ONE PILLAR MAKES FOR SHAKY START

Now that the nation's first supervised injection site is open for business
in Vancouver -- at an annual public cost of millions -- it's time to check
in on the status of the remaining pillars.

Where are the education, enforcement and treatment components that were to
work in sync with the injection site as a means of grappling with the
city's drug curse?

That was the question the executive director of the Pacifica Treatment
Centre raised last year. And it's as relevant a concern today.

Kathy Oxner, director of Pacifica -- one of just two medically-based
treatment centres in a city housing up to 15,000 hardcore addicts -- is on
record for having questioned the funding priorities of the Vancouver
Coastal Health Authority.

She noted last winter that rehabilitation had taken a back seat to free
needle exchanges and injection sites: "Harm reduction has been getting most
of the publicity lately and there's certainly a need," she said.

"But you can't have one pillar without the rest of them being fairly solid."

You can, if you're a politician skilled at ducking responsibility.

Back then, the Pacifica centre at Commercial and 11th Avenue operated 35
10-week beds but received funding for much less. It still does. Back then,
the city was in need of treatment and recovery beds -- it still is. Back
then there was talk of doubling the number of beds to 100, as well as
adding to the 75 residential support and recovery beds -- it's still talk.
Working citizens and property owners have a right to demand that their tax
dollars fund programs that help junkies curb the habit -- not condone it.

"Harm reduction done poorly can actually increase harm," wrote addictions
consultant Dr. Stanley de Vlaming at the time.

"The same amount of money directed at treatment for the severely addicted
would save more lives."

We get it, but the politicians don't.

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