FREE DRUGS KEY TO ADDICT'S NEW LIFE

VANCOUVER - A 30-year heroin user says she is able to hold down a job
and live free from the fear that she will be poisoned by bad street
drugs now that she gets free drugs through an experimental program.

"I am a 30-year heroin addict," Dianne Tobin, president of the
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, told an international conference
in Vancouver. "I knew at 17 [years old], I needed heroin to get
through the day."

She was obsessed with getting drugs because she had to "score" twice a
day. She couldn't hold down a job. Ms. Tobin is one of 100 users who
volunteered for the North American Opiate Medication Initiative
(NAOMI), which gives drugs to 100 heroin addicts in Vancouver.

She says her quality of life has improved. "I don't have to go out
'scoring' to get drugs illegally," she said. Ms. Tobin was speaking to
delegates from 93 countries -- including China, Iran, Bangladesh and
Malaysia -- who are in Vancouver for the International Conference on
the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm.

The conference is looking at solutions to drug-related problems, among
them innovations in use in Vancouver, including prescription heroin,
needle-exchange clinics and safe-injection sites. The Canadian
Institute of Health Research says there are 60,000 to 90,000 Canadians
addicted to heroin and says illegal drug use costs the Canadian
economy more than $8-billion a year.