POLICE OPPOSE CRACK SAFE SITE

VANCOUVER -- Police say they're opposed to a plan to expand the city's
safe-injection site to include a room where crack cocaine addicts can
light up.

Mayor Larry Campbell said Sunday the site now predominantly used by
heroine, morphine, hydromorphone and cocaine intravenous drug users
should be expanded so that crack addicts can toke up in a safe setting
- -- a scenario the police union said would create crack dens and not
help addicts kick the habit.

"I don't know why they would be upset about that and fully supportive
of supervised injection sites," Campbell said of police reaction. "We
are taking the people off the street that they have to deal with as a
nuisance and we are trying to get them help so it's no different."

But police union president Tom Stamatakis said despite a first-year
evaluation of the safe-injection site showing 600 injections each day
occur at the downtown locale and 107 overdoses were prevented there,
his members see little evidence on the street that the number of
people shooting up and smoking up in alleys is going down.

"It's beyond ridiculous to now contemplate setting up a den for crack
cocaine smokers when you consider that it is one of the most addictive
and devastating drugs available, whose profiteers are organized
criminals," said Stamatakis. "If this proposal goes ahead, it will
simply enable addicts to continue using harmful drugs and not escape
from the vicious cycle of drug abuse and crime."

Stamatakis added the city would have to make a special request to
Health Canada to use the site's smoking room, which recently had a new
ventilation system installed in preparation for use by crack addicts.

"The harm reduction model was supposed to result in fewer substance
abuse deaths, a reduction in costs to the economy, better prevention
initiatives and the promotion of rehabilitation options but these
things have just not happened," Stamatakis said.

"Why would he think that setting up safe cocaine smoking dens would
work any better?"