PUT ADDICTS OUT WITH TRASH?

Momentum is building behind the idea of creating a dedicated
community run for and by recovering drug addicts that would be
located outside the Lower Mainland.

And the Greater Vancouver Regional District board suggests the addict
enclave might be located on the Ashcroft Ranch land it already owns
that may also be home to a new regional landfill.

The concept is to try a new avenue of fighting addiction by following
the model of San Patrignano, Italy (www.sanpatrignano.org).

That intentional therapeutic community -- formed from donated land
and financed through the sale of goods inmates make, private
donations and public grants -- is credited with achieving a 70%
success rate in healing drug addicts and returning them to productive society.

One of the figures behind the local push is Liberal MLA Lorne
Mayencourt (Vancouver-Burrard), who toured the Italian community and
wants to find a site that could house B.C. addicts.

"We have to find something that's away from the centre of their drug
life," Mayencourt told GVRD directors last Friday.

"I'm not suggesting we abandon the Four Pillars approach," he said.
"I'm suggesting we add to it."

He said addicts voluntarily commit to live within the walls of San
Patrignano for three to five years, which they spend learning skills
away from the usual sources of temptation.

Instead of abusing, he said, they heal together and become productive
citizens, working in San Patrignano's winery, dairy, furniture
factory and other enterprises that have become renowned for their quality.

Every one of the 2,200 people there is a recovering addict, he said.

The region's politicians have mixed views on the idea.

But GVRD directors voted to ask the province to study the concept and
consider the Ashcroft Ranch as a potential site.

Whether garbage goes there is up in the air -- the GVRD is studying
alternatives on orders from Victoria after sinking $10 million into
the Ashcroft plan -- but even if the dump is built there, the
property is roomy.

The landfill would occupy less than 5% of the 4,200-hectare historic ranch.

"We have the land -- why not use it?" asked Pitt Meadows Mayor Don
MacLean. "It is remote enough. It gets people away from where they
live and where the problem was caused in the first place."

Richmond Coun. Harold Steves said addicts could farm and ranch and
ride horses there, calling it potentially good therapy.

To others it smacks of an attempt to clean up Vancouver streets by
sequestering addicts away in the countryside.

"This is a new form of institutionalization," charged Coquitlam Mayor
Maxine Wilson. "I think this is a dangerous approach to take."

Others said it has merit despite the optics.

"For many people segregation is exactly what they need," said Maple
Ridge Coun. Judy Dueck.

Mayencourt said he'd "love to" have such a community set up in an
urban area, but no municipality would agree to host it.

"Communities are pretty negative about it," he said.

A rural part of the Fraser Valley has also been suggested as a
possible home, and other directors said the province should also look
at one of B.C.'s abandoned company ghost towns.

Mayencourt admits he doesn't yet have his government's blessing, but
says he hopes to build grassroots support for the idea first and then
persuade cabinet to approve it -- as happened with his campaign to
ban aggressive panhandling.

He predicts it will be easy to raise money from the business community.

Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, who has also toured San Patrignano,
said it isn't as rosy as Mayencourt's upbeat portrayal.

"It belies a very, very complex situation under the surface," he said.

Italian critics concede the San Patrignano system is popular, but
question the claimed success rates and say problems have been glossed over.

They also say it has been used as ammunition to block a harm
reduction approach to drug use and instead push stricter policies of
drug prohibition.