DRUG FILM'S POPULARITY PROVES THE PROBLEM IS EVERYWHERE

There isn't a town in B.C. that doesn't have its own story to tell about
drug addiction.

That's what former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen and film-maker Nettie Wild
found as they toured B.C. and the Prairies during the last year with Wild's
documentary, Fix: The Story of an Addicted City, that looks at the
political and personal struggles to find solutions to drug problems.

"We've seen how big the problem is in every city and small town," said
Wild, as she prepares to re-open the film in Vancouver and Surrey in
conjunction with the city's opening of the first injection site for drug
users in North America. "Big time what we learned at a very concrete level
is that while Ground Zero is the Downtown Eastside, it's everywhere."

Not even the smallest, most inaccessible village is immune.

"In northern B.C., people were giving us hell for not flying into the more
northern communities, because they have a problem, too. The drug dealers
fly in. A place like Prince George is a hub city for drugs. Whether it's
trees or wheat or heroin, it's a centre."

Owen said he became even more convinced that the drug strategy Vancouver
has adopted is the right way to go.

"Everywhere we went, people talk about their drug use," said Owen, who went
with Wild to many of the 30 communities the film has been shown in the 11
months since it was released. "And constantly, they talk about their time
in the Downtown Eastside."

Because so many people in smaller communities try to hide their drug use
from their neighbours and friends, they gravitate to the Downtown Eastside,
where they're anonymous and the market is so big.

And many of them said that the key to preventing drug use is early
intervention.

"That's what a safe injection site is going to do -- provide early
contact," said Owen. "When they don't get help for six years, they get so
wired, so hooked, it's hard to get them off."

Wild, whose films all concern social-justice issues, takes an unusual
approach to screening her films. In all of the shows she's had in the past
year, people familiar with drug issues hold a discussion with the audiences
after seeing the film.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control had a street nurse at each screening.
Other speakers have included current Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, police
officers, drug and alcohol counsellors, willing local politicians, and drug
users.

Her goal is not just to make a film, but to push for change. And that's
something she believes has happened with this film. Wild's most frequent
companions have been Owen, Downtown Eastside advocate Ann Livingston and
Dean Wilson, a user who has struggled for years to quit. All three were
featured in Wild's film.

While politicians in some communities, like Nanaimo and Kelowna, were
reluctant to be associated with the film or help bring it to town, others
embraced it. Prince Rupert's city council donated $1,000 to help bring the
film in.

Wild said the turnout amazed everyone involved in it.

"The public really wants to talk about this," said Wild. It played to
packed cinemas almost everywhere it went, frequently being held over. In
Kelowna, it outgrossed X-Men II the week it was there.

"It's developed to a social movement spreading across the country," says
Wild, who hopes the end result is not only a new and progressive national
drug strategy, but communities that develop the will to acknowledge their
drug problems and then work on individualized solutions that fit their
local needs.

The film will be shown for a week in Vancouver, starting Sept. 19, at the
Vancouver East cinema. It will be shown for three days in Surrey, also
starting Sept. 19, at the Hollywood 3.

It will be opening in Toronto Oct. 16, with both Campbell and Owen on hand,
and will then be taken to Montreal, Quebec City and Kingston.