CRACKDOWN HASN'T CUT DRUG USE IN DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

Police Action Spread Unsafe Disposal Of Needles, B.C. Researchers Say

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 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 [drugs] 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.

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 follow-up 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.

There was also little change in the percentage of people receiving
methadone maintenance or treatment (44 per cent after, compared to 41 per
cent before).

What did change was where people took their drugs. More said the police
presence affected where they took their drugs: more reported injecting in
public spaces; more said they changed the neighbourhood or alley of use;
and fewer said they would be willing to use a supervised injection site.

Statistics gathered from the City of Vancouver and needle-exchange sites
showed the number of syringes discarded in public places plummeted in the
one-block area around Main and Hastings and rose everywhere else in the
Downtown Eastside. The study did not have statistics for neighbourhoods
outside the Downtown Eastside.

The number of needles distributed rose significantly, from 363,998 in the
three months before April, and 400,382 after.

The police crackdown, which put an extra 40 officers into the area,
generated considerable debate when it was initiated last year.

Health authorities and city officials, who had been working with police on
putting a coordinated plan of enforcement, treatment, health care and
prevention in place, were taken by surprise.

Many in the Downtown Eastside, from tenants of residential hotels to
business owners in Chinatown, praised the police action, saying it had made
them feel they could walk down the street safely again.

But people in neighbourhoods near the Downtown Eastside, particularly the
West End, the Granville Street area, and Commercial Drive, complained that
the police activity had done nothing but drive the problem into their
areas, with no apparent strategy in place to help them.

The crackdown prompted an investigation by Human Rights Watch and a
mini-war of anecdotal evidence from both sides about whether it was having
a good or bad impact.

Another evaluation of the crackdown is being conducted by a separate group
of researchers, who are looking at other issues like community livability
and drug users' access to health services.

That study, funded by the Vancouver Agreement, is due to be finished at the
end of May.

Signed March 9, 2000, the Vancouver Agreement is an urban development
agreement between the federal, provincial and municipal governments. The
agreement commits them to work together to develop and implement a
coordinated strategy to promote and support sustainable economic, social
and community development. The first focus of the Vancouver Agreement is
the Downtown Eastside.