50% OF USERS SPEND AT LEAST $100 A DAY ON DRUGS

Nearly half the drug users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside shell out
$100 or more each day to feed their cocaine and heroin habits -- and
virtually none of them fear prosecution.

An eight-day survey of 100 illicit drug users in the neighbourhood --
conducted in January 2003 by two Simon Fraser University students with
the help of a Vancouver police officer -- also found that 67 per cent
of users spent $50 or more each day on their drugs.

The majority of addicts are older than 30 and the drug of choice in
the area is crack cocaine, it found.

Gareth Bradley, Jennifer Parks and Const. Gerry Wickstead wandered the
back alleys of the Hastings Street corridor to speak to drug users.
The resulting 224-page report, Treadmill of

Addiction, details the respondents' criminal records and the patterns
of their drug use, which was found to be primarily funded through crime.

"They openly admit to committing crimes on a daily basis in order to
fuel their increasing appetites for a variety of drug combinations,"
the report says. "More tax-free money can pass through their hands
each day than the average working citizen may see in a week."

For the two-thirds of survey respondents who said they spent at least
$50 a day on drugs, their monthly expenses are about $1,500 -- which,
according to Statistics Canada data from 1999, is roughly twice the
average monthly payment on a 20-year mortgage in B.C.

Those spending $100 or more on cocaine or heroin shell out about
$36,500 annually.

"An individual with a legitimate occupation funding a $100-a-day drug
habit would have to earn at least $52,000 a year if 30 per cent of
their annual income went to income tax," the report notes.

Some survey subjects said they split their welfare living allowances
with their landlords but never actually live in the landlords'
buildings. The landlords then rent out the room to someone else and
the addict takes the money to spend on drugs. Others sell free
prescription methadone or fake crack and fake powder cocaine on the
streets.

Despite the fact that 94 per cent of those surveyed admit to using
their drugs openly on city streets and in alleys, just one-third had
been charged with drug possession, and only two were ever jailed
solely for drug possession. Nearly three-quarters of users surveyed
thought current policing levels in the Downtown Eastside were adequate.

"If more police resources were added to the area, it would make it
more difficult for a drug user to purchase and use drugs," the report
concludes.

Ann Livingston, project co-ordinator for the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users, draws "a completely different conclusion."

Livingston said a proactive approach to drug addiction would better
serve the health and well-being of users and that of the community
they live in by reducing crime associated with drugs.

"We need to prescribe cocaine substitutes for cocaine addicts. We need
to prescribe heroin for heroin addicts," Livingston said.

Police crackdowns actually have the opposite effect of that intended,
she argued, because big-time drug dealers simply recruit more
street-level sellers to distribute the product.

"The more police they add, the bigger the little crews are,"
Livingston observed.

USER FACTS

Six of the users who participated in the survey said they were
homeless and couldn't afford shelter. Five of them were spending in
excess of $100 each a day on drugs. They are identified by number:

No. 12: 39-year-old female who spends up to $600 a day when on
binges.

No. 59: 23-year-old male crack and heroin user who earns up to $200 a
day dealing and spends "as much as possible" on drugs.

No. 72: 26-year-old female earning anywhere from $40 to $80 as a
sex-trade worker uses on average once an hour.

No. 76: 22-year-old female who spends more than $100 a day while
helping dealers.

No. 78: 34-year-old male who spends $200 a day ($6,000 each month) on
drugs.