NOTHING TO CELEBRATE ABOUT CITY'S SAFE-INJECTION SITE

Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell can gush about North America's first
regulated injection site from his leather recliner at city hall all he
likes.

But pity the business owner, shopper and resident who are still having
to break through the nest of junkies to get into a Downtown Eastside
store.

Pity also the taxpayer who has been footing the bill so a handful of
the city's 4,500 users can inject the poison of their choice several
times daily in a clean, dry place. Pity, too, the property owners and
city businesses who have ponied up an estimated $1.5 million to $2
million so two 911 officers can be on call near the site 24/7.

Happy first anniversary to the continent's first supervised injection
site. Unfortunately, no one is celebrating but the junkies, the mayor
and a string of special-interest groups who jockey annually for a
chunk of the estimated half-billion dollars that bankroll the area's
social services.

You can bet apartment-owner Brigitte Snider isn't raising a glass. The
Downtown Eastside businesswoman says the year-old injection site has
done nothing to reduce the number of addicts cluttering the sidewalk
in front of her entrance.

The seniors and ailing folk who call her apartment building home are
still tripping over the overdosers blocking the door. And Snider says
the attacks and robberies of locals has increased, if anything.

"We are calling 911 all the time," she told CBC Radio this week,
adding that despite what Campbell claims, "The overall drug problem
and disorder in the streets has not been addressed."

Indeed, the heavier presence of police on Hastings Street merely
caused the skid-row crowd to shuffle over to Powell Street and the
creepy Oppenheimer Park area.

And dare I ask what happened to the idea of referrals? Wasn't the
injection site to include a treatment-referral component to get these
guys not just off the street but off drugs? How many users were
referred for treatment? How many are on the road to recovery?

While Campbell claims all four pillars -- harm reduction, education,
enforcement and rehabilitation -- are in place, or almost in place,
rehab staff paint a different picture. They say they've seen no
significant increase either in funding or in beds. So has the site
spared the hooked-on-drugs from sudden death? The jury's still out on
this, but as the common-sense Snider points out, a treatment facility
could likely have rescued more.

"And what are we saving them from, anyway? So they can overdose
again?" she says.

There's also been a noticeable increase in the number of undesirables
moving to our graceful city. MP Randy White is doing the math, but the
signs point to a sudden leap in the number of applications from U.S.
dwellers claiming refugee status on the grounds of that country's
oppressive drug laws.

I'm also told there's a lobby afoot to get a second injection site up
and running or to expand the existing one to include an expanded
inhalation zone for those who'd rather suck the junk into their lungs
than do the needlework.

Snider may want to hand her wish list to Campbell, Gov.-Gen. Adrienne
Clarkson and her philosopher husband during their visit to the drug-infested
area on Tuesday: more officers on every corner of the city, more treatment
facilities and a decent showing of drug-prevention programs in the schools.

"No more facilities to further entrench the addicts in this city," she
said. As for me, I'm tempted to present Campbell with a clock, today's
gift in honour of a first anniversary. Because we're running out of
time to clean the city up.