POLICE WANT VANCOUVER INJECTION SITE SHUT DOWN

They Claim It Fuels 'Unprecedented Levels Of Crime'

VICTORIA - Canadian police officers are urging the federal government
to cut all funding to Vancouver's supervised injection site which
they say is a failed experiment that has displaced crime and has only
given junkies a sense of entitlement.

Delegates to the Canadian Police Association convention in Victoria
unanimously passed a resolution Friday urging the government to
"cease all financing of the supervised injection site program and
invest in a national drug strategy to combat drug addiction which
includes education, prevention and treatment."

"We have a significant amount of public and street disorder in the
city of Vancouver, Tom Stamatakis, CPA vice-president and president
of the Vancouver Police Union, said after the resolution passed.

"This harm-reduction focus has led to unprecedented levels of crime
in our city. Our citizens are saying that they don't feel safe. Our
citizens are saying that they're tired of the disorder in the city
and I think what we need is a national strategy to combat drug
addiction and drug-related crime issues that involves all levels of
government and involves the entire criminal justice system so we can
focus really on treatment and prevention and enforcement."

At the Vancouver site in the city's gritty downtown eastside, drug
users are provided clean equipment and supervised by medical
personnel as they inject cocaine or heroin in an effort to combat the
spread of HIV-AIDS and to prevent overdoses.

A three-year exemption from the federal government that allows the
illegal drug use expires Sept. 12.

The Conservatives have yet to say if it will continue to allow its
operation amid mounting pressure from some city politicians, health
groups and community street workers to keep it open.

Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe, with the support of his police chief, Paul
Battershill, has been lobbying for a similar site to be established
in that city.

Stamatakis advised against it.

When introduced, safe injection sites were supposed to be part of a
"four pillar" approach to dealing with drug issues that included
treatment, enforcement, education and harm reduction, he said.

Instead, what's evolved is a one-pronged approach where all funding
and efforts have been directed to harm reduction, Stamatakis said.

"That's a strategy that's doomed to fail. It has failed."

The CPA represents 200 police associations with 54,000 members.