked
Clement to keep the site open at least until a current lawsuit ends,
likely in a couple of years.

The Portland and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users have taken
the federal government to court to ask for a ruling to keep the site
open because it has been proven as a health benefit.

Ironically, part of the $10 million, which will be spread out over
five years, will apparently be going to the Portland to help the
society add more recovery beds to the ones it already has at Onsite,
the detox and treatment facility attached to Insite.

But the new 20 beds will be targeted for women, giving them a place
to stay for six to nine months after going through detox, and will be
located in a separate building.

Kate Gibson, who works with the sex-trade workers' advocacy
organization WISH, said she is thrilled that money is coming that is
dedicated to needy women.

"I think there are a lot of women who could benefit so greatly from
having something longer term."

The rest of the money will go to a new, specialized team of community
health-care workers who will go out and work with a limited group of
street people to get them medical and psychiatric help.

The assertive community treatment team, similar to teams in place in
Victoria, Toronto, and some American cities, will consist of 12
people who will work with about 75 homeless, mentally ill and
addicted people who are not getting help anywhere else.