EASTSIDE OFFICERS TALK DRUGS

Walking the beat in the rough neighbourhoods of the infamous Vancouver
downtown eastside has shown Sgt. Mark Steinkampf and Sgt. Toby Hinton
of the Vancouver police some disturbing realities of hard drugs.

Their stories are shocking, and on Monday they will be telling them at
a free public presentation at the Vernon Recreation Complex with the
mission to educate the public about drug-related issues. "It's all
reality-based, it's what we see on a daily basis," said Steinkampf.

"We want to share our experiences to hopefully steer people away from
a life of drugs, especially young people."

Steinkampf and Hinton are part of the Vancouver-based Odd Squad
founded by seven downtown officers that make multi-media presentations
about issues facing their community.

In the beginning they pooled their own money together to buy a video
camera with the goal of making a short 30-minute film that could
educate Vancouver kids about drugs.

"We needed to inform young people what it was like in the downtown
eastside," said Steinkampf. "They weren't drawing the link in
addiction from smoking or shooting to getting addicted."

Steinkampf said some youth show up on the hard streets looking to try
some drugs for recreational purposes, and end up getting trapped there.

In their presentations they want to show the reality of the end
results from using drugs, and how devastating it can be, but also that
people who make bad choices and become addicts are still real people.
They will be showing a series of photos and video to help them.

One of those real people is Randy Miller, an addict for many years,
who is now clean.

He will be at the presentation to tell his personal
struggle.

Miller was part of the Odd Squad's first documentary called Through
the Blue Lens, where they followed around six drug addicts through the
downtown eastside that is now internationally known.

The drug-education trio will also be heading to five schools thanks to
School District 22 substance and abuse prevention counsellor Doug
Rogers, who was instrumental in getting them to come and share their
message in Vernon.

"We are going to talk about policing the downtown eastside and how it
relates to Vernon," said Steinkampf.

"No one woke up thinking they would be alcoholic or drug addict. We
just want to shed light on healthy decisions."

The public presentation is from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Vernon
Recreation Complex on Monday, and is free.