RELIEVING DRUG CRISIS REQUIRES BOLD NEW MOVES

Since Current Efforts To Treat Hardcore Addicts Have Failed, The
Mayor's Alternative Deserves Serious Consideration

Once again we have a politician proposing bold solutions to arrest
the continuing drug crisis, and once again the community is running
for cover, suggesting that we shouldn't even entertain such ideas.

The politician this time is Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who last
week said he's interested in introducing a program that would provide
drugs or drug substitutes for addicts.

That led former mayor Larry Campbell, who used to champion bold
measures, including the supervised injection facility, to accuse
Sullivan of "simplistic" thinking, and Coun. Tim Stevenson to
characterize Sullivan's views as "extreme."

Tellingly, neither Campbell nor Stevenson, nor anyone else who
opposes the mayor's plans, has provided a viable alternative.
Instead, they simply continue harping about the need for prevention
and treatment.

Now prevention and treatment are undeniably important, but Sullivan
noted that he hasn't had a problem finding treatment beds when he has
tried to get help for acquaintances or family members with drug
problems. When Campbell was mayor, he made similar comments, telling
The Vancouver Sun editorial board more than once that he believed
there were adequate treatment facilities in the Lower Mainland.

These comments suggest that, while treatment is important, a lack of
beds is not our primary problem. Rather, the main problem is that
some hardcore addicts fail repeatedly in their efforts at
rehabilitation. Campbell has acknowledged as much, saying that he
supports drug maintenance programs for addicts who can't be treated
through more traditional treatment programs.

So politics aside, Sullivan and Campbell aren't so very far apart on
this issue. And that's a good thing since hardcore addicts are the
ones responsible for much of the social disorder and property crime
that Sullivan has said he wants to eradicate.

Clearly, our efforts at doing so have failed thus far, as the
epidemic of property crime continues unabated. So it's time for
someone to propose some bold solutions, and Sullivan ought to be
applauded for having the courage to do so.

Indeed, preliminary research from Europe confirms the intuition that
prescription heroin programs improve the health of addicts, since
they receive medical care and high quality drugs, rather than the
junk that exists on the street. A recent study in the British Medical
Journal found that while prescribing heroin costs more than
prescribing methadone, heroin prescription programs saved thousands
of dollars per patient in reduced law enforcement and reduced
property crime costs.

Vancouver is now taking part in the North American Opiate Medication
Initiative, which will determine if prescribing heroin will produce
similar beneficial effects on this side of the Atlantic. If it does
produce similar successes, that would be reason enough to give a
longer term program a try.

Of course, we must be careful if we move in this direction, and any
such move must be based on the best available research. But to not
move at all -- to continue proposing the same things that have
already failed -- is to condemn both hardcore addicts, and society,
to yet more needless misery.