50 YEARS OF DRUG ADDICTION

VANCOUVER -'There's trouble in paradise."

That's the conclusion of a recent United Nations report on
Vancouver's urban population. The city is "breathtakingly gorgeous,"
but seriously marred by the abject misery of its Downtown Eastside
(DES), "? a two-kilometre square stretch of decaying rooming houses,
seedy strip bars and shady pawn shops."

It's not exactly a startling conclusion. Vancouver is well-known as a
living paradox, where the eyesore of the drug-infested DES exists
alongside the most pristine beauty nature has to offer.

In fact, the UN's words practically mirror those of a CBC-TV report:
"Right now in Vancouver's East End, they're taking their fixes. For a
few drugged hours, they'll feel OK ? and then they will come to. In
100 shabby dens, dingy hotels and cheap housekeeping rooms,
Vancouver's drug-addict population will ask the same old questions.
What can I steal today?"

The similarities in the descriptions are disturbing -- especially
since the CBC report is from 1959.

Almost 50 years later, we have made little progress in altering the
downward trajectory of life in the DES. Instead, the problem has
flourished and the world-wide reputation of the DES as an open-drug
society is now legendary.

Today, junkies shoot up in the streets or at a government-sponsored
injection site. (Ironically, the spokesperson for the injection site
is also leading an international initiative to legalize all drugs by 2020.)

There's no imperative to stop, limit or even hide drug use when those
in charge are determined to give addicts unfettered access. Clearly,
the inmate s are running the asylum.

In 1959, an addictions doctor says handing out free, legal drugs to
addicts is just a "fantasy." Today, that "fantasy" is reality.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan recently announced a supposedly
innovative proposal to supply addicts with legal forms of illegal
drugs (heroin, crack cocaine and crystal meth) in pill form. Sullivan
naively claims the delivery system is the core of the addiction
problem, and is determined to change the drug culture of "depending
on needles."

This is innovative thinking, indeed. Common sense suggests the drug
is the problem, and the culture of drug dependence is what needs to
change. And the best way to change an epidemic rooted in a particular
behaviour, is to change the behaviour.

But common sense isn't "innovative" enough for those who are charged
with resolving Vancouver's drug problem, yet obsessed with doing
anything they can to facilitate drug use.

The success of Sullivan's plan ultimately depends on how that is
defined. If the end goal is to give addicts a new chance at life and
help them to become functioning members of society, then it will
fail. On the other hand, if the end goal is to keep an entire
population of humans in a dysfunctional state, consumed by a need for
drugs and wandering the streets in pharmaceutical oblivion, then it's
exactly what Vancouver needs. Job done.

Al Arsenault, a retired DES police officer who has made award-winning
documentaries of life there, says the policy is "selling human
potential down the road." He knows the addicts by name and says,
"They don't need drugs, they need treatment. If Sullivan wants to
change the drug culture, he has to fix the addict first."

I agree. Harm reduction waves the white flag of surrender, abandons
an entire population to a lifetime of despair.

The Netherlands continues to deal with the partially living products
of its state-sponsored harm reduction programs. It must now provide
specialized housing for ageing addicts who, in their 30s and 40s, are
experiencing medical problems common to those in their 80s. These
"elderly addicts" are maintained on drugs while they wait for death to come.

Satisfying the whims of drug addicts won't improve the neighbourhood
or Vancouver's international reputation. It won't transform the DES
into a safe, prosperous and desirable neighbourhood for businesses
and families, or move addicts forward into a real, functional life.

History shows that years of compassionate chatter and political
solutions (that only give the appearance of doing something) have
done little to evoke any real change in the DES. In 1959, there were
just four detox beds available. In 2007, there are 23 beds available
downtown and only six of those are for women. One organization has
another 24 beds ready, but can't get government funding for operating costs.

The only way to change Vancouver's drug culture is through treatment.
That means detox beds, long-term treatment centres located away from
the DES, long-term social support and instruction in life skills and trades.

The last thing an addict needs is a substitute drug. It's a pathetic,
callous alternative to implementing the meaningful measures that can
transform both individuals and the DES into a functioning society. -
Susan Martinuk is a Vancouver columnist.