VANCOUVER POLICE DRUG CRACKDOWN A FLOP, STUDY SAYS

Heavy-Handed Action Simply Spread Problem to More Areas in City

VANCOUVER -- Vancouver's police crackdown on the Downtown Eastside
drug market didn't deter users from taking drugs, didn't prompt them
to go into treatment, and didn't change the price of drugs, says a
report published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

But, the report says, the intensive police action that began last
April did spread drug activity from a concentrated area around Main
and Hastings to a much wider area throughout the Downtown Eastside,
which has the potential for drawing in new users and increasing HIV
infection rates.

Researchers Dr. Julio Montaner and Evan Wood at the B.C. Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS said the study is not intended to undermine
police efforts or deny that public order improved in the immediate
vicinity of Main and Hastings when the drug market was broken up.

But, they said, people need to understand what the total impact was
beyond public order and look at the effects on drug use and on other
areas of the city.

"The point is with the largest crackdown on substance ever, there was
really no direct measurable impact on the availability of drugs.
People moved around but they continued to use to the same extent,"
said Montaner. "What we're trying to argue is no matter how much you
push in how many points, this problem doesn't go away unless you deal
with it in a more medical, comprehensive fashion. While enforcement
may be useful, if there are no channels open for these individuals to
move to better care and support then the enforcement will have a
transient and geographically limited effect."

He said the study clearly indicates that just trying to reduce supply
won't have an impact on the city's drug problem.

"Economists will tell you that no market has ever been controlled by
the supply side. If you're going to reduce the drug problem, you need
to focus on the demand side. Enforcement needs to be paired with more
efforts in other areas like harm reduction and health."

The reaction from the Vancouver Police Department was negative.
Spokeswoman Const. Sarah Bloor called the study "flawed" and narrowly
focused, with some factual errors in the background
information.

She objected to the study's description of the police action as a
crackdown aimed at drug users.

"It was never the objective of the (project) to crack down on drug
users. It was to suppress the open-air drug market and to restore a
community that was in crisis."

The study looked at drug use, drug access, drug quality, and efforts
to get treatment in a group of 1,500 drug users that the Centre for
Excellence researchers have been tracking for almost 10 years. This
cohort in the Vancouver Injection Drug User Study has been interviewed
and given medical tests twice a year since 1996 in an effort to
understand the connections between drug use and other factors.

Researchers talked to users who came in for followup interviews in the
three months before and after the crackdown began April 7, 2003. Those
who have quit using drugs or live outside the Downtown Eastside were
excluded. A total of 244 users came in for interviews before April 7;
142 came after.

Although most weren't the same people, they were comparable, coming
from similar ethnic backgrounds and having used drugs for about the
same number of years.

Results showed that the increased police presence reduced their access
to drugs and reduced the quality of drugs. In both cases, 42 per cent
of those interviewed after the crackdown reported those effects,
compared to 30 per cent of those interviewed who said that in the
previous three months.

But the percentages of people using heroin, cocaine or crack daily
remained essentially unchanged. About 73 per cent of those interviewed
used heroin and cocaine on a daily basis, before and after the
crackdown, while about 40 per cent continued to use crack on a daily
basis.

The price of drugs didn't change, staying at about $20 for a hit of
heroin and $10 for cocaine or crack.