MEGGS SLAMS MAYOR'S STRATEGY

Sullivan's Drug Plan Tailored To Tories

Mayor Sam Sullivan's pitch to Ottawa in 2006 to endorse his drug
treatment plan included the belief that "Conservative leadership can
ameliorate the greatest threat to livability in Vancouver."

The comment is contained in documents and briefing notes obtained by
Geoff Meggs in a Freedom of Information request from city hall. Meggs
is seeking a council nomination with Vision Vancouver and was
executive assistant to former mayor Larry Campbell.

He said the comment is evidence of Sullivan's support for the
Conservative government's views on drug addiction. They contrast with
medical researchers' findings that the city's drug injection site,
Insite, is an effective harm reduction tool.

"Clearly there's a partisan pitch in this briefing note," Meggs said.
"In my view, it was inappropriate because he was advancing a very
controversial approach and pandering to what we see now is a really
full-on Conservative attack on drug policy in the city of Vancouver."

In a speech Monday to the Canadian Medical Association, Health
Minister Tony Clement questioned the peer-reviewed studies on Insite
and encouraged physicians to "affirm the importance of prevention and
treatment."

"Insite offers no hope," said Clement in his speech, a copy of which
was obtained by the Courier. "It is a surrender to a culture of
disease and death. But every Canadian is worthy of treatment. Every
Canadian has value."

The briefing notes also show that Sullivan renamed his drug plan and
called it POST, or Public Order Substitution Treatment. The public
and journalists have only known the plan as CAST, or Chronic
Addiction Substitution Treatment.

The documents aren't dated but handwriting at the top of the briefing
notes indicate they were "a draft as of Friday, Dec. 1." The most
recent Friday, Dec. 1 was in 2006. Sullivan travelled to Ottawa in
December of that year and met with several ministers, including Clement.

Sullivan's drug plan, which calls for medical doctors to prescribe
legal drugs as substitutes to addicts, has yet to get approval from
Health Canada. The mayor wants a three-year trial that would involve
800 addicts.

The briefing notes point out that many addicts have HIV/AIDS,
hepatitis C, mental illness, fetal alcohol syndrome, and lack of
adequate nutrition and housing. They can be described as "walking
palliative," the notes said.

"[They are] people who if they were living a more 'normal' Canadian
life would have access to pain and other medications in order to
mitigate their health issues and so as not to spread infectious
diseases," the notes said.

Meggs said the "walking palliative" description is macabre and
suggests that health care providers are "simply managing them to
death instead of supporting them to overcome a health problem."

Sullivan's support for the Conservative government was evident when
he spoke to the Courier in June 2007 as he reflected on his first 18
months in office. At the time, Sullivan said he tailored his approach
to drug initiatives around the fact that Prime Minister Stephen
Harper and his party questioned the success of Insite.

"I've tried to structure my proposals around the thinking of people
in Ottawa, as well as the needs of people with drug addictions," he
said. "Certainly, it's clear to me that there isn't a great
enthusiasm for [supervised injection sites], and I actually share the
view that we need ultimately to have different and new innovative approaches."

Sullivan is in China this week and was unavailable for comment before
the Courier's deadline. David Hurford, the mayor's assistant, said
the mayor's approach to tailoring drug policy to the ruling
Conservatives makes sense.

"You need to tailor your message to their agenda--that's just smart,
that's how you get things done," Hurford said. "You need to tailor
your message to the government of the day."

He added that Sullivan has always supported Insite and called for its
operating licence to be extended. Insite remains open because of a
B.C. Supreme Court ruling that gives the federal government until
June 30, 2009 to amend the country's drug laws to allow for medical
use of drugs if tied to a health care initiative.